BCDrums wrote:
Our family's little vacation cottage needs a new roof. I got four
estimates, ranging from $3200 to $10,000 for a 1400 square foot roof.
There are two layers to be stripped off. My questions:

All four roofers offer Certainteed 30 year architectural shingles. There
are two model names, Woodscape and Landmark 30. Does anyone know the
price a contractor would pay for 100 sq ft. of those two shingles? This
would help me to understand what part of these bids might be materials.

Contact a building supply house/lumber yard in your area. Get their
price. Shipping may be a significant component of the price.

One of the roofers offers to use a special "starter course" of
Certainteed shingles. Is this truly useful, or just something to
increase the price?

You need a starter course. I'd prefer to use the same shingle as the
rest of the roof, although the cost differential shouldn't be much.
Usually the starter course is a lower grade shingle than the remainder
of the roof.

The house has gable vents and no ridge vent. All four roofers will add a
ridge vent, but one wants to put in soffit venting at the eaves and seal
the gable vents. While I understand the idea behind the soffit venting,
I wonder if it is worth the extra cost.

Add the ridge vents. The air that exits the ridge vents has to come in
some where...ideally through the soffit vents. The area of the ridge
vents and the soffit vents should be close to the same.

One roofer proposes 6 nails per shingle vs. 4 nails. We are a mile from
the ocean, and occasionally get a Nor'Easter. However, I doubt that the
current roof had 6 nails and it has lasted well.

I'm 75 feet from the ocean in NE. Four nails is enough.

It's a lot of questions! I'd be grateful for any insights and info you
might have.

BC