What prairie weather actually does to your roof, when to repair versus replace, and how to pick a contractor who will not burn you.
Regina roofs live a harder life than roofs in most of Canada. Summer brings hail and windstorms strong enough to strip shingles off in sheets. Winter brings deep cold, heavy snow load, and the freeze-thaw cycles of spring and fall that pry at every shingle edge, nail head, and flashing line on the roof.
That freeze-thaw cycle is the quiet killer. Water gets under a lifted shingle, freezes overnight, expands, and lifts the shingle a little more. Repeat that a hundred times a year and a small flaw becomes a leak. This is why a roof installed poorly in Regina fails years earlier than the same roof installed properly, and why deck inspection and correct underlayment matter more here than in mild climates.
Not every roof problem needs a new roof, and any contractor who says otherwise before climbing a ladder is selling, not assessing. As a general rule, a repair makes sense when the damage is isolated: a few shingles gone after a windstorm, one flashing line that failed, a small leak with a clear source.
Replacement becomes the smarter spend when the problems are everywhere at once. Shingles curling or cracking across the whole roof, granules collecting in the gutters, multiple leaks, or a roof past the 20-year mark. At that point, repairs are just paying rent on a roof that is already done.
When Makan Roofing quotes a job, we tell you which situation you are in, even when the answer is the cheaper one. A repair customer who trusts us calls us back when the replacement day actually comes.
A real replacement is more than new shingles over old problems. The old roof comes off completely. The deck gets inspected board by board, and soft or rotten plywood gets replaced, not covered up. Underlayment goes down as the waterproof backstop, we use IKO underlayment on our decks, and then the new shingles are installed with proper nailing patterns, valley treatment, and ridge capping.
On a recent commercial job, that meant replacing 83 sheets of plywood under 150 bundles of shingles, completed in 2 days. The plywood is the part nobody sees, and it is the part that decides whether the roof lasts.
Ask to see real photos of local jobs, not stock images. Call the number and see if a real person answers. Get the quote in writing. Ask specifically whether the deck gets inspected and what happens if they find rot, because that is where corner-cutting hides. And be careful with out-of-town crews that knock doors after hail storms, push you to sign same-day, and are gone by the time the first leak shows up.
Makan Roofing is local, has completed more than 120 roofs in Regina, and inspects every job during the build and after completion. Our trucks are on Regina streets every week and our number is painted on the side of them.
Call and describe what you are seeing, or request a free on-site quote. Straight answers either way.
