Beautiful weather is here and everyone seems to be outside enjoying it lately. We, here at Pro Home Improvement, are busy working on hundreds of roofing projects all across southeast Michigan, so we love this weather as well. Since roofing project season is in full swing, we wanted to bring you some reminders and tips for your own roof. Some of these are tips to help you plan your new roof or just new ways to think about your potential new roof.
Read through these roofing quick hits and rethink your next roofing project with the help of Pro Home Improvement.
1. Keep up appearances
When you are thinking of your next major home project, don’t forget to consider the look and feel of your roofing. When you consider that your roof comprises 40 percent of the visible exterior, you want it to make a good impression from the street, and to your neighbors.
2. Sneak a peek
Use binoculars to check out your roof from afar. This avoids the treacherous ladder work that typically accompanies a roof inspection. You should look for cracking, curling, and missing shingles. You should also be checking for “bald” patches – areas where the asphalt granules have eroded away enough to expose the bare shingle beneath. This is a huge warning sign for roofing issues. You should also check out your roof from the inside, too. In your attic space, grab a flashlight and look for water stains that may indicate a growing roof leak. Stains & dark spots will commonly appear near nail holes, so start by checking there.
3. Ask the right questions
A reputable roofing company will have a permanent place of business, a phone number, a tax identification number, and a business license. Make sure you also ask for proof of liability insurance and proof of workers’ compensation. If you don’t, you might be exposing yourself to a massive lawsuit if any accidents happen on your property. Pro Home Improvement provides you a copy of the insurance policy with your name as the beneficiary before beginning any project.
4. Take a picture
Many home improvement companies have ways to show you how a new roof material or color will look on your house before they even begin construction. Take a picture and they can modify it with your new roof and you can use that to make your decision. It also serves as a record of how your roof looks at a particular time, so you can compare year to year and look for wearing trends.
5. Get it in writing
Never hire anyone without a written scope of what you agreed upon. A professional roofing company should deliver a detailed proposal that describes the type of roofing, material, and color and overall scope of the project. Ask about setup, cleanup, hauling of old material, what type of dumpster will be sitting in your yard and what happens if there is bad weather. Be sure to ask about start and end dates as well, and get those written into the proposal to help protect yourself from being pushed back in the schedule.
6. Top it off with the usual
The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association reports that asphalt shingles are used on about four out of every five residential roofs in the United States. Asphalt products are available in two types—organic and fiberglass—and in a wide variety of colors, styles, and visual textures.
7. Vent a little
Proper attic ventilation ensures that your new roof has a long and functional life, well beyond the warranty. While ventilation requirements vary by region, the National Roofing Contractors Association recommends a minimum of 1 square foot of free vent area for each 150 square feet of attic floor. Pro Home Improvement can give you an estimate for how much ventilation you’ll need to meet the new standards.
8. Think of a roof as an annual cost
Your roof is one of the most important structural aspects of your home, keeping you safe from weather and protecting what is one of your largest investments. Considering this, a new roof can still seem expensive, but you can reframe it as a small annual cost instead of a massive one-time investment: divide the total cost of your new roof (materials and labor) by the life expectancy of your selected roofing material in years.
9. Get hip to the square
When roofing companies refer to squares, they’re referring to the amount of shingles needed to cover 100 square feet.
10. Check out Pro Advice for more info before starting your roofing project
Pro Home Improvement maintains a Pro Advice column, posting tips, information and other resources for you to use to plan your next roof replacement. It can be found here. Subscribe to the newsletter and you’ll be notified anytime a new article is posted.
If you have any questions about your roof or need any help planning your project, be sure to call us at 888-776-1998 to get help from Pro Home Improvement.
14 replies on “10 Tips to consider for your next roofing project”
It’s been a while since we’ve replaced to roof on our house and I’m wondering if it’s something we should look into. Thanks for the advice about looking at your roof from afar with binoculars to see if there are any bald patches. Hopefully, if our roof is bad then we can get it replaced.
I totally agree that the roof is very important to the structural aspect of a home. Investing in good care for your roof not only protects and extends the life of your house, but can also save you money on things like utility costs in the long run. When we had our roofing redone, we noticed that our house seemed to retain heat a little better in the winter. Snow didn’t melt off the roof from the escaping heat anymore.
My roof is in desperate need of a tune-up before winter sets it. Asking questions of roofers such as proof of licensing and insurance is a wise thing to do. Yet I would also suggest getting a roofer that is reliable so that you can trust them even when you are not home.
I agree that to keep up the appearance of your home, consider renovating your home’s roof. You also mention using binoculars to check out your roof from afar and to look for cracks or peeling. I think it’s a good idea to choose a roofer that has a local, physical address.
I appreciate your tip to ask the right questions when considering hiring a roofing company. I also like what you said about taking pictures to document the roofing before, during, and after the work. I’ll be keeping these tips in mind the next time I need new roofing!
I really like your tip about taking a picture of the new roof material your home improvement shows you to refer back to. My husband and I are looking into possibly getting our roof redone in the near future and these tips are helpful. I will be sure to share this article with my husband so that he can get some ideas for our roof project, as well.
I like that you said that a reputable roofing company will have a business license. If you are hiring a roofer then you might want to make sure that they are qualified to do what they say the are. When my brother was getting his roof done he asked about a license and they had one. He said that he felt a lot more comfortable with the work because they had a license.
I really like your tip about making sure that you ask the roofing contractor the right questions when it comes to your roof. My husband and I have been thinking about getting a new roof for a while now so we will have to keep these tips in mind for the future. Hopefully, we can get a great person to work with to help us with the whole process, thank you for sharing!
I really like our tip about taking a picture of your roof so that a home improvement company can show you how the new material will look or your home before they begin construction. That is something that we will have to talk with a contractor about so we can see what different options are available to us. Hopefully, we can find something that will work for us and last a long time. We are excited to get a new roof!
It makes sense that your roof makes up a large portion of the visible exterior of your home. Our clay tiles have started to crack and break recently. I definitely think that we should find some contractors that could help us to replace the current shingles with some asphalt ones in order to improve our curb appeal.
I thought it was great advice to use binoculars of another kind of magnifier to take a look at the state of your roof without having to get on a ladder and climb up. Working on a roof can be really dangerous so once you know that repairs or replacement are needed for your roof it would probably be a good idea to leave it to a professional roofing service. My husband is a real do it yourself kind of guy but when it comes to the roof he always defers to a roofing service to ensure he doesn’t get hurt.
I really appreciate that you mentioned that it could be important to take a picture of the roof you want to show to others. Seems like a great idea to let them know not only what you want, but also have an idea on how it’s installed. Maybe doing some prior research could help make sure that you guys have a good discussion about it.
That’s really cool that when you take pictures, it can be modified to help you make better decisions with roofing. My roof had a lot of shingles that blew away in a storm, and I believe there’s also a leak, so I would like to get it fixed up. I’ll talk with professionals to see what roofing supplies would be right for repairing my house.
I appreciated how you pointed out that I can look at roofing samples to get an idea of what my roof will look like in a couple of years. My roof is in need of a replacement, and I want to make sure my roof lasts me as long as possible. It would also help increase my trust in a roofer if they were able to let me see what my roof will look like 10 years down the road.