Choosing Your Roof Home Page - COMMUNITY ROOFING, INC.

COMMUNITY ROOFING'S CHOOSE YOUR ROOF PAGE

Choosing Your Roof

There are a wide variety of roofing options available. Whatever roof choice you make, know that your roof repair, roof maintenance or new roof is covered under the Community Roofing, Inc. guarantee and All work is done by our Professional, Seasoned Top-Notch Roofers who take pride in their work, after all, it's not just you who sees the roof, so do your neighbors. That makes you the best business card we could ever have. We have found that word of mouth is the best advertising. Your Roofing project is always completed on schedule and only the highest quality roofing materials are used.

THE AREA YOU LIVE IN may have building codes that will only allow certain styles of roofing, such as cedar shakes. This limits your choices to #1 grade medium or heavy shakes, wood shingles, and sometimes simulated shake products. If your home is surrounded by trees, falling debris will require cleaning and possible storm damage repairs

THE CLIMATE should determine the product or color of roofing you choose. In the south you will see light colored shingles for reflective value. Popular roofing products on Lake Drive include Cedar shakes, Slate and tile and Architectural shingles that can simulate wood shingles.

THE DESIGN OF YOUR HOME: If you have an older Victorian home you probably will not consider metal roofing. If your roof is less than a 2:12 slope you cannot install any type of shingle (see roofing codes). Also, if you need to access your roof to clean skylights and gutters, metal and tile may not be the best choice.

Before you contact three qualified roofing contractors for free estimates, have in mind the type of roofing you would like to see on your home. The information below may help in your selection.

CEDAR SHAKES AND SHINGLES:

Older homes have two or three layers of roofing on them, the original roof is cedar shingles. In the early 1900's cedar was cut from old growth trees and lasted up to thirty and sometimes forty years. Old growth cedar is now very expensive & hard to find. New growth cedar will only last 10-15 years if not preserved. Cedar shakes and shingles, and even pine shakes can be pre-treated with preservatives to give you a written warranty of up to 50 years.

TILE ROOFS SLATE ROOFS:

Concrete Tile weighs approximately 10 lbs per square ft.

Lightweight tile made of lightweight cement and wood or cellulose fibers weighs from 6 to 8 lbs per square ft. A new home that specifies tile will have the proper structure to hold the weight of tile, however if you are looking at tile for an older home, you may want to call out a licensed engineer to tell you your maximum roof load and what work needs to be done in order to carry the weight of even lightweight tile.

Slate Roofs Other simulated shake and slate products such as Firefree may be the answer. Weighing less than 4 lbs per square ft, it may be more expensive for the product, but less than having to restructure your attic.

REGULAR SHINGLES:

Today you can buy flat 3 tab shingles with a twenty-five to 40 year warranty, or a heavyweight laminate like Owens Corning's year Dimensional Shingle with a warranty ranging from 25 to 40 years. Fiberglass shingles carry a Class A fire ratings and are very durable.

ROOFING MATERIAL          Warranty     Maintenance      Fire Rating     Comments
                                       Requirements
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3-tab shingles            20-25 years  none             Class A         Economical.  Some are manufactured with zinc 
                                                                        to resist fungus.
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Architectural             25-50 years  none             Class A         Thicker textured shingles, best for recovers 
shingles (Dimensional)                                                  (over existing shingles).
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Cedar Shakes              none         clean and treat  none             Requires careful selection of materials, high 
(non-treated)                          every 3-5 years                   maintenance.
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Treated (CCA) and         30-50 years  regular cleaning check            Upgrade from non-treated shakes generally
Fire treated shakes                                                      costs no more that $800.00 on a typical home.
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Standing Seam metal       20-50        none             none             Durable and corrosion resistant.  Can dent from
                                                                         storm debris, hard to walk on.
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Concrete Tile             50-60 years  crack repairs    noncombustible   Standard or lightweight availability.
                                                        
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Granulated Torch down     10-12 years  none             Class B avail.   Better alternative than Hot tar.
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