There are a lot of roofers who try to keep their costs low by adding cheap parts and pieces to a roof. You’ve got this roof that’s supposed to last fifty years, but you have to start replacing parts in the first fifteen to twenty years.
I went to a house this week that has a beautiful presidential roof – this thing is going to serve her for a long time. It’s considered a fifty-year roof, but at ten years old, she’s already having issues.
The shingles are good, but they didn’t install matching manufacturer ridge caps; they used a junky, off-brand. They are literally falling apart.
The company also used plastic can vents. Do you know what happens to plastic in the sun? It gets destroyed. Everything is hotter on your roof, so if it’s 80 degrees on the ground, it’s 90-100 on your roof. The sun cooks the plastic can vents and you’ll have to replace them.
The point is: you have better options. You can go with metal vents or a ridge vent system. There are pipe flashings that will outlast your roof. Rather than going cheap, spend a little bit more to make sure all the components match the life of your roof.
Metal is amazing. If you can change everything out to metal, it’s going to outlast the roof. Then you don’t have to start taking things apart before you need to. All we have to do is take care of the moss.
In addition, if you want to get a nice strong warranty, you want to make all the parts are the same. We prefer Malarkey and try to match all the parts and pieces with it: their shingles, starter, ridge caps, and paper. If there’s ever an issue, there’s one manufacturer to go to. Plus, they’re designed to work together for the life of the roof.
It’s really important to install quality roof components. If your roofer cut corners, give us a call. We can come out and let you know what needs to be fixed to ensure your components match the life of your roof.