"aemeijers" wrote in message
...
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.


Yeah, I was very pleased with the service for the tarp. I had left a
message on Sunday evening saying we had roof damage and needed to get it
looked at and an estimate for a new roof. When they called Monday, they
said they could do the emergency repair, but weren't even scheduling
estimates for new roof jobs at that time and would get with us a few days
later. I really liked the fact that they were up front about the delay for
the estimate, were wanting to try to get through the emergency calls for
everyone before taking the time for estimates, and didn't try to rush
through an estimate with some halfway guess.

When they came by, they said because of the demand for tarps, they were
having to buy the heavier ones from Home Depot and Lowes, so we ended up
with some of the heavy 10 mil silver/gray ones, not the thin blue ones a lot
of people were using. When the insurance adjuster came by later, he said
those tarps were like duct tape. I figure when we get the roof done, I'm
going to hang on to tarps in case I ever need them for anything else..

The soffit vent comments from the one company, that they weren't really
necessary, really concerned me. Like I said, we'd been planning on getting
a new roof soon anyway, so I'd been doing my research, and everything I
found said that the venting with ridge vents COMBINED with soffit vents was
the recommended way to go.


I feel pretty confident we made the right choice. We'll know for sure in a
few weeks...

Mike O.