After Hurricane Ike, I found some roof shingles on my front yard. However, from a visual inspection from downstairs, I didn't think those shingles were from my roof. However, upon closer inspection, I have come to find that I lost 6 or 7 shingles from my roof. How complicated/expensive of a repair is this? I am debating whether I pay a roofer to fix it myself or whether I file a claim with insurance. Thanks.
I did my first home insurance claim after IKE. The adjuster explained what "kind" of shingles I had, and what the roofers would have to do to fix my roof, including replacing the entire paper under the shingles and the shingles themselves. He explained that the entire neighborhood, in which most people lost many shingles or a few with winds which caused leaks into the homes, uses 20-year shingles. My roof, in comparison to yours, needs to be replaced completely. I did some patching myself temporarily, and found it still leaked, but much less now. I agree completely with the poster above, except for the part that says "insurance claim." If you get a roofer's estimate to say that it's much much less than your deductible, it's not worth claiming it, but you should still get your insurance to see it. The adjuster for the insurance will tell you if it is worth replacing the entire roof or not. Don't do it yourself. Are you counting per flap of shingle, or per WHOLE sheet (most sheets have 3 flaps) of shingle?
Roofing is pretty easy - as long as you don't fall off of the roof. We had two major sections that were damaged. That made it easier, as the pain in the butt part of roofing is interleaving the shingles. So we worked up from the bottom, and only had to lift up the flap of the shingle above to nail in the shingle about 10 times. I had my wife up there with me, and we were attached by a rope, so I had an extra balance point. It took us about 2 hours, I guess. What we learned... 1. take a sample shingle with you to the store (duh!) 2. We used 1.25 inch roofing nails. 3. Roofers say to put in about 8 nails per shingle. I did 16-20. (doh!) 4. Roofs are freaking hot in the middle of the day - don't even go up there. We went up there in the morning. Basically you have a small window to work between when the dew has evaporated from the roof, and when the shingles are hot to the touch. 5. Our experience with climbing helped (not that we are expert climbers by any stretch). Our roof is a fairly steep roof on a two story dwelling. 6. Shingles are freaking heavy. Heavy enough that most women wouldn't be able to handle climbing up a ladder/roof with them, and heavy enough that a weak/out-of-shape man might be pulled off balance by them. 7. I wore jeans and sticky garden gloves, which helped add friction. After we finished, I saw that a lot of contractors bring the stuffing of a cushion (something like a 2' x 3' x 4" piece) up with them and sit on that. I assume that it dramatically increases the friction with all of the little holes. 8. Use the rule of three when free-climbing on dangerous parts - only move a hand or a foot off of a secure location when the other three limbs are secure. If you are up there by yourself, tie yourself off to a secure point, just in case. It cost us $35 to fix our roof. I've heard $150-250 from people for small repair jobs.
We had the same exact problem. About 10 or so shingles came off our roof. During the week we walked around the neighborhood, saw a roof contractor working on a neighbors house, asked him to take a look while he was in the area. He inspected and patched up the garage and house roof. Took him about 1 hour ... price was $120
Look into solar shingles if you have to replace your whole roof... http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,1205726,00.html
Two questions come to mind: * was he licensed * how long is the work guaranteed? Sounds shoddy, and that he didn't put the same quality (or non-quality) shingles on your roof , but that's just my opinion.
There was a guy patching up roofs in my neighborhood for $750!!!!!!!! Some of my neighbors fell for that. I had 2 Guatamalan workers do it for me for $100 and some dinner.
Well, it was a company..not an individual so they are probably licensed but it does not matter to me even if they are not. Now if I needed my entire roof replaced I would be careful when picking a contractor and do some research but in this case we were gonna nail down the old shingles that fell off and they used brand new ones and even found some problems that we did not see and patched those as well...I think it was worth the $120. It would have taken me all day and I may have fallen off the roof
Get somebody from the neighborhood to do it... somebody that's not working... I'll do it, eh... I don't know how to do it, but I'll do it... I don't have a ladder but I can get on the house from the brick wall right there... you want shingles y todo? Ay, mira, muy ch*ngón, "shingols"... just put some paper with some paint can... you can't see it... you want everything, con tar y todo...? WOW... te va a salir chingón... va a salir like that, SAS! Wait a minute, let me calculate it... because we're gonna need a tar machine... we're gonna need about... 12 nails... that way if you bend a couple... and... hey, while I'm up there, do you want me to get the Christmas lights, eh? But no charge. But I get to keep some of the balls up there... orale... FEMA - Find Every Mexican Available
I'll pitch my hat with the fixing-shingle-is-easy crowd. Unless your roof is 50' off the ground, climb up there and do it and save your money.
