How disruptive is it to get a new roof?

happycat wrote:

JPB wrote:
happycat wrote:
You'll all want to stay out of the yard during the removal process, because I can recall huge pieces of roofing being thrown and dropped from the roof onto the lawn (and my azaelias) as they never actually hit their aim into the dumpster.
Added to that, the men and their language, the ladders and equipment.

Other than the outside activity, the noise inside was unbearable, but you've covered that.

heh, the language --- our crew only spoke Polish. Whatever they were saying, it wasn't understandable.

soz, we had two new roofs in five years from two different roofers. Neither time was a big hassle. Just a lot of noise for one day.

Polish! that's rare! I would've liked that....I'm Polish. Not that I'd understand what they said....but it would've been cool to hear.

Polish is not at all rare here. Lots and lots of Poles. Chicago has the second largest Polish population on earth. More Poles here than any place except Warsaw. Kasamir Polaski Day is a state holiday.

Chai, we had two new roofs on the same house. The first time due to the age of the roof, the second time because a tree came down on it during a storm. We lived under a blue tarp for about five months. We needed a full roof replacement both times.

No dust either time. Plywood replaced where necessary both times. New vents were cut the first time.

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We had a portion of the roof done a few years ago. It was loud but not too intrusive. Since we also got insulation at the time (I highly recommend this), it involved some coordination of the trades. Therefore, it was about three days' worth of work (one to pull off roof, two to add insulation and three to add new roof) but it took a couple of weeks for it all to get done.

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JPB wrote:

Polish is not at all rare here. Lots and lots of Poles. Chicago has the second largest Polish population on earth. More Poles here than any place except Warsaw. Kasamir Polaski Day is a state holiday.

The Polish Constitution Day Parade is an event .... very close to a public holiday, as we could notice at the meeting last year. And the Polish restaurants are excellent, as good as original - tested this year. :wink:

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Re: Soz

BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:

It depends on your roof's structure. If you have a layer of plywood under the roofing material, you won't get as much dust. If, when the old roof is removed, and there is no plywood under-roof, the house's open roof frame will allow dust onto your attic floor-room ceiling. If you store anything in the attic, it will get covered with dust and debris.

BBB

OK, attic is different, much different from "house" in general. "Cover your furniture and stuff with plastic sheets" made it sound like you meant the actual living areas. Attic I can handle. (We don't store anything there.)

Thanks for clarifying.

Great point about insulation, Jes, something else to look into. I think we have that but we're not sure. We're definitely researching energy-efficiency. (A while back Fishin, I think, pointed me to some resources there.)

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Make sure, the roofer has been around for a number of years and is
willing to give you a 10 - 30 year warranty on the roof. The cheapest
isn't always the best.

I had used an old established company who readily extended a warranty
of 30 years. My neighbors weren't so lucky since the roofing company they had chosen, seemed to be a fly by night operation, and two years down the road, their roof was leaking badly and the roofer was out of business.

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We didn't get any grit or dust in our house when the roof was done - maybe we were lucky. I did find some junk in the garden afterwards, but nothing to really complain about. Insulation is a good idea. I seem to remember that putting insulation over old knob and tube wiring can cause a fire hazard, so that might be something to check - what your wiring is, and where the insulation goes. (I can't remember if insulation goes between the joists at the ceiling or between the rafters - doh!)

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Weighing to say that turbine vents are great (can't remember who I'm agreeing with) especially if you add insulation -- you don't want heat building up.

Also (from personal experience Embarrassed

) you might want to be up and dressed before the roofers arrive. You never know which window they might put their ladders up against...

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No offense, but turbine vents are old school.
Continuous ridge vents do a much better ventilation job than turbine vents ever could.

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Soz,

One thing you will want to be mindful of in preparation for and during the roofing process is all that banging will send jarring vibrations throughout the house periodically. You'll want to be sure that any hanging pictures, fragile nicknack items on wall-mounted shelves, are either removed or secured so the vibrations can't help them fall from walls or over the shelf edge.

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Recently, I signed up for Angie's List:

https://www.angieslist.com/

In this company, you get to rate local service providers, and get to read what other people have written. I know that Angie's is better in some places than others, where they have been there for awhile.

I did not use the list for the roofer, as most of the people on my block used this guy in the last few years, and he is very good. I did use them for a couple of other things, and was very pleased.

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we have used SEARS twice to have our house reroofed in the 43 years we've lived in the house .
they use independent roofers to do the job - and charge a little more , but we think that sears will be around for a while to back the guarantee .
the roofers didn't make any mess , even used a "magnetic" roller to pick up any stray nails .
since they used an electric hammer/gun , there really wasn't much noise to be heard inside the house .
hbg

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Following hamburger's advice, I went the Sears route as well.

It went smoothly, except that they cleaned up the front yard too well - scooped up the leaf mold I'd put down to protect some plants. The magnet roller worked brilliantly.

