Stain only in a thaw? Check the eave before you buy a roof

The upper slope sits over a heated house, so snow on it can melt on a day that never leaves freezing. The water runs down until it reaches the overhang. The overhang is outdoors and cold, so the water freezes there, and the ridge of ice holds back the next melt. With nowhere to go, the water works its way under the shingles.

That is why a stain along an outside wall, with icicles hanging outside it, makes the eave the first place to look. It also means the shingles you see from the street are not the whole story. Study the drawing, then ask any roofer who gives you an estimate what they plan to put at the edge.

Think back to when you first saw it. A stain that appears only while snow is melting is a different problem from one that shows in every rain, and both differ from a roof that has never leaked but is getting old. The four panels below sort them, and each one says what to check from the ground and what to ask.

Sometimes the honest answer is that most of the roof is sound and only the first few feet at the edge need work. Sometimes it is not, and then the estimate should say why. Either way, ask the roofer to put the repair price beside the replacement price before you agree to the bigger job.

Tear-off is also the day a roofer learns whether the boards at your eave are sound. The code does not allow a new roof over two or more layers, or over a roof that is soaked or has deteriorated. So a low price can hide what it leaves out.

Check whether each estimate names the tear-off, the bad deck wood, the ice barrier and the drip edge. If a line is missing, ask what it would add to the price if it turned out to be needed later.

Set the two estimates side by side and go down the nine checks below, one row at a time. Where one names a line and the other says nothing, the silent one may be less work, not a better deal. Ask that roofer to add the line and re-price it in writing.

The last four rows are paperwork, not roofing. New York issues no state roofing license and the county runs no program of its own, so the coverage record, the written contract and the cancel notice are what you can verify yourself.

A few lost tabs, a limb mark and a torn slope are three different jobs, and only one of them is a new roof. Photograph the damage from the ground before anything is moved, and write down the date.

Before you call your insurer, read your own policy. Our insurance guide shows how actual cash value and replacement cost differ. We never handle a claim.

You tell us what the roof is doing. We book an independent roofing contractor to look at it, and that contractor writes the estimate for the work they would do. The roofer is a separate business, no estimate comes from us, and the choice is yours.

Nothing is booked until you say so. If the estimate does not match the checks on this page, ask the roofer to fix it or walk away.

Your roofing permit, where one is needed, comes from the office for your own place, and each place sets its own rule. Pick your place to see which office applies and what its housing and weather say about the roof. If you are not sure whether you live in a village or in the town around it, ask the permit office before the roofer files.

A good written estimate names the work area by area, so you can tell an eave job from a full roof. It lists what comes off, what goes on, and what happens to the deck if the wood is bad. Look for these lines before you sign:

• How many old layers come off, and the tear-off down to the deck
• A price for each bad sheet or board of decking
• The ice barrier and the drip edge at the eaves
• Flashing and vents replaced or reused, stated plainly
• Who pulls the permit, and when the work starts and ends
• How you pay, and the three business day cancel notice

What sets the final price is the size of the roof, its pitch, the layers and the deck, how easy it is to reach, and the local permit rules. We print no price here because the roofer sets it, and you should see it on paper before you decide.