I paid some obscene amount to get my roof replaced with metal shingles. I was looking for a regular metal roof, but everyone I asked said I shouldn’t do it because it would bring down the property value. Iike, I posted to a neighborhood advice list, and 5 people independently wrote to tell me that, including a couple of realtors. So I got this, which looks similar to the regular local roofs, being shingles.
I love it. It’s noisier than asphalt, but not a lot noisier – it’s not like a regular metal roof because it doesn’t have giant flat pieces to reverberate. We’ve had no issues with leaks or ice dams since getting it. Perhaps not an issue in CA. It’s white, and has greatly lowered our AC bill. (and the attic never gets too hot to stand any more.) Fires aren’t a problem here, but it is fire resistant.
I guess my practical advice is to consider getting a light-colored roof. I couldn’t believe what a huge difference that made.
My 700SF crapshack was leaking like the proverbial sieve and needed the roof done. We figured the underlying lath was dead and were pleasantly surprised to find that most of it was okay. A short-of-work friend of a friend agreed to do the work and I set a budget of $5000 for the job, giving him the incentive to get it done quick and keep materials cost down. Job was for a complete tearoff of all layers on the roof, put down new OSB, underlayment and asphalt shingles. He hired my grandson as casual labor, the friend has a hauling business so he did the removal and disposal (dump and testing fees alone were several hundred bucks) and we got it done in a weekend. Materials, casual labor and dump fees ended up being right around $3200 so he made $1800 for 2.25 days work, not bad, especially considering he ran into some problems with rotted fascia that had to be reworked. Crapshack no longer leaks and it looks a LOT better without the 3 or more layers that had been stacked up there.
Had roof replaced several years ago, and using architectural shingles in place of the original “builder’s grade” ones. 1800+ sq/ft house ( includes attached garage ) and installed a ridge vent while they were at it. Slightly over 6K, but I did get a little compensation from insurance company due to hail damage. Looked great, and still does. Southeastern US.
Had the “pleasure” of being inside the whole time they removed the old shingles and sheathing, and nailed new ones in. Gives me an idea what it might have been like to be in a WW1 trench during an artillery bombardment. Like it was raining bowling balls.
I highly recommend watching several YouTube roof replacement videos and reading some websites with how-to guides. The videos will give you information that will help you decide what exactly you want done, understand what you’re paying for, and determine if the roofer giving you an estimate is competent or not. They’ll also help you understand that cheapest is not always best. For example, a good roofer will replace all vent covers and they will probably charge more to do that, and 20 years down the road you’ll be glad.
Way back when my son was a teen and strong as an ox (someone had to haul those heavy shingles up on to the roof) we did repairs ourselves. About that time were were a bunch of “travelers” were scamming people doing roofs so be sure your contractor is legit. Don’t remember the cost, but our repairs held.
We had ours done last year after a hail storm. Replacement cost was $15,000 to go back with hail resistant shingles. The house is 2100sf but with a garage and large wraparound porch, the roof is over 3000 plus it’s fairly complicated. I know of several people that paid $20,000 or more. FWIW, this is Oklahoma and while our cost of living may be low, the frequent hail storms tend to jack up the price of our insurance.
My wife objected to metal roofs because of the noise of rain. But one of the other guys who also grew up with a metal roof, liked them for that reason: he’s not isolated from what’s going on outside.
My now 46 year old daughter as a teen baby sat for neighbours up the street when the houses in our area were quite new. That house had a metal roof and in the event it rained she said “you sure know it’s raining!”
My landlord had my NC roof re-shingled several months ago. It took a crew of about ten 13 hours on a Saturday. The only gripe is that they laid tarps on the grass in the front and back yards to catch the old roofing nails but the tarps were too small and had holes. I spent several evenings with a powerful magnet on the end of a rake picking up about 150 of the ones they missed with their 2 foot wide magnet on wheels. My lawn mowing contractor got two flat tires on two visits two weeks apart.
My parents got a metal roof, though not until after I moved out. Seems like everyone I’ve ever heard comment on it likes the sound of the rain off the roof. Especially as white noise when trying to sleep.
Yeah, my metal-shingle roof isn’t as loud as a metal-sheet roof, but it’s louder than asphalt shingles. And i love it. I like to hear the rain. I feel more connected to the world.
I drove, with a friend, across southern Wisconsin, and she was looking forward to seeing those famous red barns. We didn’t see a single one. They’ve all been torn down, or allowed to fall down, rather than pay over $50,000 to replace a roof on a no-longer utilitarian building that has a lot of room.
We were driving around in Betty MacDonald’s old neighborhood, where we saw some of those big red barns, and just about every one had a giant quilt square on one end.
