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| Author |
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janc
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The Roof Item
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Sep 30 17:12 UTC 1999 |
When we bought our house a year ago, the inspector looked at the roof
and said "that's good for about another year." He was right. It
started leaking a bit yesterday.
So we need a new roof. There are already two layers of shingles up, so
the whole thing needs to be torn off and replaced.
If I remember right, the building inspector recommended "Mr. Roof" and
"Neighborhood Roofing". I called Mr Roof for an estimate - they'll be
in tomorrow. I'm wondering who else I should call, and what experiences
people have had with different roofers.
The inspector also recommended improvements to attic ventilation when we
put on a new roof. Any advice about vents and shingle types and such
like stuff? I don't know a thing about any of this.
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| 36 responses total. |
rcurl
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response 1 of 36:
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Sep 30 17:50 UTC 1999 |
We had our roof replaced in 1995 by "New Roof" (665-5555). They had been
doing other roofs in the neighborhood, which looked good. The old roof was
the original, and 28 years old. It did not leak, but we thought it was
time to reroof anyway. The salesman was, well, a saleman, and spent the
time needed to go over choices. When re-roof day came, however, it was
like a tornado, with a large crew ripping off the old roof and installing
the new one. They found many of the old roof sheathing plywood sheet plies
separating, so a lot of those had to be replaced (the original estimate
included replacing 5 - it required many more). The workmen were fast and
not always careful. The worst problem was that one put his foot through
the ceiling of an upstair room (while I was in it) - they had that
repaired at their expense - *almost* as good as new. They also broke a
sprinkler, bent a gutter, creamed a rose plant, and left much debris
(nails, scraps of wood and roofing, etc) around the house. We are still
finding bits. Are we pleased? On the whole, yes. I would expect the same
"problems" could occur with any roofing company.
We chose "Prestique I" (ELK Corp) "300 pound" shingles with a 30 year
warranty. The warranty is for the original owner (will I still be the
owner in 2025? Rather doubtful), and applies only to "defects in
manufacturing" and blowoff (up to 5 years), but it is very unclear how it
applies simply to aging over the courese of 30 years, since it excludes
problems resulting from installation and related issues. The guarantee on
the installation is only 10 years.
Attic vents were installed. We were told they were required by current
code (none had been put in when the house was built).
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scott
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response 2 of 36:
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Sep 30 19:24 UTC 1999 |
You want vents at the roof edge and at the ridgeline. Unless your attic is
finished (hmm, maybe it is, come to think of it) attics work best unheated.
Maybe they can vent a bit anyway, and perhaps beef up the insulation?
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rcurl
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response 3 of 36:
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Oct 1 02:37 UTC 1999 |
To elaborate: our house always had eave soffits and open end-wall windows,
for ventilation, but the code requires ridge vents too, now. Of course,
our attic is not finished. The roof trusses with their cross members
effectively prevent use of the space.
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janc
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response 4 of 36:
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Oct 1 05:47 UTC 1999 |
My house has a furnished attic in basic Cape Cod style. There are
unfinished attic crawlspaces along the front and back edges of the house
where the roof is too low for habitation. So it looks like this:
_,-'`-._
_,-' `-._
_,-'| |`-._
_,-' | finished | `-._
_,-'________|______________|________`-._
The leaks I found were in the front crawl space. There is only about 4
inches between the ceiling in the finished part and the actual roof.
You can look up into the gap from the crawlspace. It is somewhat
loosely filled with aging insulation. (The floors of the crawlspaces
are covered with thick layers of much newer insulation.) Right now it
looks like a ridge vent would do some good, at least in the summer, as
there is space for airflow above the old insulation. But that would go
away if we upgraded the insulation, and I'd think a ridge vent could
make the upstairs a bit cooler in the winter if we don't upgrade the
insulation.
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n8nxf
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response 5 of 36:
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Oct 1 12:27 UTC 1999 |
I've had New Roof do 3 roofs. I was very please with the first two but
not with the last one. On the last one, done about two years ago, they
simply contracted the job out. The people who were contracted were not
good. They did not have the right tools for the job and the tools they
did have were in bad repair. It even leaked after they were done and it
was difficult to get them out to look at it. When they did, they were
unable to find the reason for the leak. I had to go up and find it myself
and then get them to come back out. The repair crew, however, did
a very nice job. No more leak since they replace a large section of the
roof. Mr. Roof seems to do a nice job and their equipment looks to be well
maintained. Their add also says that they do all of their own work. i.e.
