Roofers (a rant).

Two years ago, after a decent hail storm, our neighborhood was CRAWLING with roofing companies. If they weren't knocking on our door, they were leaving damn leaflets and brochures all over the porch. I caught the brochure-stuffing door knocker on the second day, pointed out my "No Trespassing" sign, and politely asked him to no longer bother us. He was a twenty-something kid that mumbled something, but left.

On the third day, I came home to another brochure on my door. I walked down the block until I found the kid, whipped out my cell phone and started recording video. "If I find one more goddamn brochure on my door, I WILL hunt down the owner of your company and dump every brochure in this neighborhood on his doorstep, and I will call the sheriff on you. Now I have video evidence to telling you to stay off my property. Do. You. Understand."

I never received another brochure from that company. Alas, four more stepped up to take their place. Roofing companies must be a front for Hydra.

I can’t recall the name of the roofing company but they were a pretty big concern out of CO Springs. We hired them to replace our roof down in Trinidad just prior to selling our place and moving out of Colorado. Instead of being on hand to start the job at 8 AM, they allegedly got lost and didn’t get to our place until 3PM. Told them they should forget starting that late and come back following day. No, they had to do it that day! Only one guy could speak english and they finished the job that night in the dark using FLASHLIGHTS. Also, the wrenches the needed to remove hardware attached to the roof, they didn’t bring along so I had to loan them some of my own tools. Of course, they “forgot” the tools were mine and did bring them back a few days later. The application of shingles was actually passable but reapplying the dish and other hardware was as if some kid in the first grade did that job. Wish I could recall the name of the C.S. roofing company. [blaster]

Why do people keep putting up shingles? Why put up heat soaking colors instead of a reflective color and materiel?
BTW Shelter Insurance has been excellent to work with.

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Originally Posted by earplug

Why do people keep putting up shingles? Why put up heat soaking colors instead of a reflective color and materiel?
BTW Shelter Insurance has been excellent to work with.

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I once heard a roofer say that they tested the temp difference between their darkest shingle, and their lightest shingle and the difference was only 3 degrees. I have no way of confirming that though.

There are lots of reasons to use shingles though.
- They are cheap and easy to install.
- No roof is so tough that hail can't damage it, so paying for a more expensive material just means that you're paying more to have a more expensive roof damaged down the road.
- Metal and tile roofs are considerably more durable than shingles, but they are much more prone to leaks on any but the most simple of roofs. The more cut up the roof is, the more potential you'll have a leak from overwhelmed flashing at transitions.
- Metal and tile last so long that the felt under tile and the gaskets under the metal mounting screws likely wear out long before the roof, and since people don't pay any attention to their roof, that becomes a leak potential that can be a nightmare to locate and/or fix.
- Many companies have cosmetic damage endorsements for metal roofs where they only change the roof if there is damage beyond cosmetic, so you can have your nice metal roof all dented up, and no coverage.
- If your house wasn't originally built with tiles, it may not be structurally sound enough to support the increased weight.

Just some reasons that come to mind. Shingles have their place, and not every situation warrants having a more durable roof.

Our roof is a hip roof (so it slopes down all 4 sides). We looked into a metal roof a few years ago when we replaced it, but it would be ridiculously expensive as there would be a ton of waste. If he'd have gone with metal, our home owner's insurance would have gone up due to the increased cost of replacement.

Considering the fact that the shingle roof we replaced had been up there for more than 25 years and we were only replacing it because we had a branch fall on it and damage the subroof, I think shingles are probably just fine.

We have neighbors that have T-Lock shingles that have lasted 30-40 years and they're only replacing them because they look dated (apparently the T-locks are so good that the companies that made them went out of business because nobody needed replacement roofs)

I think that T-locks went under because they didn't adhere to each other and had very low wind ratings. I think they didn't pass minimum wind ratings for local code. I feel the same way that T-locks are some of the best shingles around. It's subjective though because just like older 3-tabs, and organic 3-tabs, the only ones left around today were the best ever made, so it seems like they all must have been great, when it's more likely that the majority weren't as good and are long since replaced. Every organic shingle I've ever seen in Colorado looks like complete garbage and it decomposing right on the roof. But swing over to Nebraska or Kansas and they still have a bunch of organic 3-tabs that look like they are no more than 5 years old.

Did the agent tell you that it would be more to insure a metal roof? Generally you get a discount on your policy when you have a more hail resistant roof. A simple hip roof isn't that much waste, in fact where an insurance company would write for 15% waste on a hip roof, it might only be 5-10% on a metal hip roof.