where do i begin?

Question

there are few things around the house i am willing to pay someone to do ,i have lots to do but need first things first -
a roof it has only one layer ,i have one bid of 8k, just for the house which is 2000k sq. ft. not sure how much more for the garage and this does not included gutters.i was also told that i would save about 2k if i removed the old roof .

exterior painting which i have gotten bids from 4k to 25k,and
it will cost 1k more to do the garage and about 1-2k in repairs such as patching where i took out an old screen door,nothing major.

what do i need to ask for, what is a good base price for
these jobs,do i have to hire experts .

it really gets me when they say oh the garage too and look
at me and seem to not know why- i hate that .am i really saying something wrong. plus it puts off the bid they have to refigure things which is about another week of waiting.

just wanted to know if there is a base ,ball park figures either of these jobs should be,any sites you know of that might help,we are just tired of getting so many different prices ,what it includes what it doesn't.

Answer 1

You did not state where you are located. Prices vary from location to location. Unknown: style of roof, valleys, slope of roof, etc.

Cannot give a ball park price for renovations; especially without seeing the job.

Do your roof first including the garage roof.

Have the contractors remove the old shingles and dispose of them. You may find it is not worth the money saved by doing it yourself. A good and reputable roofing contractor brings in a disposal bin, tarps, and has the proper tools to remove the shingles

Have the old roofing removed. In some areas it is required. Most shingle manufacturers do not guantee their product if the noew shingles are installed existing shingles. This is not widely known. You often have to go to their website and dig, read, dig, read, dig read, ......; there is usually a disclaimer somewhere stating this.

It is a good idea to have felt paper install on the roof under the shingles. This is required by the manufacturer for some slopes otherwise the warranty is void.

In most areas it is required to install a ice and water barrier from the facia (edge of the roof) to at least 2 feet past the inside of the warm side of the outside wall and on low slope roofs.

Some links for these products

http://www.graceathome.com/pages/roofing.htm

http://www.alconvc.com/276.htm

Here is a link that discusses different types of venting and ice and rain shild

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Roofing-1598/ridge-vents-vs-whirly.htm

Roof venting

Free Flow Ventilation: 1 sq ft of effective ventilation for every 150 sq ft of attic floor area.

Roof Ridge Ventilation: 1 sq ft of effective ventilation for every 300 sq ft of attic floor area.

I usually calculate it by roof area instead of attic flor area which give much more effective ventilation.

I highly recommend Roof Ridge Ventilation along with good ventilation along the eaves. Make there is good air flow from the eaves into the attic. You must have a full ridge on the roof; not effective on cottage style rooves.

Here is a site explaining Ventilation and Moisture Control for Residiential Roofing. (you require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the article)

http://www.iko.com/misc/ArmaPdf/209-RR-86ArmarVen.pdf

My roof was about $14,000 for about 4500 Sq Ft with multiple pitches, 6 valleys, 3 roof to verticle wall flashing, 1 roof to roof flashing (two very different pitches)
Large portion of roof over 35 feet from ground.
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Painting is a type of work that can be very basic where teh areas to be painted are not properly prepared and patched and primed before the final coat is applied. It is usually the cheapest paint available. Many painters will not even sand or prime on a basic job. You get what you pay for - this type of job may last you 2 years if you are lucky.

The price seems to goes up exponentially by the preparation quality. Preparation takes time and time cost money.

You should have all the exterior repair work completed before painting the exterior.
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Selecting contractors:

1/ Look up local contractors first. work out form the closest
to your location. If some you trust has had work done
similar to yours, ask them about the contractor they
used. If they were completely satisfied with their
contractor(s), ask for their telephone number.

2/ Select at least 5 your are interested

3/ Do a google/yahoo search on each of the contractors
you are interested in; look for praises (check who is
writing the praises to see if they have any connection to
the contractor work in groups> google/yahoo search the people giving
the praise or references)

4/ When you are satisfied with at least 3 contractors per job,
have the give you written estimates with details of work
to be done, terms, guarantee(s), cost of extras (how
much do they charge if they find something not covered
by the contract), paymant schedules if necessary and
whatever else you can think of to protect yourself.

