Sunday, November 16, 2008

Roofing: Material Overhead!

By Ned Dagostino

The roof is the most important element of a house. The house will suffer from many problems if the roof is in disrepair. Your air conditioning bill will go up drastically if the roof is venting air. So it is important to go about re-roofing your house with the utmost care. The same applies to putting up a fresh roof.

The durability and integrity of the roof depends on the materials you put into its construction. Let's see what these are, and how you should select them.

Listing out the materials required for the job will give you a more or less accurate estimate of the enormity of the job. You'll have to plan to spend that much money and time on it. It is better to over-estimate by about 5% to 10%, depending on the price of the material and how frequently it is required. Short estimation does not only entail an extra trip to the supply store, but it means downtime. Your assistants will be earning pay for waiting. That's going to add significantly to budget overruns. When creating your estimate, consult a supplier. His experience will help you to fine tune your estimate. Online stores have a helpdesk, so consult them too. Forewarned is forearmed! The materials most commonly used for roofing the house are asphalt shingles, wood shingles, stone, and clay tiles. Newer materials like metal, plastic and composites are also used.

If you are re-roofing the house, you may have to select the roofing material in consonance with the existing structure. A roof built to carry asphalt shingles will not be able to bear the load of clay or slate tiles. There is a possibility of the roof collapsing if overloaded beyond its designed structural strength. Reinforcing the roof, a costly affair, is the only solution here.

As a rule, asphalt shingles do a fine job. They are long lasting and trouble free. The only negative we're looking at here, is their tendency to crack when subjected to extreme temperature variations.

Putting up a new roof gives you much more latitude in selecting the construction and material of the roof. You will need to design the structure very carefully; the integrity and longevity of the house depends on the structural design of the roof.

The beauty and appearance of the house is important. But you should not place too much importance on the appearance of the building when selecting building materials. You should give equal importance to other factors too, especially climate. A house designed for a warmer climate will not last very long in a harsh cold climate. You will have to beef up the insulation to make the house tolerate the extreme cold.

Newer metal, plastic and composite materials are lightweight and structurally sound. These provide a viable alternative to traditional materials. Just check the pricing. Some of these newer materials can be used with traditional structuring; some may require updated construction techniques.

The cardinal rule is: Use only top quality material for roofing and construction. Anything less than top quality will mean nagging roof-related problems, from leakage and seepage, to structural instability. The integrity of the roof is an important contributory factor to the integrity of the entire house. The longevity of the house is directly dependent on the longevity of the roof. So make quality your top priority when shopping for roofing material.

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