Is this a house or a home? If you plan on living here for 5+ years, it may be in your best interest to replace minor repairs. Full replacements often carry manufacturer and contractor warranties as opposed to handyman repairs. Once we understand your long term vision our staff can put together estimates tailor to your problem and goal’s.
This is one of the most important factors when obtaining a repair or replacement. The average costs for residential roofing systems are $10,000 +, minor active maintenance repairs average $500.00, and serious repairs can be up to $3,000.00. Our staff of project managers and 35+ years can educate on best ROI.
There’s many options to pay for a roofing system: Most common one is saving/planning for the inevitable. Other ways are: Home Refinance loan (borrowing equity from your property), Family/Friend Lending, and filing an insurance claim if covered items damaged your roof such as wind/hail/tornado. Upon reviewing your property and aligning goals we can review the best payment options.
A common thought from homeowner’s when replacing a roofing. However, this depends largely on your goals and available budget. A Metal Roofing System can cost 2.5x the cost of an asphalt roofing system. So if this is your forever home and you have hired a competent, well-established contractor a Metal Roofing system can be worth it.
A standard Asphalt roofing system lasts on average 17 to 19 years old in the Midwest. The average is below the standard 25-year product warranties, because most homeowners neglect ongoing maintenance such as: gutter cleaning, resealing shingles, chimney inspection, reviewing caulk, and clearing above roof branches/debris.
Metal roofing panels are the more superior product when it comes to their weather fighting and longevity capabilities, and the old roofing metal system can get recycled at scrap yards. Many homeowners don’t know this but asphalt roofing shingles are also recycled by the local landfill. Currently, the byproduct of old shingles will get repurposed into roadway asphalt, asphalt based products, and currently in-process of being re-engineered into “recycled” asphalt shingles by roofing manufacturer’s such as GAF. At the end of the day the best environmental roofing system is the one that lasts its intended lifespan with minimal waste, both of which rely on a competent roofing installer.
The best time to install new roofing system in the Midwest specific to Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan is: Memorial Day to Thanksgiving. The manufacturers prefer 40 degrees and rising as part of their manufacturer specifications. If your property is having issues outside of our recommended zone, temporary repairs such as tarpping and ensuring a watertight situation can be achieved until the weather open’s up.
It is best practice to install a new gutter system when getting a new roofing system. It’s advised by roofing manufacturers to install new gutter apron directly on the deck and during this process the gutters may need to come off to do it correctly. Also, selecting gutters at the same time will save you 20 to 30% because installers are on site and building product cost has only increased. Items to think about: Do you want a different company walking on your new roofing system 2 to 5 years later voiding a warranty or damaging your new purchase?
Skylights are amazing products. They bring natural light into your home and look stellar. We install over 100 skylights a year! However, it is best practice to budget for new skylights with your new roofing system. Why? The cost to replace a skylight in the future after installing a new roofing system often costs 2.5x the cost and it may void the roofing manufacturer’s warranty.
This is a great question but is a case by case response. From the start we advise hiring a state licensed installer, but more importantly a locally licensed roofing contractor. Total Roofing and Construction is licensed in over 100 different communities and registered in 3+ states. Our project managers often get referred to new communities and to be in good withstanding, we will apply and do the same for your project. Various local town building departments do require additional measures in a roofing project such as: active roofing inspections, ensuring specific building products, and possible wood decking inspections. Our in-house staff will review the local guidelines and ensure we are abiding by local policy.
In most cases, we will apply and obtain the building permit on the behalf of our homeowner. However, if we are acting as the subcontractor for you (You are the general contractor), then often they’ll obtain the permit. Building permits are case by case per the community requirements and/or building departments requirements. It is common for a building permit to take on average 7 to 10 business days from the time of applying to being awarded the permit.
In standard circumstances, once the permit is received by Total Roofing and Construction Services, Inc. our office will notify your project manager. He will confirm with the production manager that the building materials are available, the permit is ready, and the job’s ready for takeoff. The standard lead time is 2 to 3 weeks* (weather pending). Keep in mind your project is largely contingent on Mother Nature ensuring the jobs get completed in orderly fashioned and more importantly a quality manner.
Our project manager will provide you a Total Roofing and Construction Start letter upon signing up for your roofing project. This letter will highlight your active role before and during the roofing project. Many of these items can be completed days in advance such as relocating yard décor, moving breakable items, or moving patio furniture. The big ones we like to ensure are the following: park on the street (outside of your garage- in case you need to leave), have a cleared driveway (often dumpster location) – move your vehicles the night before, let your pet’s out early/planned alternatives (jobsite can get messy, and any other ones the project manager will review with you.
