Different areas of Los Angeles have different roofing standards – for example Burbank and Glendale, where in certain areas the entire neighborhood has Slate roofing or Spanish tile.
As a roofing contractor I do a great deal of inspections and reports for real estate agents and people who are making offers on homes. The function of the report is, of course, to determine the condition of the roof but the objective of this is usually for the buyer to negotiate funds for fixing items in the house which need replacement.
If you’re not selling or buying a home (you’re just a normal homeowner intent on staying put) and want to replace your roof to increase your home’s value, it is doubtful you’d accomplish very much (say, versus an updated kitchen). But if your roof is leaking and visibly worn out, it’s a moot issue because a the investment in the purchase of a new roof will certainly keep your home from decreasing in value. Additionally, you will avoid further repair costs to your existing roof as well as any possible costs of repairing damage inside the home caused by your leaky roof.
New roof replacement with a premium roof?
If you replace your ordinary roof with a premium roof, such as a tile, you probably will increase the value of your home because if nothing else you’ve improved it’s curb appeal (unless you have odd tastes and install something that few people would like). But there are limits here and it’s hard to say if you’ll retrieve the additional cost you spent on this premium product. If you live in a slum and install a super expensive slate roof on your home that is out of accord with the rest of the neighborhood, it’s pretty certain that you will not increase the value of the home to the extent that you’d recover the additional costs incurred from that roof over say, an ordinary roof.
Conversely, you can devalue your home with your roof choice. If you currently have a nice Spanish tile on your home and you replace it with a composition shingle to save a few thousand, you will likely reduce the curb appeal and the value of your home. Especially if Spanish tile is the typical roof on your street.
There are certain areas of Glendale and Burbank, for example, where roofing with a nice Spanish tile or Slate roofing is the norm. That is not the neighborhood where you should conserve a few thousand dollars with a low-price shingle.
Los Angeles roofer, Matt Glass, is co-owner of J and J Roofing. In this blog series he shares his years of roofing information he has from roofing homes in all Los Angeles areas including Northridge, Pasadena, Sherman Oaks, Burbank, Studio City, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Encino, Los Feliz and Silverlake for all roofing needs.