A Complete Guide to Roof Renovation

Mary Youlden
Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted Thursday, May 23, 2019 - 4:27pm

Roof renovation is one of the most important tasks when it comes to your ability to take care of your home. This is important regardless if it’s just a rental property, an investment property or a family home. Of course, this can end up being a hefty investment, yet, the truth is that the value that you get is more than worth the initial investment. For all of this to work, however, you need to have a sound plan, so here’s a brief guide to roof renovation that you should closely examine before embarking on such a project yourself.

1. A plan

The first thing you need to understand is the reason behind a roof remodel, due to the fact that it might affect that way in which you proceed. First of all, it’s necessary in order to increase the energy efficiency of your home, especially if you plan to install solar shingles or panels, later on. Even if not, about 30 percent of your home’s heat is leaving through the roof, which means that renovating it might drastically improve things. Other than this, having a new roof increases the resale value of the place, which is another plus.

2. An inspection

The next step that you need to consider is an inspection of the roof, in order to see if there’s any structural damage or if it’s just the shingles that are in need of a replacement. Needless to say, this will also affect the overall price of the remodeling process, as well as its duration. Still, in a scenario where you want to install some additional features on the roof (like the above-mentioned solar panels), you need to make sure that the roof structure is able to carry this extra weight.

3. Preparation

Once all of this is said and done, you need to start preparing the area. First of all, the inside of the roof needs to be cleaned, which means doing some work on the attic. Second, you need to ensure that the surrounding structures and landscaping are well-protected, in order not to be damaged once the debris starts falling from the roof. Then, there’s the issue of adequate lift, regardless if it’s a boom lift or reliable scaffolding services reliable scaffolding services. Either way, safety needs to be paramount.

4. The choice of shingles

There are several ways you can choose the new shingles for your roof and several criteria that you can abide by. The choice of shingle shape, size and color is the most obvious one, due to the fact that it will affect the visuals of the structure in the end. Other than this, you can choose shingles by their physical properties like wear-and-tear resistance, durability, insulation value, various resistances and so on. Lastly, you can pick shingles according to their price and your budget. While being cheap on a project that you repeat every 20 years may not sound smart, sometimes you simply won’t be able to afford to opt for quality at any cost.

5. Ventilation

Every roof needs proper ventilation in order for its structure to remain healthy, as well as for it to be wind resistant. You see, your roof doesn’t have to show optimal resistance to the incoming wind, sometimes it’s much easier to just let it blow through the roof (in a controlled manner). Needless to say, this won’t affect the quality of lifestyle within the home, yet, it may make the roof much more resilient. Other than this, proper ventilation will also reduce the chance of a mildew, which is yet another huge plus.

6. Annual costs

Lastly, one of the biggest problems that a lot of people have with the project such as roof remodel is the cost of it all. However, this is due to the fact that you’re looking at it from a wrong perspective. Look at it this way, your roof should get replaced every 15 to 25 years. This means that if you spread the costs over this period of time, you’ll be able to see how much this costs you on a monthly or yearly basis. In other words, the overall cost is nowhere near as scary.

Conclusion

By knowing all of this, you’ll be one step closer to successfully renovating your roof and getting a great ROI while doing so. Before this can happen, however, you need to define success by figuring out what success is in your particular case. Either way, by knowing what you want, you can easily learn how you can get it, even more importantly, you can learn how you can get it while staying on a budget, which is far more important.

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