They don't contract it out. (The crew that did my last roof had to take a
day off so that they could replace the clutch on the $500 truck they
had just bought, etc, etc.) Tou may also want to check out Sherriff
Goslin Roofing. They are right down there by Keesan's project.
I would stay away from ridge vents. Snow, spider silk, etc. Plugs up
The tiny holes. Just go with the old fashioned roof vents.
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mary
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response 6 of 36:
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Oct 1 14:57 UTC 1999 |
I've recently researched roofing companies too and we ended up going with
R.D. Kleinschmidt, Inc., out of Manchester. They do a lot of work in Ann
Arbor and they did a fine job on our gutters 9 years ago. I was only able
to find a couple of people who had them do roofing, but they both had good
things to say. Our roof is being stripped and replaced around October
11th.
Mr. Roof does a whole lot of work around town and I was able to find folks
who both liked their work (ultra-fast with lots of workers on the job at
one time) and didn't (poor cleanup, cost overruns, and leaks).
Sherriff Goslin has a nice reputation. They came out and gave us a bid
but then we had a terrible time getting together, by telephone, to discuss
details. The salesperson / inspector essentially refused to telephone in
the evening, when I'm available. He was very good about calling during
the day, and leaving a message on our machine that he called. I'd call him
back, in the evening, leaving messages on his machine asking him to call
me back in the evening, and he'd call back the next *day*. This went on
for some time until I gave up. ;-)
Good luck with the roof!
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rcurl
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response 7 of 36:
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Oct 1 15:27 UTC 1999 |
For all I know, New Roof contracted out our roofing, and that might
explain what I perceived was somewhat careless behavior. I never
thought of that distinction.
I should not have written "ridge vents" for our roof. They are separated
vents placed just below the ridge (four on the house proper, three on
the garage).
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keesan
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response 8 of 36:
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Oct 1 17:29 UTC 1999 |
If you add more floor insulation you can put in baffles at the edges to
prevent blockage of air flow. Fingerle's sells styrofoam ones. They push
down the insulation at the edges to allow air flow.
Sherrif-Goslin is down the street from us. We talked to the owner once and
he seemed friendly. They install interlocking shingles which supposedly are
not damaged as easily by wind, a hexagonal sort of pattern. At city hall they
are always applying for variances to install their shingles on top of others
without having to rip off other layers, as they are lighter than other
shingles of equivalent durability so that there is no need (other than code)
to remove any weight before installation). City Hall makes a bundle on the
automatically issued permission (at least they did a few years ago).
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mary
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response 9 of 36:
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Oct 19 12:45 UTC 1999 |
Kleinschmidt did a fine job.
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rcurl
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response 10 of 36:
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Jul 21 15:59 UTC 2000 |
I need a minor roof related repair. The aluminum siding strip on the
end rafter of the two-story part of the house has come un-nailed
and is hanging a bit. Below it is the pitched roof of the one-story
garage. I think it has to be fixed by going up on the 2-story roof
and and leaning over the end to renail it. I am unwilling to do this,
so would like to hire someone to make thick simple, quiuck repair - at a
simple, quick price. Can anyone suggest a contractor that does such
simple work?
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keesan
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response 11 of 36:
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Jul 21 21:21 UTC 2000 |
Jim says 'Rane, the spelunker, is he afraid of heights?' Jim went up to the
chimney of our neighbor's two-story house (with no 1-story garage below) and
redid the mortar for them, so would not mind nailing your strip next time we
are in the neighborhood (to fix a friend's plumbing) if you can provide the
ladder (and maybe trade some more of those wonderful sauce apples for the
repair). Would you like any photos of the yard taken from the roof? If you
remind us, we could stop by sooner instead of later. We have a book on radio
meteorology - want it? (P. S., an offer of any sort of food tends to get
Jim places sooner - he cannot eat green paper.)
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rcurl
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response 12 of 36:
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Jul 21 22:50 UTC 2000 |
It is actually quite common for cavers to not like heights. But it
doesn't matter, because *one cannot see bottom*, so is not afraid
of it. We also learn to be quite competent with rope work. In fact,
the one time I was on the roof, I threw a rope over it and my wife
belayed me. I felt secure enough but, a) I could not traverse
laterally on the rooft, and b) it looked like the rope would abrade
a hole in the roof peak if I slipped. I used to climb in Yosemite,
with exposure up to 1,000 feet (tree tops sure look tiny down there),
but always on-rope. Being able to "see bottom" was a little concerning,
but I trusted the rope, my belayer, and my skills. Very heady stuff.
