A roof is a system. We treat it like one.
Shingles are one layer in an assembly that sheds water, carries heat away and breathes through the attic. Preservation only works when that whole system is sound, so every NANOROOF job starts with the whole roof, not just the shingles.
Three facts every roof obeys
Everything we check follows from these.
Water takes the easiest path.
Gravity and capillary action pull water into seams, joints and gaps. That’s why most leaks start where the roof changes direction or meets something else: flashings, valleys, vents and walls, not the open field of shingles.
Heat and UV drive the aging.
Sunlight breaks down asphalt from above, and a hot, poorly vented attic bakes it from below. A roof ages from both sides, so the air moving through the attic matters as much as the surface you can see.
A treatment protects what’s still sound.
No coating or penetrant rebuilds rotten decking, replaces lost nails or closes an open seam. Preservation protects good material. Everything else has to be repaired first, or the roof isn’t a candidate.
The roof, layer by layer
Tap a number to see what each part does, what we check and what it means for preservation.
What it does
What we check
Why we check how the roof was installed
A roof can be made of good shingles and still fail early because of how it went on. A treatment can’t change workmanship, so we look for it before we promise anything.
What we find goes into the Roof Record. Problems that can be fixed are fixed first. Problems that can’t are noted, so the warranty starts from a documented baseline instead of an assumption.
Common installation problems
- High nailing: nails above the nailing strip hold less, so shingles lift and blow off in wind
- Missing starter course: the first row at the eaves and rakes is where wind gets under a roof
- Short overlaps: too little shingle covering the course below leaves seams exposed
- Face-nailed or reused flashing: exposed nails and tired metal at walls and chimneys
- Exposed fasteners and patch repairs: mismatched shingles and nails left open to the weather
- Vents that don’t balance: exhaust at the ridge with no intake at the eaves, or the reverse
The order isn’t arbitrary
Each step exists because skipping it would make the next one fail.
- AssessYou can’t preserve what you haven’t checked. The whole system is inspected and documented first.
- RepairA treatment protects sound material; it can’t close a leak or replace a failed part. Repairs come first.
- Tune upLoose shingles are secured, exposed nails repaired and gutters and vents cleared, so the system works as a whole.
- CleanThe treatment has to reach the shingle itself, not a layer of algae, dirt or loose granules on top of it.
- Record a baselineMoisture and conditions are recorded before spraying. Damp shingles can still be treated; the readings are what every check-up is compared against.
- ApplyOnly now is the roof sprayed, with the material metered at the sprayer.
- RecordPhotos, readings, material and a test sample go into the Roof Record, so the result can be checked later.
Two shortcuts we don’t take
“Replace it because it’s old.”
Age says when a roof went on, not how it’s holding up. Two roofs the same age can be in very different shape. We judge the roof in front of us, and we’ll tell you when replacement really is the right call.
“Spray it because it’s there.”
A treatment over a leak, failed decking or a starved attic protects nothing that matters. Without an assessment and repairs, any treatment is a guess.