Roofing Shingles

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

         Ok I'll let off on the metal. Just here it is becoming much more common and there are many myths surrounding it in places not familiar with it.


         Oh and for the siding vs stone veneer. Gotta be brick or stone can't do siding as by code you have to have a minimum of 75% masonry siding on houses and commercial buildings... (very few citys allow siding usually small low income ones) Personally I would love to rip all the brick off our house put a 2" layer of foam around it then precolored hardie siding. Brick is a bad material here due to it absorbing heat and releasing it into the house all night long and if it gets wet then the sun hits it the moisture is driven into the house. Brick is a good material but not in our climate(besides our brick is yellow...)....

 
            Back to asphalt. My parents had their roof replaced with architectural shingles 15+ years ago. 1800sqft house and today it still looks like a brand new roof. It was around 35K roof at the time and today you would probably be 45k for the same roof. (why you only get a roof with an insurance claim here) The neighbors had their roof replaced the next week and it definitely shows it's age. 
           The shingles on my parents house are Tamko IIRC. I will find out as I think they have a couple spare packs of shingles. The neighbors house used certianteed. I know this because there is a pack still sitting in their garage. Their roof was 45k at the time because it is a 12/12 roof so steep and more area to cover. 

          The roofer that did the roof on my parents house was someone mom knew through school and he actually stopped by recently to see how it was holding up. His price was about 4k higher than other quotes at the time but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone in our area. IIRC insurance covered all but about 2k of the roof.

I would be interested in what the Certainteed shingles are as well as the Tamko. My house will not cost as much it is not as big and is a simple ranch house. 

[Splinter Puller]

I would be interested in what the Certainteed shingles are as well as the Tamko. My house will not cost as much it is not as big and is a simple ranch house. 

I used the Certainteed class action lawsuit money to cover most of the cost of the OwensCorning shingles on my house.

[meackerman]

To me, the design of the house will dictate what type of roof is appropriate.  No way I would want a metal roof on my hip roof ranch house.  Nor would I put metal or asphalt shingles on a house designed for a clay tile roof.   

one of our friends bought their house where the previous owner had replaced the asphalt shingles with concrete tiles.   She had to have the tiles replaced with asphalt shinges, not because the tiles were bad or leaking or anything, but the roof structure couldn't handle the additional weight.  She'd already had someone come in a couple of time to try and shore up the roof structure...but that wasn't working.

[Philip1231]

Apoligies: I have not read all the posts. I would ask the contractor if he will follow the directions on the shingle package.
The architectural shingles are a little different than the regular 3 tabs, and the instructions on how to step the shingles must be followed if you don't want to see a strange pattern on the roof. I'd also ask if he will mix the packages: so if you get one package that is slightly lighter or darker, it wont stand out like a sore thumb on the roof. Don't ask me how I know about this.

[jteneyck]

         Ok I'll let off on the metal. Just here it is becoming much more common and there are many myths surrounding it in places not familiar with it.


         Oh and for the siding vs stone veneer. Gotta be brick or stone can't do siding as by code you have to have a minimum of 75% masonry siding on houses and commercial buildings... (very few citys allow siding usually small low income ones) Personally I would love to rip all the brick off our house put a 2" layer of foam around it then precolored hardie siding. Brick is a bad material here due to it absorbing heat and releasing it into the house all night long and if it gets wet then the sun hits it the moisture is driven into the house. Brick is a good material but not in our climate(besides our brick is yellow...)....

 
            Back to asphalt. My parents had their roof replaced with architectural shingles 15+ years ago. 1800sqft house and today it still looks like a brand new roof. It was around 35K roof at the time and today you would probably be 45k for the same roof. (why you only get a roof with an insurance claim here) The neighbors had their roof replaced the next week and it definitely shows it's age. 
           The shingles on my parents house are Tamko IIRC. I will find out as I think they have a couple spare packs of shingles. The neighbors house used certianteed. I know this because there is a pack still sitting in their garage. Their roof was 45k at the time because it is a 12/12 roof so steep and more area to cover. 

          The roofer that did the roof on my parents house was someone mom knew through school and he actually stopped by recently to see how it was holding up. His price was about 4k higher than other quotes at the time but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone in our area. IIRC insurance covered all but about 2k of the roof.

Your parents must live in a really high end area.  My roof took 36 squares.  I also had the facias wrapped with aluminum and new seamless gutters and downspouts installed.  It cost $11K.  That was 20 years ago, so maybe it would have been $15K 15 years ago, but no where near $35K. That just seems outrageous.  

John

[Robert Adams]

Your parents must live in a really high end area.  My roof took 36 squares.  I also had the facias wrapped with aluminum and new seamless gutters and downspouts installed.  It cost $11K.  That was 20 years ago, so maybe it would have been $15K 15 years ago, but no where near $35K. That just seems outrageous.  

