One of our roof replacements from the air, mid tear-off. This post does not say which town it is in.
Roof replacement in West Chester, PA: getting your house ready
A roof replacement happens over your head, but most of the getting ready happens on the ground. Here is what to move, cover and unlock in the days before a crew arrives at a West Chester house, what one shingle manufacturer recommends, and what we take care of ourselves.
We are one of the roofing contractors West Chester PA homeowners call when a roof has reached the end, and we work out of 841 Lincoln Ave in the borough. The steps below run in the order a job does, from the estimate to the last pass over the lawn. Our roof replacement page covers what happens on the roof itself in more detail.
Before the crew is booked
Prep starts with paperwork. Every replacement we do begins with a free roof inspection, where a crew member walks the whole roof, probes the decking underfoot for soft spots and goes into the attic to look at ventilation and moisture. After that you get a written estimate that spells out the material, the tear-off scope and any decking repair, line by line.
Read the decking line closely. Nobody knows what the sheathing looks like until the old roof is off, and if rot turns up you approve the addition before we cut a single sheet of plywood. If you'll be at work on the day, settle now how the crew should reach you.
Permits follow the municipality, not the mailing address. A West Chester address covers the borough and most of the townships around it, and inside the borough's historic district a roof you can see from the street can also go before the Historical & Architectural Review Board. We wrote up the historic district review and the Exton re-roof permit as two worked examples.
The yard and the driveway
IKO, one of the large shingle manufacturers, publishes a homeowner guide to getting ready for a roof replacement. Most of its outdoor list is about keeping people, cars and plants out of the way of falling shingles:
- Park your cars on the street, a safe distance from the house, the night before the crew arrives. IKO also says to keep them out of the garage.
- Clear about 15 feet all the way around the house. Patio furniture, toys and planters all count.
- Mark fragile plants and trees with tape, flag each sprinkler head, and tell the crew if there is a pond.
- Unlock every gate so the crew can reach all sides of the house.
- Cut the grass before the job. IKO's reason is that short grass helps the crew find stray nails.
- Check that an outdoor outlet works.
On our side, we protect your property while the work runs. The photo at the top of this post is one of our tear-offs from the air: old shingles coming down onto tarps laid along the front of the house, with the truck parked on the drive.
Tell the neighbors, too. IKO suggests warning them ahead of time about the noise, and if the crew might need to step through their yard, asking them to leave their gates unlocked as well.
Inside the house
The crew works from the outside, but the house still feels the job. Shingles go on with a lot of nailing straight into the structure, and IKO points out that it shakes the whole building. Its indoor list:
- Take mirrors and pictures off the walls ahead of time, and be most thorough on the top floor, which moves the most.
- Set breakables so they aren't touching each other or a wall.
- In the attic, carry anything fragile or sentimental down to the ground floor, and lay tarps or painter's drop sheets over the floor to make cleanup easier.
- Throw a tarp over anything you care about in the garage.
IKO also notes that things mounted on the roof, satellite dishes and panels for example, get taken off and put back afterward. If you have one, mention it at the inspection so it is on the plan.
Kids, pets and the schedule
The manufacturer's advice here is plain. If you can, keep pets at a friend's house or a kennel for the day. If they have to stay home, keep them inside, walk them first and give them their crate. Young children are better off at a relative's or friend's house. Older kids who are home should know there may be debris in the yard and keep shoes on outside. And if you leave, give the crew your phone number.
How many days the job takes depends on the size and complexity of the roof, the material and the weather. Steep roofs and slate, cedar or metal take longer than a straightforward architectural asphalt roof. Your estimate includes a realistic timeline, and if weather moves it, you hear from us before the crew shows up. Project manager Zach keeps you updated while the job runs.
What happens on the roof
Our crews strip the roof down to bare deck. Any bad sheathing gets cut out and replaced before a single new shingle goes on. Then the system goes back together in order: ice-and-water shield first at the eaves and valleys, underlayment over the field, new flashing wherever the roof meets anything, ventilation corrected in the attic, and finally the shingle or specialty material you picked. As a GAF Master Elite contractor, we install complete GAF shingle systems.
After the last shingle
When the roof is done we run a magnetic sweep for nails and haul away every scrap of the old roofing. Then we do a final inspection, and you sign off on a finished roof.
IKO's after-the-job advice lines up with that walkthrough. Look the new roof over with the crew, call about anything unusual you notice in the days after, and report any damage to the driveway right away rather than waiting.
Then the pictures can go back on the walls.
Getting on the schedule
For a free inspection and a written roof replacement estimate on a West Chester house, call us at (484) 983-3476, 8 AM to 8 PM any day, or use the contact page. If you want to sort out payment first, our roof financing page explains how paying over time through PowerPay works.
Sources: IKO, How to Prepare for a Roof Replacement (June 4, 2025, read October 29, 2026). Our own process, from our roof replacement, roof inspection and FAQ pages.
