Today's topic is new roofing material. This is NOT A RANT, it's a good story.
I'm getting a new roof on my 26-year-old house, as I write this morning. When my house was built, in 1993, the home owners association's (HOA) architect required that all houses have cedar shake roofs. The fine print in the HOA rules said other 'natural' products such as slate was also permitted, but I never saw any house with a slate roof in the neighborhood. Cedar shake roofs are expensive – they look nice when they're new, but they quickly turn dark with exposure to sun and humidity – so they soon become nothing special looking. In my opinion, cedar shakes look kind of ratty unless they're less than a year old.
If I understand correctly, cedar roofs are more common in the dry climate of the southwest US. Even though they easily burn, they stand up well to the dry climate, lasting as long as 30-35 years. In the east (I'm in the central Atlantic coast, Maryland) cedar shake roofs don't do well. The high humidity allows mildew, fungus, and even moss to grow. My roof required a new coat of 'cedar oil' after cleaning (much like stripping a wooden deck) after about 15 years. It was expensive. In more recent years, my roof needed yearly repair, replacing aged or broken shakes. Again, it was expensive. And, of course, new cedar from Canada has become a lot more expensive lately. After 26 years, it became clear that I needed to do something major about my roof. So replacing it with new cedar was not high on my list.
Other people in my neighborhood had the same thoughts as me about avoiding cedar roofs. They fought the early battles with the HOA, and won approval for several new synthetic roof materials. I'm glad for their efforts. Personally, I see nothing wrong with asphalt shingles. They can look fine & last a long time – they plain work. Besides, who really stares at roofs for long? But I never really believed such a simple solution would be 'permitted' by certain misguided people in my HOA. I found there are good synthetic cedar shakes and synthetic slate shingles available, and that these were now approved by the HOA. (Synthetic is an environmentally correct term that avoids saying 'plastic', ahem, recycled plastic/rubber.) So, last November, I decided to go with
synthetic slate made by a company called EcoStar. Up close, it doesn't look like real slate, but at a distance, on top of your house, it looks pretty good. It's much lighter in weight, and doesn't cost anything close to a real slate roof. And, I strongly doubt if my roof could hold that kind of weight.
So, I signed a contract with a local roofer, and paid 1/3rd down ($10,000
) with the rest due when the job was finished. The roofing contractor ordered the stuff from the EcoStar factory in Holland NY, and I waited. The stuff, EcoStar Niagara Majestic Slate Wide-Spec (60% 14" wide & 40% 12" wide) in Midnight Gray arrived on Monday, Dec 23, two days before Christmas.
As luck would have it, the weather this week is clear and nicely warm for December. No rain was forecast until this Sunday, Dec 29. The crew, 6 guys, started yesterday, Thursday Dec 26, the day after Christmas, at 7:30 am sharp. They tore off the old cedar shakes, black felt paper, down to the wooden flake board. One or two sheets needed replacing – the rest were OK
. They quickly installed something called 'winter guard' on the lower 4' of roofs, valleys & surrounding any roof penetrations such as chimney’s, skylights and vent pipes (required by code); new synthetic roofing underlayment on the rest of roof deck, installed with plastic cap staples. They finished that part of the work the first day, leaving the roof 'moisture resistant' overnight. They also cleaned up & hauled away much of the old roof debris, and put the new shingles in place, ready to hit the ground running the next day.
Today, they arrived at 7:10 am, still pretty dark on a cloudy morning in late December & got started 7:30 sharp. They're using stainless steel pneumatic roofing nails to attach the new shingles; while installing new flashing & pipe collars. When they're done, they'll put in new rain gutters, and new galvanized snow guards. We don't get much snow around here, not like before global warming, but the synthetic slate lets snow slide off much easier than cedar shakes. Snow guards are cheap and easy solution.
Right now, it's 9:24 am, and they're hard at work. It's noisy because of the generators for the pneumatic nail guns. And because these roofers are working hard. I expect the new shingles will be on the roof by today, or no later than tomorrow at mid-day. The rain gutters & snow guards will come Monday. They all speak Spanish, but they're licensed & bonded, and wear safety harnesses. Their foreman does speak English with me. Most of all, they're fully aware that the neighbors are watching, and that word-of-mouth is the best way to get new business. Even though the work isn't yet done, I'm happy so far.
Ever since I approached retirement age (I retired 3 years ago) it's been my goal to pay off the mortgage (done in 2015), replace all the windows (done in 2014), replace or fix doors (done in 2018), and finally to get my roof squared away. It's expensive, but I'm happy with the progress.