We understand the recent pivot due the pandemic of the everyday homeowner working from home or possibly E-learning. If you are someone that works remotely, relies on satellite internet, or is on the phone most of the day, it may be best to visit Grandma or a local coffee shop. We apologize for the minor disruption, but we don’t want you to be disrupted any more than you need too. Also, our start letters will highlight safety tips if you opt to stay home, but due to the messiness and clutter of a removal we advise children to stay inside.
The standard time our craftsmen arrive on site is between 7 am to 8 am. Their arrival largely depends on a few factors such as traffic incidents, morning safety meetings, and possibly loading up material at the supply house/office. Our project manager will be readily available if you have any questions the day of installation. The typical end of the day is 5 pm to 6 pm. Keep in mind our goal is to cover what we take off in a day. If you have a larger home and multiple day builds then we will only tear-off what we can install that day.
Absolutely not. The only time our foreman or project manager should be inside is if there was prior agreement or service you required or an issue arises such as – someone stepped on drywall during installing new plywood. Our goal is to minimally be invasive in your day-to-day, because we already know this is a stressful experience between dumpsters, moving vehicles, minor debris in yards, compressors, generators, and dogs. If you notice an issue on the inside – take a photo and text/contact the project manager and he can review it with you.
Our staff is trained and experienced to only tear-off and install what we can cover that same day. This safe practice minimizes further damage and ensures a peace of mind for the homeowner. Everyone from the project managers, foreman, and production manager actively monitor the radar’s/ Doppler’s daily. If the weather show’s overcast and no rain, we may open a small section or do minor details on the project. However, if it shows a high percentage of rain or early-on rain such as 7am to 1 pm, we will push the work to the following day.
This is an excellent question, but varies on the difficulty and size of the project. If your home has serious wood sheathing damage (Plywood) then you can expect to add another 1 to 2 day’s for the installation. However, the standard residential roofing system lasts 2 days to 3 days. There’s many factors that come into play with pitch, number of layers, severity of issues, labor intensive areas, and most importantly the weather.
The most common change order with a residential roofing project is “re-decking” a roofing. Re-decking is installing new plywood or wood base on the rafters, which support your new roofing system. For instance, if your house is not up to code and has “spaced decking” or project manager will often notify you during the inspection phase. If you are dealing with an insurance claim, then these items may be covered by your policy. The project managers at Total Roofing and Construction will do their best with their initial inspections, but will be in constant contact with any change orders or issues.
If you have an older home and/or drywall ceilings you may notice slight cracks/nail pops. This may only occur in some rooms or none at all. Many of these are more noticeable in homes built pre-1990, but may occur in all homes. Keep in mind removing roofing products and materials can sometimes unearth poorly installed drywall and or taping. This is not interior damage from the roofers and often unavoidable due to the build of your house and the standard settling of your foundation. A handyman or painter would be able to fix/solve these minor nuisances that may occur.
Our staff requests a cleared driveway for staging of materials, protection of your vehicles, but most importantly a designated area for the dumpster. This designation help’s us minimize 1,000’s of old and new roofing nails throughout the yard. The production team and project managers will magnet roll the property throughout the day and at the end of the job. In addition, our project managers review the property the next day. Roofing is extremely messy and as good as we are at roofing, there may be a few nails by rocks or so. If you have children or pets, do wait a day or so post roofing to be running around, but be diligent and perform a 30-minute landscaping review/lite clean-up if possible.
Homeowners often ask to use the onsite dumpster and we advocate if you have a few items in your home to remove/spring clean – feel free to do so with a siding project, because we know it’s not everyday a 20 yard dumpster is onsite. The reason we don’t advise it with a roofing installation, is because the dump yard recycles the old wood and asphalt shingles! If you have asphalt based debris or old wood feel free to toss it inside.
The benefit of selecting Total Roofing is our mission to deliver the best roofing system installation and ensuring checks/balances for our employees. The crew foreman, Total Roofing’s superintendent, and your project manager performs a number of pre, during, and post inspections. In addition, the town may have an inspection. So the average roofing project gets 8 to 10 system reviews during its installation. You may meet and see over 4 to 5 different TRC representatives inspecting your new roofing system.
We love referrals! Over 90 percent of our business is based on word of mouth and referrals. Our family wants to help your family and friends protect what you value most. We offer discounts and referral bonuses whether it be on your current project, because it’s often more cost effective to service multiple addresses next to each other. We also offer discount offers for returning customers for items like: Siding, Gutters, Windows, Maintenance, etc.
Similar to any purchase. If you see an issue or have a question regarding your new roofing system installation contract Total Roofing and Construction. Workmanship warranties and Manufacturer Warranties get filed and saved securely post final payment. Our service department will review the issue at hand to ensure their outlying concerns such as defects, storm related damage, and possibly a workmanship issue.