5/ If the contractor tries to pressure you into signing the
contract immediately with a high deposit (more than
15%) reject that contractor. Be careful, high pressure
can be someone who sounds very convincing, but has
many reasons why you should sign on the dotted line
NOW.

6/ It is always good to have another adult with you when a
contractor inspects the work to be done.

7/ If you do not get at least 3 written estimates (for each job -
3 for the roof, 3 for the painting, and 3 for the repairs)
signed by the contractor - not you (do not sign yet) , go
back to 1. If you are satisfied with all the roofing
contractors and repair contractor but only 1 painting
contractor, just repeat for the painting contractors - you
need 2 more written estimates.

This may take longer than you thought; do not rush into it. Research, resaerch research, helps.

Good Luck

Answer 2

Start with the roof, and yes, include the garage roof.

In any repairs and re-decorations, you must always start with the important-and-difficult parts. In this case, it is the roof.

If you do exterior painting. the look will not be complete anyway if the "crown" is not pleasing to the eye. The house will all the more look like it is very old- - - the contrast between the new exterior paint and the old roof will be even more dramatic.

And why include the garage roof? Do it now because you will have to do it later anyway. It will cost more on a pro rata basis if done as a single job.

Get at least 2 quotes, and understand the cost components. The cheaper quote is not necessarily the best.

Answer 3

It will be cheaper to leave the first roof on. The roof is the asphalt shingle & underlayment. It does not include the sheets of wood that the asphalt/underlayment actually sits on. A house can take two roofs, two layers of asphalt shingles. Once you have two roofs any further roofing needs would require both layers to be taken off. It is a little more effort to take two roofs off vs. one, but not so much. It makes much more financial sense to put two roofs on a house prior to removing anything (unless there are issues of course).

It would of course be cheaper to put a second asphalt shingle layer on as that means someone doesn't have to spend time removing the first layer. Whoever said it would be cheaper to remove either doesn't understand it or is trying to take you for a ride.

Base pricing is difficult because it depends on so many things. Hip roof? Gable roof? How many peaks? How many window areas jutting out from the roof? How many transitions? How big of an area?

If they look at you like 'oh, the garage too', I would take that as they probably figured in the garage and caught you on a 'oh, wait, no, I didn't think about that'...a means for more $'s. A good roofer would ask the entire area before putting an estimate together not this back & forth stuff. I would say get the garage at the same time. You don't have to if the wear over the garage is less than the rest of the house. Typically that is not the case but could be depending on the amount of trees, debris, walking on the roof to put up xmas lights, etc.

But it looks stupid to have the house with a new colored roof and the garage in a different one. Get them both replaced and you can always think of them as one unit, plan for them both to need another replacement at the same time, instead of willy/nilly oh crap the garage never got updated and now I have leaks and fun things.

Oh also you don't need new gutters for a new roof. You can just replace/or put a new layer of asphalt shingles. This won't affect the gutters. Of course if you have problems with your gutters thats a different story.

Definitely get more than one bid on any job.

Answer 4

Shop around and get more bids, these bids sound really high to me and I'm builder and do this type of work everyday. Fix the roof first and leave the old roof on and shingle over it. The old roof under the new will help support the new roofing, it will need to be removed the next time you roof your house in about 20 yrs. from now, unless you are putting on shingles with a longer life(30 yr )

Answer 5

wow, we just had our roof replaced with a 30 year high defenition shingle (a complete new roof) for $3500. We have a 2200 sq ft home. All of the companies we interviewed were within about $400 of each other and gave me a quote in writing that day. We are also painting our house- ourselves. It is taking us a good while (with all this Texas rain we have had) but it is only costing @ $150 in paint and materials. I would suggest you paint it. If your home is two story- you pay for the materials, paint the entire lower level, doors, window trim...and hire out the second story, they have the tall ladders and extension poles... best wishes