As some of you already know, thanks to the Facebook fiend that my hubby is the new roof did go on this past week. Now that we no longer are hearing the
BANG, BANG, POUND POUND, BANG, POUND things may get back on track around here. OR NOT.
As a Realtor, I know a lot about roofing. Not necessarily a fun or interesting subject, I know. Pretty dull, as a matter of fact. However, in the event of a hail storm that destroys thousands of homes in one ginormous swath it turns out to be helpful to know a bit about roofs.
My current frustrations with the having to put a new roof on my house is two fold.
1. Fourteen years ago, the HOA of this neighborhood mandated that the roof HAD to be wood shake.
Then a few years later, after 1000's of subdivisions around Johnson County, Kansas had 10s of thousands of homes with wood shake roofs, the insurance industry said they wouldn't insure the roofs or if they did it would cost you up the wazoo. Warning, Warning, Fire Hazzard!!!!
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| Remember the house four doors down from a previous post? Wood shakes really make good tinder. |
So, THEN we all got hit with huge surcharges and higher deductibles on our roofs. In fact, the deductibles in some cases would pretty much have you paying for your new roof if there was a ....you guessed it...a hail storm.
As our entire neighborhood had their roofs demolished in April, the wood shake roofs are disappearing one by one.
So, no longer can the neighborhoods have rules to mandate wood shakes because... tsk tsk...they aren't safe.
Now the by-laws say....
IT HAS TO BE A HIGH DEFINITION SHINGLE TO MIMIC THE LOOK OF SHAKE AND BE WARRANTED FOR 50 YEARS OR MORE.
Oh, ppuuullllleeeezzzz...you just have to be kidding about this. I live in Kansas. Why in the hell do I need a 50 year or more warranty???? This roof will be cut to shreds in the next two years by hail.
But still we picked a fiberglass shingle that "supposedly" sorta kind of resembles a wood shake roof with a lifetime warranty that will last as long as it takes for the next hail storm that throws baseball sized balls of ice onto our roof.
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| Warranted for Life....giggle, giggle, snort |
The Good for the Day...Pounding has stopped.
The Bad for the Day..Actually for the last three days, storms have been going through. What is the record for the shortest life span on a roof?
The Weird for the Day.....Kansas weather.
I was looking for a video about "roofs" when I happened to think about James Taylor's Up On the Roof. Of course, that led me to also think of his song Fire and Rain. Too bad, that song wasn't Fire, Rain and Hail.
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27 comments:
My dad had stacks of cedar shingles in the back, when he was on the road and I needed to start a fire that's where I started. Our neighborhood only has one rule, drag your garbage cans back from the street after garbage day. I love the look of your new roof, when we re-roof that's the kind we're going to use. We decided that about three years ago. Ours is a lot easier than yours, we just have a couple of double hips, oh and 6 skylights.
If you were closer I'd take all those all wood shingles off your hands. Are they cedar? If so you should keep some around. You can grill on them if they're untreated.
I *heart* Carole King & James Taylor.
Congrats on the new fiberglass shingle roof. I sincerely hope the Kansas weather doesn't destroy it too quickly.
Great fire starter for sure. (wasn't there a movie names Fire Starter?) Our neighborhood has that garbage can rule but a lot of people choose to ignore it.
Hopefully, you won't have any weather related episodes to help you decide to reroof. Total pain in the tuchy. Out of all the shingle options though, I did like this style. Some of the picks amaze me. One house about 2 blocks from here picked a periwinkle blue tile. Nothing like a purply blue to give your house a bit of pinache.
Yes, BB, they were cedar. I hadn't even thought about alternate uses for those shingles. Damn, the roofers are hauling those in semis to the dump right now. I am not kidding about ever home's roof being destroyed. Our subdivision has 125 houses and all the roofs were totaled. Other than the couple homeowners that are taking the money and not replacing the roof, there are a lot of tear downs of cedar.
I don't have much faith in weather in general as the last couple of years keep us guessing "what next?" But I will make sure to lower my roof deductible for the next go round.
