When people decide to redo their roof, they often run into a lot of unplanned expenses. Getting heavy materials onto your roof often requires the use of a roofing supply lift. Even if you feel you are strong enough for the job, or have people to help, you need to think about the potential cost of injury or dropped materials.
The main reason why most people decide to do their own roofing is because of the money they believe they will be saving by doing things themselves. People need to understand their limitations and understand that although they may be saving money by not having to pay other people to do work for them, that the amount of time and energy put into pushing through the learning curve and laboring themselves is a cost all its own.
Roofing supply lifts are essential to making sure that your materials make it onto the roof where they belong. You should always factor in the possibility of losses that will occur due to ruined supplies. Imagine the cost of having several tools and materials sliding off of your roof and breaking on the ground. Next imagine what kind of cost you will occur if you happen to fall off of a ladder trying to carry a hundred pound bundle of shingles up a wobbly ladder. All of a sudden, the savings you would have made by performing a do-it-yourself roofing job has turned into a tremendous expense.
There are a few different types of roofing supply lifts that you can use to help you move roofing materials safely onto your roof. There are sissor lifts, forklifts, aerial lifts, boom trucks and roofers hoists. What you choose to use will depend on the size of your roof as well as your financial situation.
Make sure that whatever you decide to use to lift your roofing supplies, that you follow whatever safety guidelines that are available to you. You may think that accidents will never happen to you, just imagine how things get when you are tired and exhausted from doing a tear off followed by hauling materials onto the unstable footing provided by an angled roof.
When you factor in the potential risks and cost of injury and broken materials, renting a roofing supply lift is a no brainer. Sure you can save money by doing things yourself, just make sure that you are using the right tools.
If you are having a tough time selecting quality roofing supplies, then you probably want to know a few things about what you are doing. I am going to start by guessing that you aren’t a roofing supply contractor, or you probably wouldn’t have the questions, but instead, are someone who are looking to either find bulk roofing supplies to purchase for your own company, or are going to attempt to lay the roofing materials over your entire roof, which is an incredibly large project for any do it yourself-er, so you have to really understand the process before you get involved in it. For contractors though, you can easily find roofing supply vendors all over the internet that can accompany your needs. But for the rest of you, you have to take a good long hard look at what it is you are trying to accomplish, and exactly why you are trying to do it yourself. If it is because you are trying to save money, then you have to understand that you are going to be spending a lot more around 5-10 years from now because the roof is going to leak. It will cause serious property damage, because you wanted to save a few bucks up front. If this is you, just buckle down and pay a contractor to do the roofing supply work for you.
On the other side of the fence though, you have the do it yourself-ers who are ready to tackle a project of this size, and for this, I commend you. Before you dive head first into it though, you have to make sure that you know the few steps involved with ensuring the roof goes down properly. First, you have to tear up the old roof, and all of the nails. Inspect the plywood for any rotting, and replace it where necessary.
Next, you need to tear off the old felt paper, and lay down new material. You will follow behind with a chalk box, marking lines that are within specifications on the packaging for the roofing supplies you purchased. These are going to be your guide lines for laying down each row of shingles. Next, when you begin laying them down, you are going to want to ensure that your nails sink through the tar strip located in the middle of the shingle. This is going to help you avoid leaks later on down the road.
When it comes to purchasing roofing supplies, most people are simply going to walk into the home renovation store, and select the best color that they think would look right on their house. This is going to save them some time up front, but when it comes down to it, they are going to end up in frustration, because of the pretty roof they chose leaking on their beautifully decorated house. There is a vast array of choices to make when it comes time to first step into the roofing supply company. You can’t just grab an associate and tell them that you want this certain type of roof, or that type of roof, or that your friends have this sort of thing on their house. The associate isn’t going to know what you really want, and is probably barely making above minimum wage, so you aren’t going to get much help, other than where certain items are stocked at. It isn’t their fault though, because they are simply working for a paycheck, and as long as they at least know where items are located within the store, then their boss is getting their monies worth.
Before you make any decisions, you can at least first pick out what color you want for the roof. Selecting a color that will match the colors that the house is painted right now, or a swatch of colors that you intend to use to change the houses paint scheme later on down the road. Selecting the right color will add a lot of value to the house when it comes time to sell it, so you don’t have to completely disregard this, just know going into the roofing supply store that you are going to be making a few more decisions than just what color.
For the next part of the project, unless you know what you are doing, and plan to lay out all of the roofing supplies yourself, you are going to want to consult a roofing supply contractor to help you make the final decisions. There are life spans on certain types of roof supplies, and generally the more you pay, the longer the life span, though this isn’t always true. If you are planning on laying out the materials yourself, and finishing the project from front to back without any assistance, then you are pretty safe purchasing your own roofing supply materials.