Last winter’s ice storm and then downpour of rain did our roof in. It was past its guarantee (paperwork from previous owners) and the edges of the composite shingles were curling up. Two months ago we called in some estimates.

One guy came out and just looked for a minute in the front of the house and walked around the back. Did a little math and gave us an estimate. Yes, it was a nice, low estimate but it had a lot of fine print how they aren’t responsible for any damage they may do inside or outside of the house and/or landscape. The price was basic and would be more as they ran across problems and/or replaced wood. But we didn’t know what problems they might run into because he didn’t check it out. He also wanted up-front money of half the cost before he even started. I know smaller outfits do that so they can buy materials.

Another guy (that we decided to go with) did a thorough inspection and didn’t want any up-front money but would demand payment on the day of completion. He went into the attic and played investigator. He looked at the under layment wood to see its condition, checked the gutters and saw a big problem where the sleeping porch (shed dormer) is attached to the roof. The aluminum siding was put on after there was layers and layers of roofing. (The other guy didn’t see that and who knows what he was going to do about it.) When they take the layers off, there will be gap between the siding and the roof. In order to put flashing up high enough to prevent ice dams from doing damage again, they need to take the aluminum siding off of the sides of the dormer and they have to be taken off from the top down,(that’s the way they are installed.) It would be too hard to remove and keep those long aluminum siding pieces intact. We will have to remove them, insulate the sides and add flashing and water and ice shield fairly high up and then replace them with vinyl siding. He’s also using a better grade of flashing around the chimney and is adding a vent pipe for the bathroom vent fan we will install at a later date.

I hope the color looks OK against the aluminum. It’s up high so maybe it won’t be noticeable after we paint the aluminum siding one of these years. His price also included ice and water shield all the way around higher up around the edges than the first guy was going to do it. And he would completely cover the add-on area in the back with ice and water shield.

He found out that we have the original slate from 1917 (that he identified as Pennsylvania slate by the color) that runs about 3 foot in around the perimeter of the roof. We can’t understand why the previous owners left that there and just went over the top of it instead of removing it like the rest. That has to be removed with the other shingles and that causes a bigger disposal fee. They will also lay tarps down to protect landscaping and the neighbor’s driveway.

Even though the guy we are going with had an estimate almost double the first roofer’s, I’m sure the first guy would have handed us a similar bill at the end when he discovered all the problems (unless he Mickey-Moused the fix and we didn’t want that.) The guy we went with was just more knowledgeable. I hope it works out well, you never know for sure ahead of time, though.

We have to wait until the end of August before we get our turn in the waiting line to have our roof done. I (with the help of my husband) have to remove part of the pergola that overhangs the roof in one section before they begin reroofing. I’m not sure how I’m going to do that. It’s only a few years old. I hope it was put together with deck screws so I can just unscrew them. But I have a feeling that Murphy’s Law will come into play. I still have a few weeks to think about it.

I can’t wait until they pull that siding off the dormer.  I suspect there is old cedar shakes underneath.  I wonder what color.