Tips For Choosing A New Roof For Your Home

There are many different roofing materials available for you to choose from today. You can choose from asphalt, wood, and composite shingles, or slate, concrete, and clay tiles. While style is important, cost, weight, and installation requirements shouldn’t be overlooked. With these things in mind, here’s what you must understand.

Roofing Terminology

Terminology is different when talking to roofers. For instance, instead of measuring things in “square feet,” the term “squares” is used. This is a basic unit of measurement in which one square is 100 square feet. Your typical two-story roof on a 2,000-square-foot house is less than 1,500 square feet or about fifteen square.

Cost of a New Roof

There are numerous considerations in determining this number, including:

• The material’s cost will serve as your starting point.
• Your existing roof may need to have old materials stripped off it and you may find that the supporting structure needs some repairs.
• Your roof’s shape is important. For instance, a gable roof with few or no breaks in its planes is easier to roof than a house that has multiple breaks and planes.

Roofing Materials

There are many different roofing materials you can choose from today, but not all of them can be used on every roof. This is why it’s so important to pause and consider these various roofing materials for their own merits. These roofing materials include:

• Asphalt is the most commonly used material, probably because it’s inexpensive and doesn’t require much skill to install. This is made from a fiberglass medium that’s impregnated with asphalt and given a surface of sand-like granules. There are two basic configurations. The first is a standard single-thickness variety that costs about half as much and lasts about half as long as the second type, but it still looks great. The second is a thicker, laminated product. This lasts for about 25 years and starts at about $50 a square.
• Wood was the main choice for centuries and it’s still a good option if your fire code allows for it. Typically, cedar, redwood, or southern pine are used because they have a life expectancy of about 25 years.
• Metals like aluminum, steel, copper, copper-and-asphalt, and lead are all durable roofing materials, but they’re also quite expensive. Lead and copper/asphalt varieties are typically used, but others are manufactured for seamed roofs that have vertical lengths of metal that are joined with solder. Typically, you’ll pay about $250 per square but you can also pay quite a bit more than this as well.
• Tile and cement are popular in Spanish Colonial and Mission-style homes. This is how these roofs get their wavy look. Unfortunately, while this material is very durable, it’s also very expensive and very heavy.
• Slate is one of the most durable roofing materials, but not all slate is the same because it comes from different quarries in places like Vermont and Pennsylvania. Typically, slate outlasts the fasteners that hold it in place. In fact, there’s some hundred-year-old slate that’s been recycled for reinstallation because experts believe it’ll last another century. However, it’s very heavy and expensive – starting at about $800 a square.

Choosing Your Roofing Materials

When you’re remodeling your home, the existing roof determines many of these factors for you. This doesn’t mean you won’t have other factors to think about – things like color, texture, weight, and durability. With all these important considerations, it’s a good idea to have an expert on your side. At Done Rite Roofing Inc. we’ve been helping people work through this “event” for many years. Contact us today so we can help you too!