Grainiac
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2010
- Messages
- 102
We need to replace our asphalt shake roof within a year. It was initially a 30-40 year roof to start with, but when we bought the place five years ago the home inspector saw some hail damage on the shakes and said we need to replace the roof in about five years (=now).
Our house is very large, so no matter what we do it is going to be a big expense. I have not had contractor estimates done yet, but based on some online calculators the cost will be around $20k if done with 25-year asphalt shingles (cheaper than our current style shakes), or over $60k if done with rock surfaced steel shakes that would look the same as our current roof. The steel shakes are supposed to be highly hail and wind resistant and come with a 50 year structural warranty, but should last for 150 years (not sure how they tested that). Another option in between we need to consider is asphalt shake roof, just like our current one. I have not found a good online estimate for that one, but I guess it is around $30k.
It is obvious that our house is much too large for us, but it is so well built that outside of this roof replacement it has proven to cost about same in annual utilities and maintenance than our previous house that was just 1/3 of the size. The house itself was not the primary reason to buy this place, but the lot. We have a quiet beautiful 15 acres in the middle of nature with wild flower meadows and large gardens (our #1 future ER hobby) and abundance of bird watching (#2 hobby) with a distant lake view as a bonus. We would have rather bought this place with a house half of the size of the current one, but it was obviously not an option. In any case, this is the place we intend to keep into our ER years as long as we are physically capable of the upkeep, I guess about 25-30 years from now.
We are currently just about FI, but are planning on working until 2014 (me) and 2020 (DW's current guess), so the roof decision is not going to delay our ER. Regardless, I only want to spend the extra $20-30k for a metal roof if it really provides that much extra value to us. So, here are the value questions we are baffled with:
- It would be nice to have a 50 - 150 year roof, but what's the point if we will only live in this house for another 25 - 30 years?
- Outside a direct hit from a tornado, a good metal roof would likely withstand any hail and wind storm recently seen in this area, but hail and wind damage would be covered by our homeowners insurance, so is that really added value?
- Sun reflecting from the metal roof is supposed to reduce the AC cost by about 15%, but here in north we only run our AC 1-2 months a year and even then rarely all day long, so the savings from that would be less than $100 per year at best.
- Possible home insurance savings for a storm proof roof maybe a couple hundred per year.
- We could certainly afford the $60k roof, but then again there is lots of stuff we choose not to have even though we could afford it...
- Other than price, are there any unadvertised negatives about a metal roof?
- We live in a small rural town so the roof contractors with a good metal roof experience would have to be brought in from the big city about 2 hours away. I would only consider a contractor with a top BBB rating.
If you were in my position what would be your decision? Especially interested, if you had to make the same decision recently, how did you decide and would you make a different decision now? Other than just "sell your mansion and buy something more reasonable" I am open for any suggestions and ideas.
Our house is very large, so no matter what we do it is going to be a big expense. I have not had contractor estimates done yet, but based on some online calculators the cost will be around $20k if done with 25-year asphalt shingles (cheaper than our current style shakes), or over $60k if done with rock surfaced steel shakes that would look the same as our current roof. The steel shakes are supposed to be highly hail and wind resistant and come with a 50 year structural warranty, but should last for 150 years (not sure how they tested that). Another option in between we need to consider is asphalt shake roof, just like our current one. I have not found a good online estimate for that one, but I guess it is around $30k.
It is obvious that our house is much too large for us, but it is so well built that outside of this roof replacement it has proven to cost about same in annual utilities and maintenance than our previous house that was just 1/3 of the size. The house itself was not the primary reason to buy this place, but the lot. We have a quiet beautiful 15 acres in the middle of nature with wild flower meadows and large gardens (our #1 future ER hobby) and abundance of bird watching (#2 hobby) with a distant lake view as a bonus. We would have rather bought this place with a house half of the size of the current one, but it was obviously not an option. In any case, this is the place we intend to keep into our ER years as long as we are physically capable of the upkeep, I guess about 25-30 years from now.
We are currently just about FI, but are planning on working until 2014 (me) and 2020 (DW's current guess), so the roof decision is not going to delay our ER. Regardless, I only want to spend the extra $20-30k for a metal roof if it really provides that much extra value to us. So, here are the value questions we are baffled with:
- It would be nice to have a 50 - 150 year roof, but what's the point if we will only live in this house for another 25 - 30 years?
- Outside a direct hit from a tornado, a good metal roof would likely withstand any hail and wind storm recently seen in this area, but hail and wind damage would be covered by our homeowners insurance, so is that really added value?
- Sun reflecting from the metal roof is supposed to reduce the AC cost by about 15%, but here in north we only run our AC 1-2 months a year and even then rarely all day long, so the savings from that would be less than $100 per year at best.
- Possible home insurance savings for a storm proof roof maybe a couple hundred per year.
- We could certainly afford the $60k roof, but then again there is lots of stuff we choose not to have even though we could afford it...
- Other than price, are there any unadvertised negatives about a metal roof?
- We live in a small rural town so the roof contractors with a good metal roof experience would have to be brought in from the big city about 2 hours away. I would only consider a contractor with a top BBB rating.
If you were in my position what would be your decision? Especially interested, if you had to make the same decision recently, how did you decide and would you make a different decision now? Other than just "sell your mansion and buy something more reasonable" I am open for any suggestions and ideas.