What actually happens on install day

The short answer — One to two days for most homes here. Steep pitch, cut-up rooflines, multiple layers and tile all push it out. Materials land on your driveway the afternoon before, so the first day starts with a crew and not with a delivery truck.

Seven o'clock: tear-off — Everything comes off down to bare deck. This is the loud part. Expect a few hours of steady shoveling and the thump of shingles hitting the dumpster on the driveway, which is where they go rather than on your lawn. Beds and shrubs get covered before the first shovel goes in.

Mid-morning: the decking walk — With the deck open, the crew lead walks every sheet, marking anything soft, delaminated or spanning wrong. Bad sheets get photographed and shown to you before they are replaced, and you approve the swap in writing against the per-sheet line in your scope. This is the only point in the job where the number can move, and you are the one who moves it.

Late morning: dry-in — Ice-and-water shield down at the eaves and in the valleys, drip edge set under the underlayment at the eave, synthetic underlayment run up the field, capped-nailed. From this point your house is watertight even if the sky opens.

Midday: flashing — New pipe boots, new step flashing at the sidewalls tucked in behind the siding, counter-flashing at the chimney. Old flashing does not go back on. It is an hour saved and a leak bought.

Afternoon: field and ridge — Starter course, then the field, six nails a shingle. Ridge vent gets cut the length of the peak and capped. On a one-day roof the crew is closing up by late afternoon. A two-day roof stops here, dried in and watertight overnight.

The last hour: magnets and the walk — Magnets over the driveway, the beds and the yard, then the crew lead walks the finished roof with you and hands over the photo set. Same person who was on the roof all week. We come back the next morning and run the magnets again, because a nail in different light is a different nail.

What can slow it down — Rain, which stops us opening more than we can dry in. Decking worse than the roof looked. Steep or complicated rooflines, which your estimator will have priced for pitch already. Tile and slate, which are their own timeline. None of these arrive as a surprise on the day.

Ten minutes of prep — Cars out of the driveway before seven. Anything fragile off the top-floor walls, because tear-off shakes the house. A plan for pets that hate noise. Sprinkler heads near the walls flagged. That is the whole list. Book a free inspection and we will give you a date rather than a window.