Refer a Friend - Earn $200
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When Gary in Staunton, VA reached out to our team, his roof wasn't leaking. There were no visible storm hits, no curling shingles, no granules pooling in the gutters. The roof was 18 years old on a single-story home, doing its job — and Gary was thinking ahead. He'd been considering solar, and he was smart enough to know that the order you do things matters.
Putting solar panels on a roof that's nearing the end of its life is one of the most expensive mistakes a homeowner can make. So before he committed to a solar installation, Gary asked us to come price a full roof replacement. He also asked us to quote it in both shingle and metal so he could compare. Our Staunton roofing team walked the project, took measurements, and put a Cenguard Gold shingle proposal together. Here's a look at what's in the scope and why the timing of this conversation matters.
An 18-year-old asphalt roof is in a gray zone. It's not necessarily failing, but it's also not a roof you'd want to put 25 more years of solar panels on top of. Solar panel warranties generally run 25 years. If the roof under the panels gives out at year 5 or year 10, the cost to remove and reinstall the array — sometimes $3,000 to $7,000 or more — eats up most of the savings the panels were supposed to deliver.
Gary's logic is the right logic for any homeowner planning a solar installation: replace the roof first if it has fewer than 5–10 years of useful life left, and you'll never have to touch the panels until the new roof is also ready for replacement. It's the cheapest version of "do it once, do it right" for a long-term solar investment.
Gary asked for both a shingle and a metal estimate, which is a smart way to evaluate the long-term math. Metal roofing carries a higher upfront cost — typically two to three times the price of architectural shingles — but lasts 40–70 years and pairs especially well with solar arrays because of its longevity and how solar mounting hardware attaches to standing seams.
For Gary's home, we proposed our standard Cenguard Gold shingle package using TAMKO Titan XT architectural shingles. Both options are good ones — the right answer comes down to how long Gary plans to stay in the home, the upfront budget, and how much he values the longer service life of metal vs. the lower entry price of asphalt. Our metal roofing team can dig deeper if he leans that direction.
The shingle proposal covers a full tear-off down to a clean deck across all 21.97 squares of this 11-facet, 5/12-pitch roof. Specs include:
One unusual note in this proposal: at Gary's request, we'll install ice and water shield directly over the existing layer at certain areas rather than removing it first. That's a small departure from a standard tear-off and a good example of how we adapt scope to specific homeowner preferences when the request makes sense.
For this project we proposed TAMKO Titan XT architectural shingles — a 50-year-rated, SureNail-strip product that holds up well under wind and pairs cleanly with future solar mounting hardware. The 50-year material rating means the shingles themselves will outlast the workmanship coverage on the Gold package, which is important if Gary's solar array ends up sitting on this roof for two or three decades.
The Cenguard Gold warranty covers both workmanship and materials for 25 years and is transferable upon home ownership change within 5 years of completion. For a homeowner installing solar, that warranty depth is meaningful — and our coverage extends to leaks around solar attachments when we install both the roof and the solar system.
If Gary moves forward, the project would be wrapped well before any solar installer started designing an array on top of it. That's the right sequence for any homeowner thinking about both projects. The new roof comes with a full 25-year warranty and is ready to host panels. The solar installer doesn't have to worry about underlying material condition. And Gary doesn't have to budget for a panel removal + reinstall five years from now.
This kind of two-decision project is exactly why we'd rather quote the roof honestly than oversell it. A homeowner who isn't planning to add solar might reasonably get another five years out of an 18-year-old roof. But a homeowner who is planning solar should replace it now — and we'll tell you that as plainly as we'd tell anyone else.
If you're in Central or Western Virginia and weighing a roof replacement as part of a bigger plan — solar, a real estate transaction, or just getting ahead of an aging roof — request a free estimate and our Staunton-area team will come walk it. We'll lay out the shingle and metal options, talk through the timing, and put a clear proposal in your hands. For homeowners financing the work, our Service Finance third-party financing can spread the cost over time without any money down.
And if you'd like to compare a similar shingle roof replacement to other recent projects in the area before deciding, our project gallery is a good place to start.
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