Hi Lamplighter

There were a few factors that influenced my decisions as you've seen here. A tear off is a BIG DEAL. It's a lot more work. It's a LOT more trash. I learned that a roof can be re-roofed up to twice, for a total of three layers/roofs. I'm at 3 1/2 roofs. In my case, a tear off would have taken longer and cost more and been much more difficult and much more work. Bleurgh.

But the killer was the fact that my original shake shingle roof was applied onto skip sheathing. Do you know what this is? With the roofing material off, the top of my house would look like it was covered with latticework. If I took it down that far, I would have had to put plywood decking onto the roof if I wanted to use roll roofing or even three tab shingles, since that stuff won't work over the skip sheathing. That was just TOO MUCH to contemplate. I rely on the old roofs to be my "decking". The major downside to this strategy is that it is heavy. Cedar and two old three tab rooves under the roll roofing is heavy. I am hoping it's not too heavy. We get about the same amount of snow load as you do, so I think/hope I'll be ok.

A tear off is a good, complete way to do things. But I wasn't prepared for job that big.

Big, that explains a lot.
I do know what you mean about the "lattice" sheeting and the extra work of putting down plywood. Ugh.
My daughter's place already has plywood sheeting and only one layer of 3-tabs.

I helped with a tear-off of a church roof many years ago, and it was a lot of work.
But with that special tool from hardware store I'm hoping it won't be quite as bad.

We probably will go ahead with the tear-off because trimming all of those (>30 yr)
old tiles seems slower and overwhelming handwork.
I'll let you know how it goes.

V, Be sure you sell that house long before it needs a new roof. And mum's the word.

3 1/2 layers is an aweful job, but there are companies back east (I'd bet there are companies where you live) that just do tear offs. One day. Done, clean, debris removed. you are ready to go.

My BIL looked into it and it was almost as cheap as the cost of a dumpster and hiring one guy to help him.

Come On V !!!
Put yer big boy Pants on ,
Knutt up and strip ALL that half Assed Shit OFFFFFFFF !!
deck it and Roof it !!!

Dont band Aid what Needs fixing !!!

I Know its a Pain in the ass , ( so's a drip at 2am in the winter )
And Costs more $$$ than you want ,
But it will add to the Value of yer house
And be Less of a Pain int the Ass in the long run .

I'll call you Zippy, next time I'm waffling about whether to do a job right!

Watching, with much interest. Ain't never gonna be a roofer, but time was I hung some rock. Dusty sort of work.