I, also, am a big fan of James Taylor and Carole King. Some of the classic stuff just never gets old.
I would really love to do Spanish tile, I like the way it looks, it doesn't match my house at all but I love how they keep the house cool in summer and warm in winter. Not sure if I told you before but our whole house was mauve when we moved in all different shades but still mauve, and somehow the lady that built the house managed to find three tab with mauve in it. We can't match it and when the tree landed on our house we had to replace a portion of our roof with something that didn't match. It blends enough that if you didn't know you wouldn't know but still.
The classics NEVER get old.
I never understood the concept of the Home Owner's Association. It's why I refused to buy a condo & opted for a house instead. Until they contribute to my mortgage payments, they can keep their opinions to themselves!
Having spent 15 years in real estate I have seen my share of shingles! Glad you found a solution a little more economical and long lasting. Love Carole King and James Taylor. Who better to sing about a blasted roof and keep your attention span?
Ah, roofing. As a carpenter I've carted more than my share of shingles up a ladder and onto a roof. It's no fun. While most people simply care about the aesthetics, I look at the labor involved - tear off, haul off, installation and clean up. And it always seems like I was on a roof on the hottest day of the year - this year included when I was tarring and flashing in a couple places on a house where their cedar siding met the roof.
I do like your new roof, it seems much more practical and it looks really nice!
Home owners associations seem to be silly most of the time. They strike me as a group of people who like to complain about their neighbors or like to make everyone spend money unnecessarily. LOL
Clicks!
--Trina
Hi Cheryl
I like the new roof it looks nice :) and at least the pounding has stopped!
So many of the older homes had cedar shake roofing and then they would go over with a composite... Fire hazard for sure, they have a hard time putting the fire out out.
Since I have been in the construction business many years I have to laugh each time I hear "Home Owners Ass" oppps did I abbreviate that word...LOL
Clicks
Wolf
I, too, like Spanish tile and I like the look of slate but we have an uber traditional style house. The more subtle the shingle the better for this house, I think.
Here most subdivisions have HOAs. Its a mixed blessing. When it is being used keep the neighbor from painting his house bright royal blue and putting the KU mascot on the front of it or the ever popular bright purple with a different shade of purple trim to let everyone know you graduated from K State or the guy that decides his muscle car restoration business look OK on his front lawn, then I am all for it. I am irritated when they make me buy a lifetime warranted roof that won't last a lifetime.
Hi Annie, So nice for you to stop by.
I am fine with this as I don't believe that any roof here short of the newer cast stone or some of the glazed tiles will survive the freeze, thaw cycle or hail storms for any extended period of time. This year with every roof needing replacing the cost of all roofing materials skyrocketed. Supply and demand is the name of the game. Last year one of my listings had this same roof put on and it was $4000.00 cheaper. Still, I am not willing to pay the insurance rates and high deductible for a wood roof, ever again if I can help it.
Hope you are weathering the market if you are still in real estate. I have had my license since 1986 and this cycle has gone around a few times. I am not loving the current enviroment.
I actually was thinking about you and Wolf when I wrote this. I knew that you would know all about roofs and roofing. I don't envy anyone who has worked up on a roof in the heat. It looks absolutely unbearable to me. Not to mention the walking on the pitch of a roof. I am pretty sure that I wouldn't survive my first roofing job.
The thing about roof choices here, give it two or three years and I get to pick out another one.
I hate when HOAs get overly fussy about the can and can'ts but for the most part here they are necessary. There is always that one guy that wants to push the limits on paint color, or trash in yard, or derelict autos or some other something that doesn't make for a great neighbor.
That has been a problem in the past here as well with people laying composite over the old cedar shakes. Now insurance companies are having roof inspections done and won't insure a roof that has that scenario. They also used to lay up to 3 layers of composite and it is "hit and miss" if they can get insurance. In Dallas 2 layers of composite were pretty acceptable.
