New roof

There were some "Fall" deals in a mailer for a Goodman a/c/heater units $3.2 - $4k installed. All my duct works looks like a recent upgrade.

I'm hoping in two years have $14k barring any unforseen problems but roof and a/c seem to be the major expenses.

olddog

Reply to
retired53
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I always thought $5K is about right for emergency repairs (replace A/C or roof), now I'm thinking closer to $7K. Without such a cushion, apartment life is a better choice.

Reply to
Phisherman

I don't have anything on the A/C, but we're in the process of getting a new roof, thanks to the remnants of hurricane IKE (in central Ohio!). The existing roof was about 20 years old, and we'd already had a few shingle tabs break off in other storms, so we knew it was going to be needed soon. We were planning on next spring, but at least now the insurance is picking up most of it. We got a couple of quotes, one from a big roofing company, the other from a small, locally based shop that we've heard good recommendations about. They've been around about 30 years, so it's not some fly by night company.

We have a two story, about 1,900 sq ft. of shingles. We're looking for a full tear off of the old shingles (single layer), and install ridge and soffit vents (the house currently has two undersized gable vents).

The lowest quote was one from the big roofing. They quoted about $5,500 using their own brand of shingles. However, that didn't include any soffit vents. The guy that came out said that our soffit was too narrow for for the saws to install the vents, and that they weren't that important anyway, as long as you had a ridge vent. He said they can install something on the top of the deck (I think it was called SureVent), but would be about $800. Also, he seemed pushy, several time during the estimate, he kept asking me if we would go ahead and sign now. I told him we weren't ready yet, and he said no problem, but a little bit later he'd ask "are you sure you don't want to go ahead and schedule the job?" Got kind of old real fast..

The local shop came it at about $6,000. They using Owens Corning 30 year shingles, with WeatherLock underlayment around the edges. it also included

22 soffit vents. After the comments about the small soffit size from the other vendor, I call these guys back and asked about the soffit vents. He said it was a narrow area, but they would use a jig saw or sawzall if a circular saw wouldn't fit.

We've signed up with the second company. Another point in their favor (at least for us), was that of the four companies I called on Sunday evening (when the storm hit), they were the only one who called back on Monday, and were out Monday afternoon to install tarps over the bare roof areas. A few days later when the insurance adjuster came out he commented on how good of a job they did.

Mike O.

Reply to
Mike O.

I think you made a good choice.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I'd say you made a good decision. Responded to calls, didn't do a high pressure sales pitch, uses name-brand products with an actual manufacturer warranty, and was willing to work around the as-built characteristics of the place. They likely would have had me at the emergency tarping service- damage control is often given short shrift in the home repair world.

My other house is down in Lake Charles, LA. After that little storm a couple of years ago, the town was rampant with fly-by-night roofers. and I would have liked to have owned a warehouse of those blue tarps. I was lucky, having just had a quality roof applied a few years before, fastened down per storm-country specs. No apparent damage at all.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

Yeah, I was very pleased with the service for the tarp. I had left a message on Sunday evening saying we had roof damage and needed to get it looked at and an estimate for a new roof. When they called Monday, they said they could do the emergency repair, but weren't even scheduling estimates for new roof jobs at that time and would get with us a few days later. I really liked the fact that they were up front about the delay for the estimate, were wanting to try to get through the emergency calls for everyone before taking the time for estimates, and didn't try to rush through an estimate with some halfway guess.

When they came by, they said because of the demand for tarps, they were having to buy the heavier ones from Home Depot and Lowes, so we ended up with some of the heavy 10 mil silver/gray ones, not the thin blue ones a lot of people were using. When the insurance adjuster came by later, he said those tarps were like duct tape. I figure when we get the roof done, I'm going to hang on to tarps in case I ever need them for anything else..

The soffit vent comments from the one company, that they weren't really necessary, really concerned me. Like I said, we'd been planning on getting a new roof soon anyway, so I'd been doing my research, and everything I found said that the venting with ridge vents COMBINED with soffit vents was the recommended way to go.

I feel pretty confident we made the right choice. We'll know for sure in a few weeks...

Mike O.

Reply to
Mike O.

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