What’s Happening

Missing or curling shingles almost always mean your roof’s protective layer is breaking down and is no longer keeping water out the way it should. Left alone, even a few bad shingles can let moisture reach the decking underneath, which turns a straightforward repair into a much larger job. If you’re seeing this today, it’s worth getting eyes on it soon.

Call (945) 303-9821

Shingles are your roof’s first line of defense. When they curl at the edges, lift in the middle, or go missing entirely, the layers beneath them – the underlayment, the decking, the insulation in your attic – start absorbing whatever falls from the sky. Water doesn’t need a big opening. It needs a gap, and a curling shingle gives it one every time it rains. The good news is that caught early, this is usually a repair job, not a replacement. Caught late, it becomes both.

Why It Happens

Age and Weathering

Asphalt shingles have a lifespan, and curling is one of the clearest signs they’re approaching the end of it. Over years of heat, cold, and UV exposure, the asphalt dries out and the mat underneath it contracts unevenly. What you’ll see: shingles that curl upward at the corners (called “clawing”) or that cup along the edges. If the curling is spread evenly across large sections of the roof rather than isolated to one or two spots, age is almost certainly the cause.

Poor Attic Ventilation

Heat and moisture trapped in an under-ventilated attic cook the shingles from below. The granules loosen, the mat warps, and the shingles begin to lift and buckle in ways that look a lot like age but happen much faster. A sign this is your problem: if the curling is worst on the south-facing or west-facing slopes – the sides that absorb the most heat – and your attic feels noticeably hot and humid when you open the hatch, ventilation is likely the driver.

Improper Installation

Shingles that were nailed too high, too low, or without enough overlap can fail years before their rated life is up. The failure usually shows up as shingles that lift at the bottom edge in a fairly uniform pattern along a course (a horizontal row). If you have records of recent roofing work and the lifting started not long after, or if it’s concentrated in one section that was patched or replaced, installation error is worth asking about.

Storm Damage and Physical Impact

High winds can lift shingles and break the seal strip that holds them flat, and they don’t always take the shingle with them – they just leave it loose and slightly raised. Missing shingles after a storm are obvious; wind-lifted ones less so. Look for shingles that lay flat in calm weather but flutter at the edges in a breeze, or for tabs that are bent back at an angle. Hail can also crack or bruise shingles in ways that accelerate curling even if the damage isn’t immediately visible from the ground.

What to Do Right Now

• Photograph what you can safely see from the ground. Walk the perimeter of your home and take pictures. Getting on the roof yourself carries real fall risk – leave the close-up inspection to someone with the right equipment and training.
• Check your attic for daylight or wet insulation. On a clear day, go into the attic and look toward the roofline. Any pinpoints of light coming through mean gaps that water can use too. Wet or stained insulation beneath a problem area confirms water has already been getting in.
• Put a bucket under any active drip inside the house. If you’re seeing water stains on ceilings or walls, protect your flooring and belongings now. That doesn’t fix the roof, but it limits interior damage while you wait for the inspection.
• Note when the damage appeared or was last normal. Whether it was after a specific storm, a cold snap, or a hot summer – that timeline helps a technician narrow the cause quickly during the inspection.
• Do not attempt to nail down or re-adhere curling shingles yourself. It’s tempting, but working on a roof without proper footwear, harnesses, and anchor points is genuinely dangerous, especially on any slope. A shingle that looks solid from a ladder can be brittle, and a fall from roof height is a serious injury. Call your local Tilehurst Roofing team and let a background-checked, uniformed technician handle it safely.

How We Fix It

When your local Tilehurst Roofing technician arrives, the first thing they do is a proper inspection – not a glance from the driveway. They’ll get on the roof, check the affected shingles, probe the decking underneath for soft spots, and look at the flashing around any penetrations nearby. That inspection tells them whether this is a targeted repair or whether the damage has spread far enough that a full roof replacement is the smarter call.

If it’s a repair, the technician removes the damaged shingles, checks the underlayment beneath them, and installs new shingles matched as closely as possible to your existing roof. Flashing is re-sealed where needed. If ventilation is part of the problem, they’ll tell you plainly and explain what addressing it involves.

Before any of that work starts, you’ll have a written price in your hands. That’s not a policy we bend – it’s the first of the four promises in the Kingswell Way: say the price before the work. The repair is then covered by a written guarantee, handed to you before the crew leaves the site. Under our 365-Day Done Right Promise, if the repair fails inside that period, we come back and correct it at no charge. The services that resolve this are Roof Repair and, when the damage warrants it, Roof Replacement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Get It Fixed

Call (945) 303-9821 – a live person answers right now, any hour of the day. Your local Tilehurst Roofing team will schedule an inspection, give you a written price before anything starts, and back every repair with the 365-Day Done Right Promise. No voicemail. No waiting until Monday.

Written by Greg Holloway, Owner at Tilehurst Roofing, a Kingswell family company serving homeowners nationwide since 2000.