Matthews, NC Roof Replacement Project

Most roofing websites show you a pretty finished roof and stop there. That’s the least useful photo of the bunch. What you actually want to know is what the roof looked like with the shingles off, because that’s where a roof replacement in Matthews, NC either gets done right or gets covered up.

So here’s one of ours, start to finish. Real house. Real crew. Shot from a drone so you can see the parts nobody sees from the driveway.

Thinking about your own roof? Call 704-847-7119 or ask for a free next-day estimate.

Job snapshot

Why does the tear-off photo matter more than the finished one?

Because the deck is the part you’ll never see again. Once the underlayment goes down, every soft spot, every delaminated sheet, every old patch is hidden for the next twenty plus years.

Look at this shot closely. The old roof is gone. You can see the green tarp along the garage wall catching debris, a ladder at the eave, and one of our guys up near the chimney. Every sheet of decking is out in the open.

Notice the color isn’t uniform? Wood decking weathers differently depending on where it sits, what was leaking above it, and whether it’s been replaced before. A lighter or darker patch is exactly where we slow down. We walk it, push on it, and replace anything that’s soft, cracked or delaminating before a single roll of underlayment comes out.

Here’s the honest part. Nobody can tell you exactly how much decking a house needs until the shingles are off. Anyone who quotes you a fixed number of sheets before tear-off is guessing. We tell you up front how decking is handled and priced, so a soft spot isn’t a surprise on the invoice.

Why didn’t we just roof over the old shingles?

North Carolina does allow a second layer in some cases. We almost never recommend it. Three reasons:

• You can’t inspect what you can’t see. An overlay buries the deck, so rot keeps going underneath.
• Flashing gets compromised. At a chimney and two dormers, an overlay means bending new shingles around old flashing. That’s how leaks start at the exact spots this house has the most of.
• The new shingles don’t lie flat. They telegraph every curl and bump in the old layer, and they tend to run hotter.

On a house with this many roof to wall connections, a full tear-off isn’t the upsell. It’s the only way the flashing gets done properly.

Not sure if you need a full replacement or a repair? Call 704-847-7119. We’ll tell you straight.

Where does a roof like this usually leak?

Not in the middle of the big slopes. Water gets in where the roof changes direction or meets something that isn’t roof.

On this house that means four places:

1. The chimney. Step flashing runs under each shingle course up the sides, and counter flashing laps over it from the brick. When the mortar joints erode, that seal fails. We cover this in detail on our chimney flashing page.
2. The dormer cheek walls. The little triangular walls on each side of the dormer get step flashing too. Siding and trim sitting tight on the shingles wick water. More on that in our dormer repair guide.
3. The valleys. Two slopes dump all their water into one line. That’s why ice and water shield goes down there first.
4. Pipe boots. The rubber collars crack in the sun long before the shingles wear out. New boots go on with every replacement.

What went on, layer by layer

Same order on every Keyway replacement. It’s the order manufacturers require, and skipping a step tends to void their warranty.

1. Tear-off. Shingles, old underlayment, nails and tired flashing come off. Tarps protect the landscaping and siding.
2. Deck check and repair. Soft or damaged decking is cut out and replaced.
3. Drip edge and ice and water shield. Metal at the eaves and rakes, self adhering membrane in the valleys and around penetrations.
4. Synthetic underlayment. Over the rest of the deck, lapped and fastened to spec.
5. Flashing. New step flashing at the dormers and chimney, new pipe boots.
6. Shingles and ridge. Architectural shingles from the eaves up, ridge cap last.
7. Cleanup. Magnet sweep for nails, debris hauled away, final walkthrough with you.

Want the homeowner’s version of all this, including how to prep your house the day before? Read what to expect during a roof replacement.

The finished roof

Same house from the back corner. Clean lines on the valleys, shingles cut tight around the dormers, and the chimney flashed back into the brick. Nothing fancy. Just everything in the right order.

A note on color. Charcoal and weathered gray blends are popular in Matthews neighborhoods because they sit well against red brick and hide the dark streaking that shows up under heavy tree cover. If your street is shaded, read our piece on tree canopy and roof algae in Matthews before you pick a shingle. And if you’re weighing shingle types, architectural vs 3-tab shingles covers the tradeoffs.

Live in an HOA? Check this first

A lot of Matthews subdivisions require architectural review before you change roof color or material, even if you’re replacing like for like. Get the approval in hand before you sign a material order. It’s the most common reason a Matthews roof job gets delayed. We wrote up the details in Matthews HOA roofing rules.

Permits are separate. We handle the permit side for you.

Does your house look like this one?

Brick, two stories, dormers, a chimney, built sometime in the late eighties or nineties. That describes thousands of homes between Matthews, Mint Hill and Stallings. Many of them are on their first or second roof now. Signs it’s your turn:

• Granules piling up in the gutters or at the bottom of the downspouts
• Shingles that look flat and smooth instead of textured
• Curling edges on the south and west facing slopes
• A stain on the ceiling near the chimney or under a dormer
• Your roof is twenty plus years old and you’ve never had it looked at

One of those doesn’t mean you need a new roof. Several of them together usually does. Our Matthews residential roofing page goes deeper on repair vs replacement, and what a new roof costs around Charlotte walks through what drives the price.

