March 14, 2026 · 9 min read
Most asphalt roofs here last 18 to 25 years
Edmonton is hard on shingles. Deep cold, quick thaws, hail in summer and strong wind off open land. A roof that would run 30 years somewhere mild often gives you a little over 20 here.
The wear is not steady, either. A single freeze-thaw week in March does more to a shingle than a whole quiet summer. Water works into small cracks, freezes overnight, expands, and opens the crack a little further. Do that forty times a season for twenty years and the mat under the granules gives up.
Age on its own is not a reason to replace anything. It is a reason to look closely. Plenty of 22-year-old roofs on the south side are still tight, and plenty of 14-year-old roofs on an exposed corner lot are not.
Signs that usually mean replacement
Shingles curling at the corners or lying loose across a whole slope. Bald patches where the granules have washed off, leaving the black mat showing. Granules collecting in the eavestrough every spring. Leaks that come back in a different spot each time.
Cracking that runs across the face of the shingle rather than along an edge is another one. So is a slope where the shingles have gone brittle enough to snap when lifted instead of bending.
If the deck feels soft underfoot, or you can see daylight through the sheathing in the attic, that is past repair territory. At that point you are not paying for shingles anymore, you are paying for structure, and the job becomes a full roof replacement.
Signs a repair is enough
One leak, in one place, on a roof that is otherwise flat and tight. Those are roof repairs. Damaged flashing around a chimney or vent. A few shingles lifted by wind. Those are repairs, and we will say so.
Flashing in particular is worth calling out. A surprising share of the leaks we get called to are not shingle failures at all. The shingles are fine and the metal around a chimney, skylight or plumbing stack has pulled loose or rusted through. Replacing a whole roof to fix a piece of flashing is a waste of your money.
A repair buys time honestly. It is not a good idea when the same roof needs another repair every year, or when you are already paying for scaffolding and access twice in one season.
Check the attic, not just the roof
Half the useful information about a roof is on the inside. On a cold morning, look for frost on the nail tips or dark staining on the underside of the sheathing. Both mean warm moist air is getting up there and condensing.
Damp or flattened insulation near the eaves tells you water has been running in at the edge. A musty smell is worth taking seriously even if you cannot see the source.
If ventilation is the underlying problem, replacing the shingles without fixing it just starts the same clock again.
What to do next
Get someone on the roof with a camera. You should end up with photos of your own roof and a written price, not a verbal number and a handshake.
Ask what they found in the attic, what the decking looked like where they could see it, and what the flashing condition is. A roofer who can answer those three questions has actually looked.
We do that for free across Edmonton and the surrounding communities, and if the answer is that your roof has five good years left, that is what the report will say.