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Understanding residential roofing services

Writer's picture: Jay LundeenJay Lundeen

Andrew answers some key questions about residential roofing services and the value of gutters.

What are the most common types of residential roofing materials and how do they compare?

By far the most common residential roofing material available are going to be asphalt shingles. Those came onto the market as a cost-effective replacement for time consuming and very expensive materials that had been available for roofing. Things like slate and cedar metal and tile. The longevity was the biggest difference between asphalt shingles and those kind of old-time roofing materials. And now the warranties on asphalt shingles are 50 years, which is really comparable to what those are at a fraction of the cost.


Why are asphalt shingles the most popular choice for residential roofs?

Well, they're ubiquitous, so it does make sense. And most HOAs and local jurisdictions will generally require you to have a similar roof. Also, homes that were built to have slate roofs or tile roofs or something like that had are built differently, whereas a house that was built for an asphalt roof is really meant to have an asphalt roof.


What factors should homeowners consider when selecting the right roof for their home?

I think big things are making sure that it's passing your HOA requirements. There's nothing worse than going almost all the way to install and finding out that the color choice or the shingle type or even some HOAs require specific manufacturers. So, going through that process is worthwhile before you kind of get everything started, but then things like the color palette of the neighborhood. Do you want to stand out? Do you want to blend in? What are your long-term plans for things like colors of the windows and the siding and the shutters?

Keeping that all in mind um are good things to do when you're thinking about purchasing a roof.


How can homeowners choose roof colors that enhance the curb appeal?

There's kind of two ways to think about that. The different manufacturers offer different arrays of colors. Some offer a very limited number of colors. Some offer a wide variety. And then some offer even premium shingles that have unique color patterns to them. There's value in standing out, but there's also a lot to be said for choosing something kind of tried and true and sticking with a black gray or kind of an earth tone earth tone brown will always serve you well.


When is it better to repair a roof versus replacing it entirely?

This is almost exclusively going to come down to age. If you have a roof that's less than 10 years old, a repair should be something that one would consider. You can realistically expect to get another 5 to 10 years out of that roof regardless of the material over that 15 year mark for sure. My expert opinion as a roofing contractor is you tend to be putting good money after bad. Roofing systems are just that. They are a system. It works with each individual type of material and there's drip edge, there's ice and water barrier, there's the underlayment, there's the shingles themselves. Doing a repair might sound really easy, but the system really works as a whole. So after a certain point, it just becomes very difficult to get any longevity out of a repair.


Can you explain the residential roof installation process?

This can seem daunting, but it really should come with very concrete steps. 

Once you've selected the company, a good roofing company is going to do what's called a site inspection. They're going to come out to your property and they're going to survey it to just make sure that there's no big red flags for things that could come up during the install. But they're also going to sort of choreograph the actual install. They're going to consider, okay, on the morning of the install, we're going to have the materials delivered. We're going to have the crew there. Where do we want to do the removal to? Where do all the excess materials go, and its tons of materials that are coming off some of these roofs! Where are we going to actually dispose of the materials off of the roof? What landscaping do we have to make sure to protect and tar sharp or cover with. Sometimes they use boards to cover things that could really be damaged from materials coming off the roof. And then how do we kind of start to plan out the install? So, they'll do the roof inspection. 

Once that's good and they have the information they need from there, they will order and obtain the materials. They'll then call you for a schedule date for the install. 

On the day of the install, again because they've done a site inspection, they should really hit the ground running. They'll be there early because you want to make use of as much daylight as possible. And then when the install is complete, again, they should really do a post installation roof and site inspection where you meet with the project manager and just go over making sure everything is cleaned up. It's all done exactly as you thought it was going to be done and looks gorgeous.


What are the most common questions homeowners have about residential roofing services?

I think big ones are, things like time frames and costs. There are helpful resources online. I really recommend Remodeling Magazine's cost versus value report to give you an idea of costs specific to your size of home. It breaks it down like that as to what size um home that they're doing an average of and you can just kind of reverse engineer the math and then time frames. On the availability of installs. There are companies that might not be able to get you installed for weeks and weeks and especially if you have a bigger issue that can be really burdensome. Those are the kind of questions that I get asked the most is how long it takes from start to finish and then costs and there are again I recommend Remodeling Magazine cost versus value report to get an idea of that.


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