Roofing Help – Q&A – episode 1

My advise is to replace ONLY the damaged section of the roof – 400sq. ft. When you do replace it, try to match the shingles color and style as close as possible. It’s not difficult to match as most roof shingles across all manufacturers are “interchangeable” meaning the have very similar colors and dimensions.

I don’t recommend replacing the entire roof, because most homebuyers pay very little attention to the roof, as long as it does not leak. And roofing has some of the lowest ROI when you consider selling a home. So you will just waste your money and “gift” it to new owner. These are not just my words – I spoke about this topic with many successful real estate brokers and they all have the same opinion. Even if you install a metal roof, the ROI is not there.

Home buyers care about curb appeal and what’s inside – kitchen, bathroom, etc. If you will be selling your house, in my opinion it’s much wiser to invest in some Home Staging and just clean things up. Don’t waste money on new roof, if you don’t need it.

If you want to know how much a new roof on your garage will cost – my estimate is around $1500, and the whole roof is about $5500. You can use our calculator to get a more accurate number for your area. Basically, you are out of $4000 if you replace the whole roof.

If you need to find local roofers, try our free roof estimates page.

So first, in my opinion Metal is ALWAYS better than asphalt, but there are nuances.

1) A carport roof I assume is low slope – so in this situation you are better of doing a flat roofing membrane, such as PVC roof or Rubber EPDM.

2) On the main house, you can do Metal Shingles, Standing Seam or some type of exposed fastener system, such as R-Panel, V5 crimp, etc. Exposed fastener systems now are on par with asphalt shingles cost-wise.

I would not recommend stone-coated metal roof for many reasons.

Out of the 3 above, Architectural Standing seam is the most expensive, and exposed faster (R-Panel) system is the least expensive, with metal shingles being somewhere in the middle. For more details on how much these cost, see our metal roofing costs guide. Note that some exposed fastener systems are being sold as Standing seam, so it’s important to understand – real standing seam has not screw penetrations and all screws are hidden.

In your case, $14-20K quotes seem a bit low, so most likely you got prices for Exposed Fastener panels.

As for choosing what’s better for your home – I really like metal shingles. My second choice is standing seam. If your roof is VERY simple (no dormers/valleys/skylights) then you can go with R-Panels or 5 rib panels. They are ALL a good choice. So you should decide on looks, and cost. And I would not install asphalt shingles unless I absolutely had to (money constrains that is).

Two more things you need to know:

1) It is REALLY important to hire a metal roofing contractor with experience and good business ethics – these usually charge a little more. However don’t hire a big name company, because they ALL use sub-contractors, so you are paying premium price for lower quality. Hire an established smaller company, that is owner operated, and does not use subs.

I’m agains subs because they get paid by Square Footage, so the faster they work, the more they make. Thus you get lower quality.

2) R-Panels are not designed for complex / cut-up roofs. The problem is with flashing and panel structure. Also, you will need to Re-Tighten fasteners on any exposed screws system every 7-10 years, so look forward to maintenance costs if you chose this option.

If your roof is cut-up , best metal roof for you is Metal Shingles (steel or aluminum).

So this question can get me into troubles with above mentioned companies, but still… There have been multiple Class Action lawsuits against GAF for their shingles failing prematurely (as early as after 1 year), and according to court documents, they kept on making these defective shingles for almost 10 years, while the Class was active. In the end, Class was settled behind close doors, and no information was disclosed. This was not the only Class Action against them.

Here is the summary of Class Action agains GAF for it’s Timberline Shingles. Unfortunately, the media does not cover these things, so it was very hard to dig up info on this.

So knowing this I can’t recommend GAF shingles. At the same time, I don’t know of any Class Actions against CertainTeed, but they might (and probably do) exist. So my answer – go with a metal roof if you can – an Exposed Fastener R-Panel costs the same as asphalt shingles, and will last much longer, and are cheaper to install than shingles.