Important Details To Know When Roofing Your Home.

• Do you need to strip your roof ?
• Does your chimney need to be re flashed ?
• What kind of roofing shingle is being used ?
• What weight tar paper is being used ?
• Is there ice and water barrier being used and where ?
• Is the contractor fully insured for roofing ?
• How long will your roof take to do ?
• How is the clean up handled ?
  

   Suburban has a roofing system to handle all the details.

  The first thing to determine is how many layers of roofing is on the house. Todays building codes allow no more than two layers of roofing to be on a home before it is required to be striped. Most roofs today do require removal of the old roofing, even if there is only one layer the roofing may have to be removed if the old roof is buckled or not laying flat because it will cause the new roof to look uneven and not lay flat as well.  

Its important to notice areas that will need new flashing, nobody wants to purchase a new roof and have it leak.  The areas of concern are the chimney, which will always require new step flashing and any intersecting roofs such as a dormer or porch roof.  If the home has aluminum or vinyl siding and has an intersecting roof then the siding must be removed in most cases to properly flash the new roofing.  The two types of flashing are step flashing and counter flashing.  Step flashing is installed on the roof and goes under each shingle up the roof along the chimney or intersecting roof overlapping each other and counter flashing is the piece of lead or copper that you see around your chimney that overlaps the step flashing.  

After stripping the roof a felt tar paper is installed along with an ice and water barrier.  There are different weights of tar paper and methods of placing the ice and water barrier.  At Suburban we use a 30lb felt paper opposed to a standard 15lb to give a better base to our roof and added protection.  The ice and water barrier is for the first few feet on the roof to protect it from ice dams in the winter from leaking into the home.  We also use our ice and water shield around the chimney, on all the valleys and intersecting roofs for added protection.

It's important to plan the roofing installation so the property is protected and cleaned and the workers and homeowner are safe.  We start by draping the home with tarp's to protect the siding and catch as much debris as possible.  This makes clean up easier and more throw.  There is a crew member that spends most of the time on nothing but cleaning the job site so at the end of the day there are no shingles or nails scattered around the home. We also use a special magnetic rake around the home to make sure all the nails have been picked up.

 Roofing shingles come in two types, the first and most common over the years is called a three tab shingle.  A three tab lays flat and has spaces called key ways on the shingle. This style of roofing was the backbone of the roofing market for over 50 years with excellent results, with a wide range of colors and warranties of 20 to 30 years.  The second and most popular today is the Architectural Shingle - composed of two piece of asphalt shingle material laminated together to form one solid piece.  The bottom piece, or shim provides the base of the shingle as well as the contrast in color.  The top piece, or dragon tooth, provides the depth as well as further contrasting color.  Their limited warranties range from 30 years to lifetime.