Also make sure they cut a vent for the ridgevent and not just nail it on top
of the peak.


wrote in message
...
On Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:37:53 -0400, 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.

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?


The starter course is usually just some of the regular shingles with
the tabs cut off. Shingles made especially as a starter course for
architechural shingles may end up looking better.

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.


To do a ridge vent properly so it is effective, and worth doing at
all, you need to seal the gable vents and have soffit vents.
Otherwise, the ridge vent will not draft properly, defeating the reson
for having it. Sounds like only one roofer wants to do the job
correctly. The others want to cut important corners to be able to be
the low bidder. I know who I's choose from what you've said so far.

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.


roofing nails are cheap, (5000 collated roofing nails for a gun are
about $45 retail) and with a nailgun, they go in fast - very fast.
Shouldn't really affect the price very much.

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

BC