OT Re-roofing my house

[Lincoln Myers]

Anyone out there have experience re-roofing their house?

I helped my dad 10 years ago to re-roof his house and have a good basic understanding. I am looking for any gotchas or suggestions you may have from having done it yourself. I have a basic suburban house w/ 2 standard gabel roof sections. One over the garage and one over the rest of the house.

Planning on using ice and water shield on the first 3 feet and then 15# tarpaper over the deck and then 30 year asphalt architectural shingles.

Why you may ask? Because after pricing materials/tools etc. for me to do it w/ friends help, I come up w/ $2000 more in my wallet than if I pay any of the 3 contractor bids I received.

Looking for any and all suggestions or comments you may have for a guy heading into this project.

Thanks a lot,
Linc

[Glenn Clabo]

Roofing is tough work and it's pretty dangerous. Make sure you have insurance if your friend gets hurt. Also rent or buy (to resell later) yourself a nailer. If you have lots of flashing to do...make sure you know how before you start. If you do it wrong...well it could blow all your savings when the first rain shows up.

Put many roofs on in my day...never really liked it. This last one I chickened out and paid someone. Now I'm wondering why I did all those before.

[Lee Schierer]

Plan on replacing all the weather caps around the vents that come through the roof. It is cheap insurance against leaks over the life of the roof. Don't forget new flashing around chimneys or along walls.

If you have two valleys, I would recommend that you use the ice shield in the valleys as well.

Did you also price in the cost of properly disposing of the roofing materials you will be removing?

[Lincoln Myers]

Did you also price in the cost of properly disposing of the roofing materials you will be removing?

Yes, my costs include the $300 roll-off dumpster rental.

Also rent or buy (to resell later) yourself a nailer.

Got one on the way from Tool King...

Thanks for all the suggestions so far...

[Lincoln Myers]

Any other tips or thoughts from people who have replaced their roof?

[Tom Sweeney]

I have noticed, over the last few years, that I am very shaky when I'm more than about 10' off the ground. I guess now that I'm getting older thoughts of mortality are setting in. The last roof I was on was 12 pitch very slippery roof & I was actually scared when I got out near the edge. This could lead to real problems. If it is a fairly steep 2 story roof I would consider renting harnesses & tie downs. Also use roof jacks & planks or roof ladders.

As someone said watch all your flashing and weather capping. I just paid $9,800 to have the roof done on my house. I couldn't even make it up to the peak of the 12 pitch slippery roof & one of the roofers almost slipped off while giving me an estimate - so I said no way even though it cost me an arm & a leg. Anyway I had very good contractors do it & water still got in during driving rains. Finally traced it to some flashing running down the gable end of the roof, after I cut 3' square hole in my ceiling to see where it was coming from.
Hope this helps

Good Luck!

[Rob Russell]

It sounds like your doing it right with a tearoff. We discovered that the builder didn't put tarpaper on the roof before shingling. Some of the plywood almost needed replacement because it was so dry.

Have a couple of huge tarps on hand from the local borg in case that surprise storm comes through.. Leave them unopened so you can return them if unused.

Why just 30 year shingles? If y ou're doing this, it doesn't cost that much more to put a 35 or 40 year roof on and that becomes a selling point 20 years from now when you move out and the new buyer knows they've got a lot of life left in the roof. Roofing is sorta like paint. The majority of cost is in the labor, not the materials. I've upgrade the materials - you'll still end up saving money.

One last comment - see if you can buy the shingles from a place that delivers with a boom truck. That way you unload onto the roof instead of having to hump the shingles up a ladder. It's worth paying extra $ to get that.

[Scott Stefanoski]

i am with the pay people to do it. I have way too much that needs to be done on this house to call in favors for a roof. We figured that the time, aching, friends that i would owe big, just made it not worth it to do mself. (oh yeah, did i mention my extreme dislike of heights).

i also like the idea of calling back joe roofer with a leak rather than me climbing out the second stroy window, using a roof to get up on the roof there and fixing it in a down pour.

good luck and definitely get a nailgun or two,

[Tom Stovell]

I would agree with having the shingles delivered on the roof if possible. Roofing isn't hard, getting those things up there is the hard part.

Get a good chalk-line and check your references often. Check to see if the area is square to begin with. Saves tons of time trying to figure where you went wrong (DAMHIKT).

My last roof was on jacks, but only about 20 squares worth. I like the ones perpendicular to the roof, rather than horizontal mounts.

I would also go with a 45-50 year dimensional roof. The extra thickness not only gives you a better resale (as mentioned above) but you also get a nicer shadow line with them.

Be sure to vent your space well. I'm not sure you could get too much air movement .

A good blade, a nice radio station and some beers for the end of the day and you've got yourself a task.

Did I mention I like roofing?

Tom

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Build "Norms" cupola and install it while you are at it.
Don't forget ridge venting.
Rent a ladder conveyor (or other name) - lifts bundles of roofing to roof from ground. Around here $75.00 per day. Well worth it.
Then finish up by installing soffit vents.
Dont' forget starter course of (upside down) 1/2 shingles.

[Michael Lutz]

I re-roofed my house last year. It was a complete tearoff, 2 layers of shingles and the decking. It was a lot of work for my wife and I.

If you have to replace decking, using a frameing nailer is recommended. A roofing nailer is a must. The ice and water barrier should be 3' over the house not counting your eaves. Get some large plastic sheets to cover your house, because it will rain before you finish. Roof top delivery is a good thing. Good luck.

Mike

[PeterTorresani]

ADVIL

Take a look at using a shingle vent. It is a type of ridge vent that runs along the top and gets covered with shingles. It looks a lot better and is much easier to roof around than the conventional type.

Other than that, all of my suggestions have been mentioned already

Nailer
Boom Truck
Ice & water shield in the valleys


Oh ya, buy a potato fork to remove the old roof. They work much better than the tools made specifically for the task