John

       Nope we live in Tarrant county which is called by the insurance companies as the Hail damage capitol of the country. Type mayfest hailstorm into google as it is usually accompanied by grapefruit sized hail... Because of that roofs are common claims and the roofing contractors know the insurance companies are footing the bill so the prices are stupid expensive. The insurance companies and the roofers are in an arms race and keep raising prices. If insurance companies would cut the payout on roofs the prices would come back down. Once insurance covers something prices go up since the customer isn't the one footing the bill.

          To add to that houses are not square here they are all various boxes stuck together with numerous hips and valleys which does add to the cost. House design and construction here has been horrible for many decades and isn't getting any better with the ugly mc mansions. Also here it is all done by hand. There are no conveyors hauling shingles up to the roof it is all carried on a ladder. Labor is cheaper than equipment. 

                 Also that pricing of asphalt roofing is why metal roofs are generally much cheaper here as they are done by the metal building guys usually so you have new competition cropping up. 

                   We had a couple good hail storms this spring with around 1" hail here. We will probably have our roof replaced with galvalume next year some time.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

       Nope we live in Tarrant county which is called by the insurance companies as the Hail damage capitol of the country. Type mayfest hailstorm into google as it is usually accompanied by grapefruit sized hail... Because of that roofs are common claims and the roofing contractors know the insurance companies are footing the bill so the prices are stupid expensive. The insurance companies and the roofers are in an arms race and keep raising prices. If insurance companies would cut the payout on roofs the prices would come back down. Once insurance covers something prices go up since the customer isn't the one footing the bill.

          To add to that houses are not square here they are all various boxes stuck together with numerous hips and valleys which does add to the cost. House design and construction here has been horrible for many decades and isn't getting any better with the ugly mc mansions. Also here it is all done by hand. There are no conveyors hauling shingles up to the roof it is all carried on a ladder. Labor is cheaper than equipment. 

                 Also that pricing of asphalt roofing is why metal roofs are generally much cheaper here as they are done by the metal building guys usually so you have new competition cropping up. 

                   We had a couple good hail storms this spring with around 1" hail here. We will probably have our roof replaced with galvalume next year some time.

 Hail has to damage metal roofs far more than asphalt. Your area must be hell on car insurance with hail storms like that. Most contractors still carry up ladders. Usually the low totem pole guy or apprentice. Some times they have a crane land them on top of a roof but it takes a big job to see those conveyors around here.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I used the Certainteed class action lawsuit money to cover most of the cost of the OwensCorning shingles on my house.

That class action suit is for those organic shingles that they tried. I have not seen any law suits against asphalt shingles unless poorly installed. I believe there was a batch that was out dated in the factory because there is a use by date on those because of the glue strips from what I understand. That goes for all shingles. Except metal of course. As I said I am watching what my two neighbors are going to do and will bug them for info too.

[Robert Adams]

 Hail has to damage metal roofs far more than asphalt. Your area must be hell on car insurance with hail storms like that. Most contractors still carry up ladders. Usually the low totem pole guy or apprentice. Some times they have a crane land them on top of a roof but it takes a big job to see those conveyors around here.

     Asphalt is damaged by hail extremely easily. It only take a small hailstone to cause damage. You may not see it from the ground but when you inspect the shingle it will now have a dent and that's where it will deteriorate from. Metal no biggie it just bounces off unless it's really big. And if it does anything it's not visible. 26ga steel is pretty dent resistant especially when it also has ribs bent into it and few flat areas. Also rated at 140mph wind loads which is good as houses here have had brick blown off the walls in storms.

     Roofing and other contractors have no shortage of cheap labor here. Working in the trades here doesn't pay much unless you own the company.


           Oh yeah car insurance is also higher here because of hail. Funny all the people that move here thinking it's cheaper since housing *was* cheaper before the influx from CA. Once they get here they see all the other costs...  
       Every spring the car dealers get hit by hail storms and that's when you can snag good deals on cars from the dealers that don't have those covers over the lots. I will bring her car around back and park it under the porch out back during hail storms (not enough garage space). I always worry about her car in the spring when she is on a trip and her car is sitting at the airport as that lot gets hit hard every year. Luckily she has missed the storms by hours. She will show up and there is broken glass in cars and all over the parking lot. If it looks like there is going to be hail when she is going out I have her park in the public parking and just pay the $25 a day as it's cheaper than dealing with insurance to fix the car.

[Eurekan]

One of the reasons a metal shingle style roof gets a lower insurance premium is its hail resistance. The metal is coated in something like Rhinohide and then granules are applied. Highly resistant to hail although there are reports of the baseball hail doing bad things. But, weather resistance is not compromised. Also the plastic coating really dampens the noise. I noticed no noise increase after installation.   Decra, for one, makes metal roofing tiles too.