60-Square Tile to Shingle Conversion With Heavy Wood Repair

This one was a big job - and it came with some surprises once we started pulling off the old tile. When you strip a heavy tile roof, you have to be ready for what's underneath. On this 60-square re-roofing project, the decking had taken a serious beating over the years. Rotted boards, holes straight through the sheathing, and sections of wood that had basically crumbled. This is exactly why we never just slap new material over old - you have to see what you're actually working with.

Before a single shingle goes down, the structure underneath has to be solid. We worked through the wood repair section by section, replacing the compromised decking with fresh plywood and boards where needed. The difference between doing this right and cutting corners is the difference between a roof that lasts and one that fails in a few years. We don't cut corners.

Once the deck was clean and solid across the full 60 squares, we got the new material staged and started laying it out. For this project, we went with Owens Corning Cool Plus in Midnight. It's a sharp-looking shingle - deep charcoal tone with a clean, uniform finish. But the color isn't the only reason we like it. The Cool Plus line is designed to reflect more solar energy, which matters on a large roof like this one.

The finished roof covers a large, complex footprint - multiple hips, ridges, and rooflines meeting at different angles. Getting a consistent, clean install across all of that takes a crew that knows what they're doing. The detail work at every hip and valley has to be tight. We also made sure the eave and soffit areas were properly addressed during the wood repair phase, not just the field of the roof.

Jobs like this are a good reminder that re-roofing isn't just about the top layer. It's about everything below it too. If your roof is aging - especially if it's still carrying heavy tile - there's a good chance the decking underneath has been dealing with years of moisture and load stress. Getting ahead of that before it becomes a bigger problem is always the smarter move.