Charlie:
We got a email this week from Darryl up in Crosby. He says he’s re-roofing an old house. He took the shingles off and the felt paper is still intact. He’s wondering can you just go ahead and shingle over that or should you replace the underlayment.
Tom:
Oh, you should put new felt paper on. It would be crazy to try to save that old felt paper. You’re already there now so the new underlayments today are so much better than the old ones. I would say go ahead and let’s do it once, do it right, it’ll last longer than if you don’t.
Podcast: Play in new window
Charlie:
That’s right.
Tom:
Do it right or do it twice.
Charlie:
True. You say, you raise an interesting point though about felt versus the new underlayments. What do you think of the felt alternatives?
Tom:
There’s good ones out there and then there’s some that are sold under the pretense that they do things that they can’t do like a radiant barrier underlayment. There’s one that’s being sold that way. A lot of roofers don’t understand it doesn’t work quite like that. But, the new underlayments they’re thinner, they’re stronger, and you also have the ability to use the peel and sticks around penetrations and down along the roof edge so you get a better … And in the valleys too, you get a better protection if one of the shingles does fail.