We’ve been roofing in this area since 1975 and we’re based right here in Matthews. Call 704-847-7119 for a free next-day estimate, or see more of our work on the projects page.

What we look for on the bare deck

Tear-off day is inspection day. With the shingles gone, here’s the checklist the crew works through before anything new goes down:

• Soft spots. Walked and pressed by foot, section by section. A deck that gives under a boot won’t hold nails for twenty years.
• Delamination. OSB and plywood can swell and separate in layers after long exposure to moisture. It looks puffy at the edges.
• Old patches. Squares of newer wood mean somebody fixed a leak before. We check that they’re fastened to rafters and sitting flush.
• Dark staining around penetrations. Pipes, vents and the chimney are where water usually got in. Staining tells us how long it’s been happening.
• Gaps and sagging between rafters. A dip between framing members can point to undersized decking or a rafter that needs attention.

Anything that fails that list gets cut out and replaced. Everything that passes stays. We don’t replace good wood to pad an invoice, and we don’t cover bad wood to hit a price.

How decking repairs are priced

Fair question, since nobody knows the amount until tear-off. Ask any roofer you’re comparing for their decking policy in writing. You want to see how replacement is measured, what the rate is, and whether they’ll show you the damage before they replace it. If a quote doesn’t mention decking at all, that’s a gap, not a saving.

Ventilation: the part of the roof you can’t see from the street

Shingles fail early when the attic underneath them cooks. In a Matthews July, an unvented attic can run far hotter than the air outside, and that heat bakes the shingles from below. Moisture is the other half. Warm, damp air from the house rises into the attic in winter, hits the cold underside of the deck and condenses.

So a replacement is the right time to check the airflow. The goal is balance: cool air coming in low, at the soffits, and warm air leaving high, at the ridge or roof vents. Too little intake and the exhaust vents just pull air from the house. Blocked soffits are common on older homes where insulation was blown in tight against the eaves.

We go through all of this on our attic ventilation page. Short version: if you’re paying for a new roof, make sure someone looked at the attic too.

Why Matthews weather is hard on roofs

It isn’t one big event that wears a roof out around here. It’s the combination:

• Long, hot summers. Heat and UV dry out the asphalt in shingles, which is why the south and west slopes usually go first.
• Afternoon thunderstorms. Heavy, fast rain with wind behind it tests every flashing joint on the house.
• Occasional hail and wind events. Not every year, but often enough that a roof with loose or brittle shingles shows damage when one comes through. Our storm damage page covers what to check after a storm.
• Trees. Mature oaks and pines throughout Matthews neighborhoods drop leaves and needles into valleys and gutters, hold moisture on the roof and shade it so it dries slowly.

None of that is unusual. It’s just why a roof in Matthews rarely reaches the longest lifespan printed on the shingle wrapper unless it was installed carefully and looked after.

How to compare roofing quotes for a house like this

Lay your quotes side by side and check whether each one actually says:

1. Full tear-off, or an overlay
2. How decking repairs are measured and priced
3. Whether chimney and dormer flashing is replaced or reused
4. Which underlayment goes down, and where ice and water shield goes
5. Whether new pipe boots are included
6. What happens with ventilation
7. Who pulls the permit
8. The shingle line and color, by name
9. Workmanship warranty length, and the manufacturer warranty that applies
10. Cleanup, including a magnet sweep for nails

The cheapest quote is often the one that leaves three of those blank. That’s not always a bad contractor. But you deserve to know what you’re comparing.

When a repair would have been enough

Not every roof we look at in Matthews ends up like this one. Plenty of them just need a repair, and we’ll say so even when a replacement would be the bigger job for us. Here’s roughly how we think about it.

A repair makes sense when the damage is local. A few shingles blown off in a storm, a cracked pipe boot, one chimney that needs reflashing. If the rest of the roof still has flexible shingles with most of their granules, fixing the problem spot buys you years.

Replacement starts to make sense when the problems are everywhere at once. Granule loss across every slope. Curling on more than one face. Leaks in two or three different places. Decking that’s soft in more than one area. At that point you’re paying for repair after repair on a roof that’s near the end anyway, and the money is better spent once.

Age matters too, but less than people think. A twenty year old roof that was installed well and vented properly can have life left. A twelve year old roof over a hot, unvented attic sometimes doesn’t. That’s why we look before we quote. Our repair vs replacement guide goes through the full decision, and if you just need a fix, start with roof repair.

Who did this work

Keyway Construction and Roofing is family owned and has been roofing around Charlotte since 1975. Our office is on Stallings Road in Matthews, so this job was close to home in every sense. We’re Owens Corning certified, accredited with the Better Business Bureau and listed on Angi, and every job we do carries our 1-year workmanship warranty on top of the manufacturer’s coverage. The photos on this page were taken by our crew on site. Nothing here is a stock image.

See what customers say on our reviews page, or read more about Keyway.

Questions homeowners ask about a Matthews roof replacement

See related work: the Monroe re-roof with low slope sections and the Charlotte mansard roof replacement. Or start from our main roof replacement service page.