But the house isn't a cave, so I think my wife would be a little concerned
about insurance and licensing - or does Jim have both for construction?
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keesan
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response 13 of 36:
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Jul 22 14:14 UTC 2000 |
Jim is not licensed or insured, but when he went up to do the chimney he was
roped. He was also roped while working on my stainless steel roof
(resoldering the bad job done by the professionals, which leaked). Jim is
not a professional construction person, just a friend offering to help.
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rcurl
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response 14 of 36:
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Jul 22 17:42 UTC 2000 |
I would like to thank Jim for the offer, but I believe I will hire
a professional. So I still seek such a professional that does good
work at a reasonable price.
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keesan
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response 15 of 36:
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Jul 22 19:55 UTC 2000 |
Jim is building my house, if that makes him a professional. I pay his health
insurance, if that makes him insured. But feel free to pay someone for the
five minutes work if you consider that a reasonable approach. Jim did a much
nicer job covering part of the outside of my house with aluminum (which he
bent himself using a break) than I could have paid anyone for. You cannot
tell what is aluminum window and what is added aluminum.
Try a gutter installer, and hope you can get someone better than the
ones who put up a new roof on my neighbor's house and did not bother to take
three minutes to nail up a section of gutter that was coming off.
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rcurl
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response 16 of 36:
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Jul 22 20:03 UTC 2000 |
I certainly have meant no insult to you or Jim, so please don't take
offense at my peculiar preference predilection. It is very hard to
decline the offer of a gift meant in good spirit, but I hope you
understand that it must be possible to do so without giving offense.
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keesan
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response 17 of 36:
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Jul 23 16:59 UTC 2000 |
It is very difficult to offend either of us. I see roofers up on roofs all
the time who are not working safely, so I suppose you would not want to hire
a professional of that sort unless they had their own insurance. I hope that
we are still welcome to more apples, and if you have something indoors that
you would like repaired by someone without professional insurance, let us
know. Jim says a licence does not mean that you have been tested, just that
you registered with the city to do a certain type of work, and aluminum siding
might not even be registerable.
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mary
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response 18 of 36:
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Jul 23 17:51 UTC 2000 |
Rane, at one point we had a minor roof leak for which we had
Sheriff-Gosslin (not sure that's the right spelling) come out
with the idea they'd give us an estimate for repairs. Turns
out it was a very minor thing indeed, that he fixed on the spot,
and didn't charge us a dime.
A few years later, when we did indeed need a re-roof, we tried
to reach the same guy but he'd retired and they were too busy
at the time to accept our job on our time line. But you may
find them less busy now.
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keesan
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response 19 of 36:
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Jul 24 02:26 UTC 2000 |
We met the guy who retired, as he worked a block down the hill. He offered
to come and help us work on our house for a day, for free. Nice guy.
Aluminum siding does not normally fall under the roofing category.
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slynne
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response 20 of 36:
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Feb 28 19:32 UTC 2002 |
Hmmm. I think I am going to reroof my house this spring...or rather, I
am going to hire someone to do it. This item has been helpful. Has
anyone else had to do any roofing in the past year or so?
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janc
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response 21 of 36:
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Mar 1 03:14 UTC 2002 |
No, but we're about to. We got an estimate from Mr Roof that ran high. I'm
going to try calling Sherrif Goslin.
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n8nxf
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response 22 of 36:
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Mar 1 14:07 UTC 2002 |
Mr. Roof seems to do good work. We had good luck with New roof on our old
house but they did a shotty job on the new place about 5 years later.
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glenda
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response 23 of 36:
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Mar 1 16:21 UTC 2002 |
The nice thing about Mr. Roof is that they do the job in one day. No worrying
about it raining while there is no roof on the house. I have heard horror
stories about having the old roof removed and the company not coming back for
days to weeks before finishing the job.
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rcurl
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response 24 of 36:
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Mar 1 20:27 UTC 2002 |
One of their workers put his foot through the ceiling of an upstairs
room while I was in it..... We were also picking up nails and bits
and pieces of roofing around the house for some time. But the roof
is working.....
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