Yes, you can stay home during a roof replacement, and most people do. It is safe for most households, but it is loud for the first day or two, and it will shake dust loose inside. Here is what you will hear, what to move, and the few cases where leaving for the day is the better call.
The short version
- Staying home is fine for most people. Going out for the loud parts is easier on you.
- The noise is nail guns, shingle tear-off and boots on the roof, mostly in short bursts.
- Dust and small bits of debris can drop from the attic, so clear shelves and walls first.
- Dogs and cats cope better in a quiet interior room with the door shut.
- If the crew finds a big problem, we will call you, so keep your phone close.
Is it safe to stay home during a roof replacement?
It is safe for most households, because the work happens outside and above you. The crew stays on the roof and in the yard, and nobody needs to come inside. Our roof installation work includes a dumpster and cleanup, so the mess stays out in the yard, not in your kitchen.
Safe is not the same as pleasant. The first day is the loud one, since that is when the old roof comes off and most of the nailing happens. For most 25 to 40 square roofs, the whole job takes one day. Roofs of 40 to 60 squares take two to three days, and 60 to 80 squares or steep pitches take three to five.
Think of it like having someone drag furniture across the floor above you for a working day. You can live with it. You may not want to take a phone interview in the middle of it.
How loud is a roof replacement from inside the house?
It is loud enough to hear in every room, and loudest in the rooms right under the roof. Government safety guidance puts a number on the worst of it: peak nail gun noise runs from 109 to 136 decibels (opens in a new tab), but each peak lasts less than a tenth of a second.
Those figures are measured next to the tool, where the crew is standing. They are not what you hear in your living room. Your roof, attic and ceiling soak up a lot of it. What gets through is a steady hammering, the scrape of shingles being pried off, and the occasional thump.
For a feel of the scale, NIOSH says that at 85 decibels you often have to raise your voice to be heard (opens in a new tab) by someone three feet away. That is a busy street or a vacuum cleaner. Inside your house it should be quieter than that, but a call on speakerphone will be hard.
What happens to the inside of the house?
Hammering shakes things, and shaking loosens dust. Expect fine grit to fall from the attic, around the hatch and around ceiling light fixtures. Pictures can tilt, and anything balanced on a high shelf can walk off the edge.
Before the crew arrives, do these:
- Take framed pictures and mirrors off the walls under the roof.
- Clear the top shelves in the rooms right below the attic.
- Lay an old sheet over furniture in the top-floor rooms.
- Close the attic hatch and tape around it if it does not seal.
- Move anything you store in the attic that dust would ruin.
A roof replacement covers the roof, not the rooms below it. Drywall, paint and insulation repairs are never part of a roof replacement. If a nail pop or a dust mark bothers you afterward, that is a separate job.
What should you do about pets?
Put them in a quiet room on the lowest floor, as far from the roof work as you can, and keep the door shut. Dogs are the usual worry, because hammering over their heads sounds like a threat they cannot do anything about. Cats tend to hide, which is fine as long as they cannot slip out when a door opens.
Cornell’s veterinary school suggests a room farthest from the noise (opens in a new tab) with few or no windows, and says layering two kinds of sound, such as a fan and soft music, helps drown out the noise. That advice is written for fireworks and storms, but a roofing crew is the same problem on a longer clock.
If your dog panics at thunder, think about a sitter, a friend’s house or day care for the loud day. Tell us about the dog too. A gate left open by a person carrying shingles is how pets get out.
Can kids stay home during a roof replacement?
Yes, with a few ground rules. The danger is outside, not in the house: a yard with a dumpster, ladders and falling debris is no place to play. Keep children out of the yard and away from the driveway for the whole job, and tell them why.
Babies who nap are the harder case. Hammering does not care about nap time. If a baby is light on sleep, plan to be out for the first day, or put them in the lowest interior room with a white noise machine.
Older kids tend to find it interesting. A window view of a crew pulling off shingles is a fine way to spend part of a day, as long as they watch from inside.
What if you work from home?
Plan on losing the loud hours. Work from a room on the lowest floor, at the back of the house, and keep calls short or move them to your phone. If you have a hard deadline, a library, a coffee shop or a friend’s spare room is worth it for day one.
The quiet stretches are real. A crew breaks, waits for material and shifts to another part of the roof. You will get windows of calm, but you cannot count on them being long enough for a meeting.
Is there ever a reason to leave the house?
Leave if anyone in the house is sick, newly home from surgery, or badly bothered by noise and vibration. Rest is hard when the ceiling is being hammered. Also leave if you have a pet that cannot be calmed down, or a baby who cannot sleep through it.
There are also rare cases where the roof itself changes the plan. If the tear-off turns up a sagging ridge or failed framing, the day stops until an engineer weighs in. And on a very old house, the roofing material can contain asbestos. The EPA says materials like that may release fibers (opens in a new tab) when they are disturbed or removed improperly, and that removal is a job for a trained and accredited professional. Tell us if your roof is older than you know, and we will plan around it.
Common questions
Do I have to be home when the crew arrives?
No. Most people go to work. Leave us a phone number and tell us how to get into the yard if we need yard access. If the wood under the shingles turns out worse than expected, we will call you before adding anything to the price.
Should I stay inside or leave for the day?
Stay if you want to, and leave if you can. The loud work is done on day one for most roofs, so a day out costs you very little. You also skip the dust, the shaking and the pets pacing by the door.
Will the crew need to come inside my house?
Not for the roof. The crew works from the outside. The only time anyone might ask to look at the attic is if there is a question about the underside of the roof boards, and that is by your say-so.
What if it rains on the day?
The job moves. We don’t tear off a roof with rain in the forecast, and shingles need more than 40°F to seal. Ask about the schedule the evening before, so you know if the noise is coming tomorrow or next week.
What to do next
If you are planning a replacement, you will know more after someone has looked at the roof. Our free roof inspection checks the condition and gives you a written report. For the full day, see what happens on roof replacement day, and for the weeks before it, how long a replacement takes.
