Category: Roofing

At the beginning of July, with the help of friends and family, I replaced the roof on my house. It was hard work, with a lot of planning, and we needed all that help to get it done as quickly as we did. I’m really glad I did it myself, and would make the same decision to do it again in a heartbeat. I was fortunate to receive an insurance claim for hail damage that covered the costs (and then some). Here’s how it all went down.

Part 1 was about the knowing and the planning and part 2 was about materials.  This post will talk about the tools and other miscellaneous things needed for replacing your asphalt shingle roof.  I got many of these tools from Menard’s or Amazon.  I’ll leave some links to the exact item I used (or a very close substitute).

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At the beginning of July, with the help of friends and family, I replaced the roof on my house. It was hard work, with a lot of planning, and we needed all that help to get it done as quickly as we did. I’m really glad I did it myself, and would make the same decision to do it again in a heartbeat. I was fortunate to receive an insurance claim for hail damage that covered the costs (and then some). Here’s how it all went down.

Part 1 was about the knowing and the planning, this part is about materials.

Materials

There are a lot of roofing brands out there, and most of them are comparable.  Since I was doing it myself, I wanted the best shingles I could afford.  This meant standard asphalt shingles.  When doing my research, I used a combination of YouTube reviews, Reddit posts, and some ratings websites to help figure out the best option.  That research pointed me toward rubber polymer based impact resistant (Class 4) shingles.  These rubber polymer shingles resist hail impact, are more flexible, and tend to be more durable than standard shingles.

The other thing I was looking at was warranty. Most companies don’t give great warranties unless it is installed by a contractor who has a certification/partnership with the manufacturer.  This makes it hard for a homeowner to get much more than a 10 year warranty.

Finally, cost was a small factor, but it ended up not mattering in the end, due to the amount of insurance money I got from my hail claim.  After considering my options, I wanted the best shingles I could buy and the best warranty.  Cost would only be a tie breaker, but the choice was pretty clear in the end. Continue reading

At the beginning of July, with the help of friends and family, I replaced the roof on my house.  It was hard work, with a lot of planning, and we needed all that help to get it done as quickly as we did.  I’m really glad I did it myself, and would make the same decision to do it again in a heartbeat.  I was fortunate to receive an insurance claim for hail damage that covered the costs (and then some).  Here’s how it all went down.

The planning

There are a few major things that go into planning a project like this: timing, knowledge, materials, tools.  In this post I’ll talk about the timing and knowledge aspects.

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