Roofs, Roofers, Roofing - It's All Over My Head

[Amethyst]

Update on Roof Replacement at Chez Amethyst

We interviewed 6 contractors for the roof, and 1 contractor to clad the wooden roof trim with aluminum siding. (Only one of the roofers did both).

We immediately disqualified the 2 roofing contractors who gave estimates without bothering to go up on the roof. We disqualified one more guy whose personality did not, shall we say, click with Mr. Amethyst's. Of the 3 left, one spent almost an hour on the roof and produced a beautiful colored pencil drawing of it (which I wish he'd let us keep). He wanted $20,000 to rip off the old roof, install new shingles, and install a ventilating fan in the attic. Replacing old roof sheathing was "extra" but his estimate didn't say how much per sheet. We liked him, even though he was a bit of a blow-hard.

The second roofer worked for a big company who had replaced a neighbor's roof. The neighbor gave a strong reference.The roofer went up on the roof and spent some time inspecting it, and gave a very professional presentation using a laptop. At $15,500 to do the roof plus the siding, plus $75 per sheet to replace any rotted plywood, he was impressive and we thought we were going to go with him. But we had one more roofer to interview.

He was a fairly young man who owned his roofing business, and told us he had never done anything except roofing. He worked on roofs all through high school, starting at age 14 by picking up the junk roofers throw on the ground. He did not do siding, but gave us a reference for someone who did (who checked out OK when I called references - and we liked him when we met him). He did a very careful inspection of the roof and inside the attic. He said it was hard to tell if we'd need any plywood replaced, but he thought we might, since he could see some black spots (he showed them to us). He said the roof was well-ventilated through the soffits, so no ventilating fan was needed. His quote was $11,480 plus $65 per sheet of plywood replaced. The siding contractor, meanwhile, wanted $1400 to clad 100 linear feet of "rackboard" (wooden roof trim).

We liked this man, and his references checked out, but when we went out to look at some roofs he'd done, those homes were in no way comparable to ours. This put us off, but then the "expensive" guy called back to learn if we'd made our decision. Mr. A. told him frankly that we liked and respected him, but were leaning toward someone a bit less expensive. This man asked who we were thinking of going with, and then flabbergasted Mr. A. by saying, "He's OK. Some of those smaller guys will rip you off, but he'll do a good job for you." So, one contractor helped us decide on another one!

We ended up paying for 15 sheets of plywood, mostly at the back edge of the main roof, that were rotted or warped. That pushed the job up from $11,480 to $12,380, plus $1400 for the siding so our whole job cost $13,780. While we were unhappy about the large amount of plywood, it was very evident that our new roof lacked the "ripples" that we could see in the old one, so we think the roofer acted honestly.

We are very happy that we had the rackboard cladded. It looks much, much better, and we'll never have to hire someone to paint it. A funny thing is that the 5.8 earthquake happened on the day the siding was put on. At work, we felt the floor rippling under us, stuff was falling off shelves, etc. - we were quite shook up. Fifteen miles west, the siding installers, who were of course up on tall ladders, said they didn't feel a thing!

Oh, we also decided to have more insulation put up in our attic, since the roofer told us it is the best insurance against ice dams. ALL the contractors had "Not responsible for ice damming" written into their contracts.

So there's our story. Winter will tell if the job was truly good.

Amethyst

 

[devans0]

Last time I roofed my house, I decided to use metal shingles. I had heard too many stories of the asphalt shingles not holding up to their warranty period, and figured that the next time that I would have to shingle, I would be near retirement or retired, so I went with a lifetime roof.
I like the roof, but labor took three times as long to install. It was a mega-PITA to click in the special nailing clips to the shingles and time consuming. I did it myself to save the labor costs, and hired some help on laying new plywood over the whole roof.
I didn't have adequate ventilation, so a passive vent system was put in. That was what helped with the ice dams the most, IMO. I live in the mid-west where we seem to get one week of -40 degree F per year so your climate may vary.

My supervisor at work lost his roof on his brand new house in a wind storm this year. The rain ruined everything they owned. The roof was stapled on. Lawsuits are being filed.

It sounds like your roofer did a thorough job at good prices.

 

[eytonxav]

When getting a new roof, while its a must to get bids (I would suggest at least three), its more important to develop a spec & statement of work for each contractor to bid on, so that you can compare bids on apples to apples basis. If you don't know how to spec the job, do some research. Also, get references from the contractors and check them out, have they done work in your neighborhood, talk to neighbors, check the BBB, how long have the contractors been in business, do they have a physical address vs a PO Box, do they have insurance, will they provide you with an indemnification and lien release, do they require money upfront, and even consult with your local town building inspector and that should help narrow down who is good or bad.

On the ventilation side, regardless of whether you live in a cold climate or warm one, most houses are under ventilated, so good to include improving that with your roof job.

When you live in the hail capital of the world you get a lot of experience in roof replacements

 

[GregLee]

While they were working on my neighbor's roof, one of a roofing gang walked around to nearby houses trying to scare up more business. He first talked to my wife who told him, yes, we had some leaks, and we might be interested in getting a flat section (780 sqft) of our roof repaired. He climbed up, looked around, told us $400. We said okay, that's a deal. Later that day, the guys transferred 6-8 large rolls of stuff (I forget what) up onto the roof. Several days later, they came back, rebuilt a couple rotted out places, and laid down the patching material. Done -- leaks fixed.

That was my roof patching adventure.

 

[JakeBrake]

We replaced our roof 3 years ago. We selected a roofing contractor highly recommended by a local roofing materials supplier.

Our roofing job consisted of removing 67 squares of old roofing down to the sheathing, installing 67 squares of 25 year architectural roofing, and installing 3 new vent turbines. The cost was $!0,385 installed. He did not have to replace the chimney flashing (we have 2) because we had had a chimney specialist do that a couple of years previously.

When the contractor came out and walked the roof, he personally carried a tube of roof caulking and repaired a spot that he thought might be leaking. No charge for that. He said it appeared to him that we had hail damage. So, I contacted my insurance adjuster who came out and walked the roof. He agreed with the contractor that we had hail damage. My insurance company paid for the roof and we only paid our $750 deductible.

The same insurance company replaced the roof in 1992 when we had tornado damage and this time I thought we had bought sorry roofing that only lasted 16 years.