Mike O. wrote:

"olddog" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to put together a budget for a new a/c and roof for my house.

The house: 1700 sq ft, Central texas, 1 story, regular shingle pitched
roof. Currently two layers of shingles. With the patio the roof's sq
ft is probably about 2000 sq ft.

So far I have $4500 put away for the a/c. The goal for the a/c is
$5000 which I *think* is more than enough.

How much should I put away for the roof? I'm guessing $2000 (or more)
due to the fact the old roof will have to be removed. Nothing special
the new roof. Middle of the line shingles. I plan to sell the
house in about 15 years when we'd like to cash out and move to a
smaller town. Is $2k enough?

Thanks,

olddog

I don't have anything on the A/C, but we're in the process of getting a
new roof, thanks to the remnants of hurricane IKE (in central Ohio!).
The existing roof was about 20 years old, and we'd already had a few
shingle tabs break off in other storms, so we knew it was going to be
needed soon. We were planning on next spring, but at least now the
insurance is picking up most of it. We got a couple of quotes, one from
a big roofing company, the other from a small, locally based shop that
we've heard good recommendations about. They've been around about 30
years, so it's not some fly by night company.

We have a two story, about 1,900 sq ft. of shingles. We're looking for
a full tear off of the old shingles (single layer), and install ridge
and soffit vents (the house currently has two undersized gable vents).

The lowest quote was one from the big roofing. They quoted about $5,500
using their own brand of shingles. However, that didn't include any
soffit vents. The guy that came out said that our soffit was too narrow
for for the saws to install the vents, and that they weren't that
important anyway, as long as you had a ridge vent. He said they can
install something on the top of the deck (I think it was called
SureVent), but would be about $800. Also, he seemed pushy, several time
during the estimate, he kept asking me if we would go ahead and sign
now. I told him we weren't ready yet, and he said no problem, but a
little bit later he'd ask "are you sure you don't want to go ahead and
schedule the job?" Got kind of old real fast..

The local shop came it at about $6,000. They using Owens Corning 30
year shingles, with WeatherLock underlayment around the edges. it also
included 22 soffit vents. After the comments about the small soffit
size from the other vendor, I call these guys back and asked about the
soffit vents. He said it was a narrow area, but they would use a jig
saw or sawzall if a circular saw wouldn't fit.

We've signed up with the second company. Another point in their favor
(at least for us), was that of the four companies I called on Sunday
evening (when the storm hit), they were the only one who called back on
Monday, and were out Monday afternoon to install tarps over the bare
roof areas. A few days later when the insurance adjuster came out he
commented on how good of a job they did.

Mike O.

I'd say you made a good decision. Responded to calls, didn't do a high
pressure sales pitch, uses name-brand products with an actual
manufacturer warranty, and was willing to work around the as-built
characteristics of the place. They likely would have had me at the
emergency tarping service- damage control is often given short shrift in
the home repair world.

My other house is down in Lake Charles, LA. After that little storm a
couple of years ago, the town was rampant with fly-by-night roofers. and
I would have liked to have owned a warehouse of those blue tarps. I was
lucky, having just had a quality roof applied a few years before,
fastened down per storm-country specs. No apparent damage at all.

--
aem sends...