I can see that HOA could definitely stand for Home Owners Ass or at least pain in the ass. It is only bothersome though if you are seeking their approval. They are great if you are complaining about your neighbor. Depends on which side of the fence you live.
Are HOAs common there?
We had a wood roof about 20 years ago. Then do to all the fires the HOA said no more cedar.
If you happen to be able to snatch some from anywhere else, they also make great birdhouses too.
We went through the forced transition from shake to composite roofs here in Socal years ago. Interestingly, our old house here (shake roof allowed because it's original) had a fire last week which burned through the roof. For all the problems an HOA can bring, we sought one when we bought our current house because several houses near our old house became real eyes sores and without an HOA, it was very difficult to do anything. There's two sided to almost every story.
Click,
Bud
Your old house?? You mean the house you used to live in? You didn't have a fire I hope. Same situation here as far as the grandfathered shake roof. If the house was built with shakes you get to have them in most cases but between the insurance companies and HOAs they are being weeded out.
I am totally with you on the HOA. We only looked at homes with associations. I am always annoyed with their petty restrictions, you know the ones like you can't put your swing set closer than 10 ft to the fence. WHY?
But there is always that person that is going to move next to me and paint his house chartreuse. I am lucky like that.
Even with the HOA some dipwad on the next block painted his house turqouise for the base color and mauve for the trim. He let his to kids pick their favorite colors. I am sure the HOA is trying to do something but really how do you enforce it? Leins only work when he goes to sell.
Roof? Roof you say? I am twitching and blinking like Inspector Clouseau's boss.
I had a new roof put on my 80 year old Craftsman cottage 7 years ago. It began leaking six months later. The roofer was out of business by that time and, my lawyer son discovered, had declared bankruptcy. No recourse there. I have had SEVEN roofers inspect my roof and no one can find the leak, although they all have 'ideas'. I have invested thousands in fruitless 'ideas'. I have had my living room and sun room ceilings replaced THREE times in the past six years. The last time was November and it is already on the verge of falling down again, with big chunks of plaster peeling off.
I am LOSING MY MY MIND!! But your roof, parenthetically, looks lovely. :)
HOA are a PITA. I lived for a short while in a house that had an active HOA, but it was a new subdivision and they didn't have ridiculous rules like that. That was a long time ago. I've lived in my current home for 11 years and it's a very old, established neighborhood and the HOA.... well, I never hear anything about it. Give too much people control and they go crazy! One of my friends owns a home in Atlanta with an over active HOA - they want everyone to have the same mail boxes, yadda, yadda, yadda. It's so stupid and costly!!
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OMG, you have every right to be twitching. I would be twitching and BITCHING. (to whom I don't know as the roofer is defunct) What a nightmare. That seems to be fairly common here as well, with roofers going out of business after they do a batch of roofs. Quick money and no recourse for shoddy work. That is uber frustrating about the other roofers not being able to find the problem, though. I would be losing my flippin mind also. Truly, the first time the ceiling was damaged I would lose it. The third time I would need to be committed. Gosh, I feel bad for you!!! I wish you lived near me as I have a couple of general contracters that are near genius. I would love them to take a peak and tell us what their thoughts are.
That is the trick with HOA's. To find one effective enough to keep the blatant slobs from destroying the neighborhood without infringing on the rights of people to make reasonable modifications to their homes. Really, if a neighborhood wants everyone to have the same everything the neighborhood has no charm. I don't think the world would quit spinning if the mailboxes differed a bit.
I wish we lived closer, too, because it would be fun to have a cup of tea and a chat. :)
Now that there is a HURRICANE COMING (boo hoo hoo), I have yet another roofer coming to check things out. I am going to have them put a tarp over the front of the roof to at least mitigate some of the potential storm damage. I am out of work and out of money. :(
I knew by your profile that you are east coast...I gather you are in the path of the storm. I am sorry to hear that. I will be thinking positive thoughts for you to stay safe and for your house NOT to sustain damage.
Keep in touch. I am a great listener. Don't hesitate to email me direct if you just need to cuss about that faulty roof of yours. artofconflicted@aol.com
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