But our unfinished, walk-up attic is poorly insulated and probably needs to be “properly” ventilated. We also want to add a vent fan to our master (only) bathroom.
How many different people will we need to hire? And who does what first?
[side question: are there shingles that resist mold?]
Most roofing companies can do everything you need. If they can’t do the carpentry, they will have subs that can.
And, yes, there are shingles that are claimed to be algae-resistant. Unclear if they really do anything.
I just had a catastrophic leak that necessitated a complete tear off and roof replacement–I have a friend of a friend who’s a contractor and who was between jobs at the time so he gave me a preliminary materials list that I had Home Depot drop off and he, the friend and my grandson (a strapping young man in his twenties) did the job over a weekend. Friend has a hauling business with a dump trailer and handled the disposal of the megatonnage of old roof layers. Small house though, and not a complicated job at all–cost me five grand but I’ve been dodging this bullet for twenty years so it was definitely time and past time to have it done.
So yeah, call a roofing company–actually, call three or four and get competing bids because sometimes a contractor will give you an outrageous bid if they’re kinda booked up and it would cost them a lot extra to hire more people to add your job to their work load. Or if your house looks like a pain in the ass to handle. Anyway, they do roofs, they’re fully equipped and conversant with whatever it takes to get the job done. For example, my roof had one truss member that needed to be sistered due to some rot and all the fascia boards needed replaced because they were chewed and rotted with carpenter ants but the dude just did it with no fuss nor fanfare. Good guy, if you’re in Oregon I’d recommend him to you. 
Some useful info in this thread.
And in that thread I gave the following advice provided by a roofer friend. It applies primary to shingles. (He gave it to me 20 years ago, so some of it might be dated.)
Insist on 30 lb. felt paper, not 15 lb. It is a little more expensive but well worth it.
When the crew leaves for the day, no felt paper should be exposed, as high winds can tear the felt. This is called “weathering it in.” This usually requires the roof to be done in sections.
Make sure they use plastic caps when laying felt paper. They should not use use regular roofing nails.
The roof should be shingled in sections (i.e. tear off, felt paper, and roof on the same day.)
They must first put a starter row down along the gutter. But before that, they should put metal down (drip edge). On the sides, they should install rake edge. The metal goes on-top the felt paper, then the starter row, then the stair-step. For the drip/rake edges use brown baked on enamel finish, not silver finish.
Have them put “ice and water guard” down on low sloped pitch areas. This must be bonded to the wood directly, so all felt paper must come off. Make sure they don’t nail it down – it must be stuck down. Felt paper is not needed. Inspect wood here, too.
On the chimney, if they replace the flashing, make sure they use ice and water guard around and up the chimney, and then put metal flashing on top of that.
Make sure they use roof-over-ridge vent. When they perform the cutting, make sure its not so deep that they cut the trusses, and make sure it is 2" wide at a minimum. It should be cut evenly on both sides (important).
Install new pipe collars on all drain vents.
Get a copy of their liability insurance. Get a copy of their certificate of workers comp. Get and follow up on 4 recent references.
Use 25 or 30 year shingles from a reputable company (e.g. Certainteed, Tamko Heritage, GAF-Elk).
Pay nothing up front, and 100% upon completion and my satisfaction. Get a minimum of a 5 year no leak warranty on labor.
Sign contract in the beginning. Everything should be in the contract, including picking up debris and hauling it away, felt paper, color, type, warranty, etc. Include all of the above stuff I mentioned! Contract should also have a start data and completion date. The contract should also state, “The completion date can be altered based on weather, but work should be completed ASAP in a prompt and professional manner.”
I don’t know any contractor that would take a job for nothing up front and 100% on completion. You must have Jedi-like negotiating skills.
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My arrangement was that I’d order in all the materials (and I have a Home Depot credit card as well, makes it really easy for a worker to pick up incidental items as needed and keeping track of expenses super simple) and pay the other labor/dump fees and the contractor got the difference between the materials an my 5K budget. He ended up making about 2K on a weekend’s work, not bad. He did a great job on the roof and fixed some long standing problems that made it about a million percent improvement over the way it’s been for at least a decade, like the persistent leak in the laundry room which was the result of some dubious building practices when they added it on.
[ul]
[li]Make sure you get bids from at least three roofing contractors.[/li][li]Make sure they really are real roofing contractors who do the actual work. Many “roofing contractors” these days do windows/doors/siding/roofs/pools. You want a real roofing contractor who primary function is roofing. Also, many “roofing contractors” are only brokers; they subcontract the work out to people who may not even be qualified roof installers.[/li][li]Do not be your own contractor. Do not go to a big box store to buy the shingles, nails, etc., then hire people to reroof your house. What you think you might save now may cost you down the road. Also, if you are your own contractor, you now need liability insurance, and possibly a builder’s permit to legally do the work (depending upon your building codes and city ordinances).[/li][/ul]
Yeah, I’d start with the roofing company as that is the vast majority of the work. I expect they’ll handle the attic ventilation, that seems like a standard thing that roofing companies do. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d recommend third party contractors for the fan and insulation. Assuming they’re not replacing the sheeting that’s really indoor work.
Our roofing job required some specialized siding carpentry work which the roofing company had a recommendation for. All good contractors, pleased with the results.
I’d second getting quotes from at least three companies. I was shocked by how much of a gap there was between the lowest and highest price. And while price and quality may have some correlation, I doubt it is a perfect one. I have a hunch that we avoided trouble by not going with the more expensive options, just based on their professionalism and demeanor.
I also noticed that roofing companies seemed to specialize in specific types of roofs. Like they’d technically handle most things, but seemed to like and perhaps have the most experience with a specific technology (shingles, torchdown, metal, membrane, etc.). Even with no ill intent they may bring biases into their proposals. I’d encourage you to do your own research into the various options.
(Both roof jobs I’ve had to do on two separate houses coincidently involved leaks caused by inappropriate use of shingles on a too shallow slope that couldn’t drain fast enough and where torchdown or membrane was more appropriate. In one case the previous owner was clearly a cheapskate. In the other I was surprised because they’d clearly done things at a high quality for everything else in the house except this one section of roof. So there are definitely companies that will push the wrong thing or just don’t care.)
Is that really that unusual? All but one of my major projects, including both roof jobs, involved them sending me a quote, me agreeing in email to the quote, them completing the job and sending me an invoice, and me paying the entire bill upon receiving the invoice.
That includes roofing companies, a skylight installer, a drywall repair firm. The only job that required an upfront deposit was a solar panel installation, and even that was just 10% of the total cost.
I actually had to follow up with the drywall repair firm two weeks after they’d completed the job because they hadn’t yet sent me a bill. I think their office assistant was out of the office due to COVID-19 related reasons.
Get a Certificate of Insurance for liability and worker’s compensation before they start. Do not accept a COI that the contractor has with him. His insurance agent will email or fax it to you if he requests it.
If you think you are going to get solar panels some time in the future, may I suggest you look into a solar roof. A solar roof is one where instead of shingles, there are solar panels shaped roughly the same that cover the entire roof. Tesla makes one, I don’t know if anyone else does. They have a 25 year warranty, which I think is longer than roofs typically last. They have a Model T choice of colors, but then so do solar panels. Of course, they’re more expensive than a regular roof, but you’re getting more than just a regular roof.