Many builders have difficulties when they decide which roofing material to choose. Usually, we build a house once in our life, so we do not have enough experience and knowledge about roofing materials, their types, and features, and we can often make a mistake about which one to choose. And every developer has to solve this problem himself. In fact, there are many roofing materials, and they have different quality and prices.
Every builder is interested in longevity, reliability, safeness (this includes environmental friendliness, non-flammability), plainness, manufacturability of installation (the cost of roofing works depends on the level of complexity), and aesthetics of the future roof.
For the main material, you need to purchase components, accessories, and roofing elements. These are insulation, roofing, self-tapping screws for metal or wood, sealants, fans, and skylights. The quality of the roof of the house, as well as its service life, will definitely depend on the quality of these elements. Each type of roofing material is installed using its own set of components. Sometimes the cost of the materials needed for installation can be higher than the cost of the coating itself. Therefore, the choice of components is important and requires a competent approach and knowledge about types of roofs.
How do people usually choose roofing materials?
How to approach the selection of roofing materials? A few tips from Sacramento general contractor of metal tiles that will be useful when choosing any roofing material.
Method 1
Trust the seller in the store. The best option is if you can find an honest and professional seller who will advise and help you with the right choice, regardless of the cost of the roof you want to choose. Then you will receive advice on selection, properties, quality of products, and warranty. But if you come across an unprofessional seller, you can buy a low-quality roof and elements for its installation, and you will find out about it only later.
Method 2
Do as the builder advises you. Depending on their experience, roofers understand the quality of roofing material profiling quite well (adherence to the geometric dimensions of roofing sheets), because this parameter is important for them. But not all roofers will take into account other important parameters of materials because they do not affect the work they directly perform.
But these parameters are important because the service life of your roof depends on them. These are the class of galvanization, warranty conditions, quality of the packaging of roofing material, and quality of components. There are also builders who do not know the rules for installing a roof at all and make mistakes during installation that can lead to higher costs. Before trusting the advice of the builder you turn to, check his professionalism and competence, and see his certificates of training in installation techniques.
Method 3
Read the recommendations and search for reviews of these materials online. This must be done. Most of all, you should pay attention to the characteristics of the materials, their purpose, and whether this material can be used specifically for your roof design.
Advice on choosing a roof
Study of available information
Find information about the types of roofing materials, and then make a choice. Roofing materials can be divided into metal, ceramic, natural stone, bitumen, and asbestos. How to decide which material to choose?
The prices of roofing materials alone will not give you a complete picture of the cost of the roof. Compare the cost of a complete roof. For example, to the price of bituminous tiles, you need to add the cost of the OSB board, as well as the lining material. For metal tiles, at least 8-10% of the roof area should be considered as an overlap. For slate, you need to put at least 20% on the battle, for natural ceramic tiles – at least 7%.
Calculate the full cost of the roof
The cost of roofing accessories and roofing elements can account for up to 50 percent or even more of the total cost of roofing materials. Therefore, do not ask the seller for a price per 1 m2 of roofing. Ask for a price for the entire roof kit with all accessories. Only this price will be correct. This approach will avoid the situation when the seller gives a low price for the roofing material but sells the components at a very high price.
It is best to compare the price of a complete set of materials for your roof, paying attention to the compatibility of specifications from different sellers. When comparing different offers, you often notice that they have accessories and roof elements of different quality and prices.
Conclusion
Don’t skimp on accessories, roofing elements, and installation quality. The service life of the roof depends on one and the other. Remember how many roofs with frayed edges of cheap film you saw if you carefully looked at other people’s roofs. Roofing is not the entire roofing system, but the aesthetics and durability of the entire house directly depend on it. Approach the choice of roofing material seriously – after all, you and your family live under this roof!
Author: Michael Dorsey is a professional writer, editor, and siding expert. He loves writing about home improvement. Thanks to his working experience as a siding installer, his passion is to blog about all things home improvement.