They arrived around 7 a.m. - were done before I got back from work.

~~~

As I read btrflynet's post, I realized that the construction techniques in different areas of the country really have an effect on your preparation. You could literally drive into the side of house around here and not knock anything off the shelves.

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CalamityJane wrote:

Make sure, the roofer has been around for a number of years and is
willing to give you a 10 - 30 year warranty on the roof. The cheapest
isn't always the best.

I had used an old established company who readily extended a warranty
of 30 years. My neighbors weren't so lucky since the roofing company they had chosen, seemed to be a fly by night operation, and two years down the road, their roof was leaking badly and the roofer was out of business.

Really look at that warranty. The materials are guaranteed by the manufacturer (usually 20, 25 or 30 years), but you want a workmanship warranty -- one that covers the quality of the installation, separate from the material.

I'd also ask to see their insurance. (In fact, I asked for a copy of their insurance!) If anyone or anything gets hurt during the construction, their insurance should cover it, not yours. And if your area requires roofers to have a licence, ask to see that as well. There's a lot of fly-by-nighters in the roofing biz, with no insurance, no licence and slipshod methods.

I'm a little ambivalent on asking for references -- it's too easy for them to give a friend's name who will, of course, give a glowing reference.

I agree completely that the cheapest isn't necessarily the best. Follow standard bid acceptance practices -- get 4 or 5 quotes, discard the lowest and the highest, look carefully at the ones in between. And make sure you're comparing apples to apples, i.e. each quote is for exactly the same products and amounts. If you want to add anything after the selection, adjustments can be made before signing the contract.

As for dust -- yeah, I got some. Probably due to my lax housekeeping -- the vibrations knocked it all down from the ceiling. Embarrassed

My roof took several days, only because it rained unexpectedly. But having a dumpster on my driveway was very handy! (I was cleaning out the basement at the time and some old drywall bits and studs ends magically found their way into it.)

It's amazing how fast these guys can work.

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When we replaced our roof, due to adding all this extra space, we changed the pitch of the roof, had to have new trusses flown, so EVERYTHING was open to the sky.

If I wasn't so lazy I'd find picture to post. It was pretty amazing.

We had a good break in the weather, so the old roof was demolished and new trusses and plywood got done in a single day. There were guys crawling all over the place.....yeah it was a great opportunity to put all new insulation in.

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E.G.'s calling the roofing guys tomorrow to set up some quotes (5 of 'em), I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions soon. This is a whole lot of info for just one day, though, thanks so much everyone...!

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Given your climate, make sure they put down ice dam membranes.

I also second the continuous ridge vent vote. they work well and look good, too.

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Seconding the vote on license and insurance. And check the Better Business Bureau (their website is not the best, but it's adequate), mainly to check for complaints. http://www.columbus-ohbbb.org/

Roof and ladder falls can be nasty, plus there are telephone and cable wires and whatnot. Better to have their insurance pay for anything like that, than yours.

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We've had two roofing guys come out so far, we have more info. Old roof is pretty much shot -- generally a mess. One guy says newer roof is aging fast and should be replaced, other guy says newer roof is fine, and they'd only replace the old roof.

Anyway, we still have three more estimates to go, and the best one hasn't come yet. (The people who did our addition have a sterling reputation around here and we like the addition, so we called them for a roofing contractor recommendation -- we figure we'll probably go with the guys they recommended, but we're still getting 4 other estimates.)

I have a few follow-up questions but the only one I remember right now is -- tell me more about the insulation. How does that work? What form does it take? Where does it go, exactly?

Right now we don't use the attic for anything (it's small). The floor of the attic is insulated. We don't have any other insulation in/on the roof.

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sozobe wrote:

I have a few follow-up questions but the only one I remember right now is -- tell me more about the insulation. How does that work? What form does it take? Where does it go, exactly?

Right now we don't use the attic for anything (it's small). The floor of the attic is insulated. We don't have any other insulation in/on the roof.

An attic can be insulated in a few different ways but typically, if the attic isn't being used for living space, the floor of the attic is filled with either bat or loose blown-in insulation. Ideally, the insulation fills the joist cavities of the ceiling below and then covers the tops of the joists themselves.

You DO want airflow in the attic. Nowadays the standard way of doing that is to install vents in the eves of the house and then add some sort of ridge vent system when the roofing is applied. Some houses will have vents in the sidewalls near the peaks of the roof. (I prefer to have both). If airflow is still inadequate then you move up to a fan that forces airflow through the attic.

The reason I mention the ventilation is that you need to make sure that any insulation doesn't block the airflow from the vents in the eves.

Optimum insulation in your area is R-30. Using bat insulation that is typically ~10" thickness.

There are other reflective foil insulations out there but unless you are trying to solve a specific problem I don't recommend playing with them.

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Fabulous, thanks so much. Exactly what I was going for.

We have batting on the floor, I'd guess 10" but I'm not sure. E.G.'s going to go up there and take a look around before we make a final decision on all of this.

We have airflow but not it's not adequate -- vents will be happening. That is, there isn't too much insulation, but there aren't enough vents, and there is blistering on the roof from where the nails got too got and melted the asphalt. That's one of the main sources of problems on the old roof.

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How disruptive is it to get a new roof?

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