Ah, the daunting task of replacing your roof. It makes me think of other big jobs like replacing a septic system or furnace, which are also essential components of any home. And essential often translates to expensive.
When buying a fixer upper, you run the risk of handling major repairs. For example, we learned from our home inspector that we would need a new roof in 3-5 years. Luckily, our house had zero signs of water damage, so it wasn’t something that needed attention immediately. Phew! But, it was obvious that our roof was older, with its faded areas and heavy algae growth in some parts. So we knew it was a project that we would face one day.
Well, I can’t believe I’m saying this already, but it’s been four years since we purchased our home! You know what that means, it’s time to take the roof project off the back burner.
Finding a Roofer
We started by calling some local roofing pros in our areas. Plenty of contractors, landscapers, roofers, etc. advertise by placing a sign in the yard of a house they’ve worked on (with the homeowner’s consent, of course). So, we treated those signs like references. This way, we got to preview a sample of the roofing company’s work, which is a bonus to see what we’d be paying for!
Next, we called a few of the popular names that we’d seen around town, and gathered some quotes. Meeting with a home improvement professional in-person can be so informative when you’re a beginner to home renovations, like us. Often times, they will point out something that you didn’t notice, and you’ll learn more about your home that way. For us, we found out that skylight windows need to be replaced if they’re over 20 years old, because they eventually fail. That explained why our old skylights in the sun room would occasionally drip water..
On a side note: one of the roofers told us that our house’s previous owners met with him for an estimate before listing the house. He said they didn’t hire him because they didn’t want to spend the money. The good old game of pass the buck! All we could do was shake our heads and laugh.
Fortunately, the roofer who provided the cheapest estimate was not most detailed and responsive (don’t you love when that happens?!). Plus, we’d seen plenty of his roofs in our town, and they all looked fantastic! He gave us a display with a variety of asphalt shingle colors, and even provided a reference list so we could view the shingle colors on homes nearby.
Choosing the Roof Color
After some debating, we chose the color Pewterwood, which is a dark grey. (Our shingles are made by CertainTeed, and have a lifetime warranty). When we were looking at other people’s roofs, we noticed that darker roofs tend to look newer. This is because dark shingles are better at hiding imperfections that appear over time, like staining or mildew growth. Of course, we considered a light grey roof because of the energy savings (light-colored roofs reflect the sun’s heat, while darker roofs absorb heat, which can make for a hot house in the summer). But, because we live in a shady, wooded lot, this wouldn’t be an issue for us. Besides, our house had a light grey roof to begin with (the exterior was ALL grey), if you remember from our first post, so we switched up the color!
The Results!
In the end, it took a team of 4-5 roofers one day to replace two skylights and the roof for our 1600 sq. foot home. We were so impressed! I’ll admit, we did a couple of drive-bys while the roofing was underway, but for the most part we left our house for the day (roofing is LOUD and involves lots of nails). We love the darker shingle color, and we’ve gotten a lot of compliments from neighbors! Sadly, we had the worst roof on the street before. Not anymore!!
Another perk of getting a new roof: We disposed of some junk that we had in our house using the dumpster that was brought in for the roofing debris. To make sure we weren’t taking up needed space in the dumpster, we waited until the roof was done. Luckily, there was plenty of room left for us!
One tip of advice, make sure to THOROUGHLY scan the perimeter of your house for nails once the project is complete. The roofers used magnetic rakes to collect the loose nails, but we still found 30+ stray nails in our garden beds, grass, and gravel driveway over the next couple of weeks. You do NOT want nails ending up in your lawnmower or car tires!
Overall, replacing our roof wasn’t nearly as intimidating as we thought. Yes, it was an expensive project ($9,000 total), but we had saved up over the years to afford it. Now, we have peace of mind knowing that our house is 100% protected from water damage, and the new skylights don’t leak! Plus, the darker roof adds contrast to our home’s grey exterior. Another update in the books!
