Roof replacement
Replacing a roof here starts with a question most markets skip: what is up there now? On a house wearing metal, the answer changes whether this is a replacement at all — and on a property with outbuildings it changes what the job even includes.
First: is this a replacement or a repair of the wrong kind of roof?
A shingle roof at the end of its life is finished, and there is nothing to debate. A metal roof is different: the panel usually outlives the coating, the sealant, the clips and the fasteners, all of which can be renewed without a tear-off.
So before comparing prices, establish what the covering is and what condition the panels themselves are in. A contractor who does not ask has one answer available to him, and it is the expensive one. This is not an argument against replacing — plenty of these roofs are genuinely done — it is an argument for finding out.
What the tear-off is going to find
On anything built before the war, spaced sheathing is common: boards laid with gaps, sized for a covering that was hung rather than nailed flat. A modern covering needs a continuous surface, so re-sheeting is frequently part of the job rather than an exception. It should be priced before the roof is opened, not discovered on day one.
Layers are the second unknown. Re-covering was normal for decades, and a house here can be carrying two or three generations of material — sometimes metal laid straight over the shingle that preceded it. The honest quote states what it assumes and what happens if the assumption is wrong.
The parts that are not the front slope
Almost every older house in this valley has a lower wing behind it, and it is nearly always shallower than the front. Water leaves it slowly, snow sits on it longer, and it usually needs a different product entirely. It should be a separate line in the quote.
On a row or a twin, the party wall rises through a plane two households share, and its flashing is the single most common entry point. Rebuilt properly it outlives the covering; sealed, it becomes a maintenance item.
And on a property rather than a lot, there is the barn, the garage, the shed. Each is its own roof with its own age and its own staging. A single total for "the property" hides which one actually needs doing this year.
Reading two quotes on the same house
The spread is rarely the shingle brand. It is whether re-sheeting is priced, whether the back wing is specified separately, whether flashings are rebuilt or sealed, what happens to the snow at each eave, and whether access on a narrow borough street has been accounted for.
The comparison tool on this site walks those points one at a time.
What to ask every bidder
- What is on the roof now, and does it have to come off?
- On metal this is the whole question. Sound panels with tired fasteners and coating are not a tear-off, and a bidder who cannot tell you which situation you are in has not looked properly.
- What happens if the sheathing is spaced rather than solid?
- On pre-war housing that is likely rather than possible. Ask for the price per sheet of new decking before the roof is opened.
- How is the back wing specified?
- The shallow section behind the steep front is a different roof with different materials. One specification for the whole house under-serves it, and it is where the leaks usually are.
- Where does the snow go?
- On metal, snow leaves in a slab rather than gradually. Walk the eaves and name what sits under each one — doorway, walk, lower roof. If the quote does not mention it, that part has not been thought about.
- Is the counterflashing let into the wall or fastened to the face of it?
- Where a lower roof dies into masonry, this is the difference between a detail that outlives the covering and one that needs redoing in a few seasons.
- 1 The ridge cap. On metal it is a separate piece with closures under it. Blown snow finds the joint that was never closed.
- 2 The seams. A standing-seam roof lives at its seams and clips, not at its surface. The panel outlasts what holds it.
- 3 The valley. One channel taking what two slopes shed — and on the north side, holding snow long after the field is clear.
- 4 Where the ell meets the wall. A lower wing dying into the main house. Two roofs, one wall, and nobody sure whose seam it is.
- 5 The fasteners. Exposed screws through the panel, each with a rubber washer. The washers age; the screws work loose.
- 6 The eave. Drip edge, gutter, and the question every metal roof asks: where does a slab of snow go when it lets go?