Tile roofs in Vegas: tile lifespan vs underlayment (30lb felt)

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Many Buyers in Vegas & Henderson believe tile roofs have a lifespan of 50 years. While this is partially true because the tiles themselves have a lifespan of 50+ years the paper underlayment that provides the waterproofing does not. The typical life span of the underlayment is 20 to 30ish years if you're lucky. Many of the houses across town are in need of "new" roofs. 

Here's what a reroof looks like when you have a tile roof:

• 1) Remove existing tiles and stack
  2) Remove existing battens and haul away
  3) Strip existing felt down to plywood sheathing and remove from site (some roofers only partially remove the original layer)
  4) Replace any degraded plywood
  5) Install two layers of 30lb felt over existing felt to completion
  6) Install new drip edge and new bird stop around perimeter of roof
  7) Re-install existing tiles over new battens and new underlayment to completion
  8) Replace any broken tiles with new tiles 
  9) Re-flash all vents and pipes where applicable
  10) Supply and install new hip and ridge enclosure

*Builders back in the day only installed 1 underlayment layer. A reroof consists of 2 underlayment layers of 30lb felt over the plywood.

Depending on the sq.ft. of your roof a reroof can be anywhere from $7k to $25k+ so something you'll want to factor in to your ROI numbers depending on when your investment house was built. During a Buyer's market you could come to a Seller during due diligence and ask for a credit or repair. But during a hot Seller's market the seller is most likely going to tell you to go fly a kite as they would just put the house back on the market and have another Buyer in a few days.

Real world example: 1) single story house built in 1990 that is 1,378 sq ft a reroof is $7,500k. Zip code 89128.

*note: there are some houses in 89014 that have unusually small tiles that are not manufactured anymore. In cases like this you have to get lucky and hope a local roofer has them in their yard for a repair. The existing tile on these houses (built around 1992) measure 10 inches wide by 15 inches in length and today’s tile is 12 inches wide by 17 inches in height. The 2 tiles cannot be tied together without it being noticeable since the bird stop along the roof’s eave will be different, the size of the tile will be different and the color will also be different so.