There are many important aspects to consider when you decide to book a roofing repair or replacement for your home. Each of these aspects are important to read and remember when preparing your home for this project.
Timing
From the day you sign your agreement and we receive your down payment to the completion of your job, the timing it all gets done can vary. Please keep in mind that there are many factors that come into play such as weather, production schedule volume, material availability, supplier deliveries and waste disposal schedule.
Driveway
You may lose the use of all or part of your driveway during the project. Dumpsters and dump-trailers take up space. The average dumpster that we use is 22 ft. x 8 ft. x 4 ft. This will take up one lane of a two-lane driveway. We recommend not driving on the driveway during roofing. If you plan on using the driveway near the dumpster, we caution you to check for nails. During construction, nails can fall, bounce, and roll around. We typically clean up at the end of the workday, but during the day while the crew is working nails can and will be found in the driveway.
Noise and Pets
If you have pets that get spooked by loud noises, please make any accommodations that you feel are appropriate. If your dog barks when someone knocks on the door, imagine them doing this all day! Please make your family aware that this process will have saws running, hammers pounding and large trucks coming and going. Please secure your pets during the roofing process and check all fencing and gates before you let your pets out of the house, even at the end of the day. Sometimes fences and gates have quirks and even though a gate may look closed, our crew may inadvertently not secured your gate properly.
Mess
Please keep in mind that during the workday roofing can be a messy process. While we do try to throw the roofing debris directly off the roof into the dumpster, this is not always possible. Sometimes materials will end up on your lawn or landscaping. We will use tarps and sometimes plywood to help alleviate any mess. We will do what we can to keep the mess to a minimum and protect your property.
Nails
The average roof has thousands of nails in it. When we remove the old roof, there are a lot of nails to try to get into the dumpster. Stray nails can end up anywhere. A common place is in the S-bends of your gutters. During the cleanup process we clean out your gutters, however, we may not be able to get to some of these nails. After the first big rain, these nails will wash down, and you may notice a few nails at the ends of your downspouts. If applicable and possible, right before the project begins, it is a good idea to cut your lawn a bit shorter. This will make our magnets more effective when we run them across your lawn. When the dumpster is removed, the truck will tip the dumpster at a high angle. Sometimes during this process nails will roll out of the dumpster. We recommend you look over your driveway for nails before you drive on the area where the dumpster was sitting. While we try our best to pick up all nails, it is not uncommon to find a handful or so of nails when we are done.
Give the Crew Room to Work
Please remove any vehicles, grills, tables, chairs, lawn ornaments, bird baths and feeders, landscaping lights (if possible) or anything that may get damaged from the work zone. We do not want anything to get damaged and this allows our crew to work faster. Also, for everyone’s safety, we would not like anyone other than our crews to be up on the roof during the roofing process.
New Roof Appearance
Your new roof may look wavy, if it does, do not panic! The reason that asphalt shingles feature an adhesive strip that softens during warm weather, especially when the sun’s rays hit the roof directly. When the shingles heat up, they become flexible and the adhesive bonds the shingles in place. Before new shingles seal down, they can look a little lumpy and uneven, but once the roof gets hot enough, they will soften, flatten and form a permanent seal. Sometimes north-facing roof slopes take a bit longer because they don’t heat up sufficiently for the shingles to seal until summer.
Access to Electricity
We use various tools that need electricity to work. Please inform our office or crew the best place to access an outlet.
Stones
Re-roofing generates a lot of little stones. You will see these small granules washing down in your gutters for a while after your installation. These are not from your new roof, but debris from removing the old roof.
Ridge Vent
The ridge vents that we use comes in a roll of 30 feet. The normal shape of the ridge vent is in the shape of a coil. As with the shingles, it will take a few warm summer days to make it lay flat.
Material Storage
During the roofing process, we will need to store roofing materials on your roof, in your driveway and/or possible on the yard. If you have an area that you do not want materials placed, please call the office and let us know.
Extra Materials
We intentionally order more materials than we need to do the job! We do this to ensure the crew does not run out of supplies right at the end of the job. Without extra materials, it causes the job to take longer due to extra trips to the supplier for more materials. When the job is complete you will notice materials left over. You are and have not been charged for these extra materials. We order these knowing that we can return them at the end of the job.
Disclaimer
We hope the roofing process goes smoothly with little disruption to you and your family. If you have a question, think something is wrong or are not happy with something going on during the process, please call the office right away at 608-838-2500. If it is a small matter you may discuss it with the crew, but please remember they are there to work and may not have the authority to make certain decisions. All of us at Sunset Ridge Exteriors are here to make sure your roofing installation goes as smoothly as possible from start to finish.
