Thinking about a new shingle roof, read this first!
When replacing a roof, most homeowners go with asphalt shingles – here’s some great info on choosing the right ones for your house.
Getting the roof you want
Whether its keeping your house well protected or boosting it’s curb appeal, your roof carries a lot of weight. Your roof will hold up to decades of blistering sun, beating rains, gusting winds, and punishingly heavy snow and ice, as it protects you and your belongings from the elements – all while looking great.
A new roof is one of the biggest-ticket home maintenance purchases you will make. It can be daunting, but getting the job done right comes down to two key steps.
- Check out colors and styles by driving around your area to see how homes like yours look with different shingle colors and styles. We use GAF shingles which offer all the basic color families: grays and blacks, browns and reds,blues and greens, and golds and beiges.
- Work with an honest and reliable roofing contractor. We are a GAF certified contractor having passed all their best-practice training. Beyond shingle quality, the quality of the installation will be key to how well it holds up. Asphalt shingles are amazingly durable these days, so failures are usually tied to poor installation.
A new roof shingle is more than just shingles!
Even though you may only see the shingles, a well-built, durable roof is made up of a lot of parts working together to keep your house dry and comfy. It must keep the weather out while letting fresh air in, so you don’t get a buildup of heat and humidity in your attic.
Shingles
We start from the eaves and work our way up toward the ridge, with staggered runs to prevent water from seeping in. We also weave aluminum flashing in when we single against any vertical structures (chimneys, dormers, skylights, and around vent pipes).
Ridge Vent
Venting makes your roof last longer by allowing cool air to come in through soffit vents, and warm air to leave through the ridge vent. We cut a long slot along the roof ridges then cover it with a flexible vinyl cover designed to allow heat and moisture to escape at the ridge. There are openings along the sides allow air out, cooling the area below and lowering your air-conditioning bill.
Underlayment
This is a synthetic sheeting which replaces felt paper. It provides a critical extra layer of protection between your shingles and your roof deck and ensures that shingles lay smooth and flat across the entire surface of your roof.
Starter Shingles
Sometimes called starter strips, these are a narrow row of asphalt roofing that is nailed to the perimeter of the roof with a bead of adhesive on top that grips the underside of the first run of shingles to keep them in place during heavy winds.
Ice & Water Shield
This is a self-adhesive membrane used to create a barrier at the most vulnerable areas of your roof (at the eaves and rakes, in valleys, around chimneys, etc.) to prevent moisture from reaching the sheathing. It can help prevent leaks caused by wind-driven rain, ice dams, and water backing up in your gutters.
Ridge Caps
These are specially designed and shaped shingles that match the color and style of the other shingles used on your house. They are installed over the ridge vent, overlapping higher risk areas where two different angled planes of the roof meet.
How much is it going to cost me?
This is the biggest and most obvious question for most homeowners. Every roof is different, but on average, a new 2,500-square-foot roof can range from $5,000 to more than $15,000. As you would expect, the vast majority of the costs cover labor and materials but here’s a basic idea of what goes into a quote.
Materials – 45%
As you would expect shingles are the main material, and they account for half of the total cost. However, a new roof has a lot of hidden parts like underlayments, starter strips, and flashing.
Labor – 35%
Stripping off and replacing a roof is a labor-intensive job, and accounts for roughly as much as the materials. Keep in mind that complicated rooflines can increase the labor cost by 25% or more.
Overhead – 15%
No business operates without overhead and construction is no exception. We keep our overhead as low as possible to keep overall costs down but there are requirements like liability insurance, workman’s compensation, and transportation costs.
Disposal – 5%
Finally, don’t forget the cost of renting a dumpster to dispose of shingles, felt paper, wood, underlayment, roofing gravel, flashing, and other debris.
These are obviously all ballpark numbers. If you want to find out the costs for your house, contact Esh Builders and we will give you a free, no strings attached quote on replacing your roof.
