Saving money on your roof

Although you might not think of your roof all that often, any minor issues that spring up can rapidly become large problems. If you haven’t had it looked at recently, it might be time to consider talking to a specialist about your roof, as well as the new technologies available to help save you money.

Pete and Rob talk to Mike Farina from State Roofing, as well as
Jesse Brink and Patrik Parsons from EagleView Technologies to help you make the best informed decision about your roof.

Roofing has come a long way since wood shingles, says Mike. “We evolved with our roofing materials. We had a long, but great, experience with shake,” he says.

But, as any natural resource starts to deplete, you must start looking at alternative technologies. And, from a standpoint of life and maintenance, the materials are even better than wood.

“We kind of led the way into the metal shake products,” Mike says. “We felt it was an innovative product and a lifetime product.”

Rob adds that the new metal roofs are much quieter than older, traditional metal roofs that could “sound like a cacophony” when it rained. Which, let’s be honest, it does a lot around here.

He also says that new metal roofs are virtually indistinguishable from natural materials. Metal can look like tile or wood shingles, and can blend to any neighborhood.

The other popular material is rubber. The material is “70 to 80 percent reground truck tires,” Mike says, and is 100 percent recyclable, making it a very green roofing alternative.

The rubber is formed in injection-mold machines, allowing it to be molded into virtually any shape and style, which will blend in well with the Pacific Northwest’s neighborhoods of shake roofs. The production method also allows the rubber to be fire-retardant (more important in areas of Western Washington and states prone to brush fires like California).

Once you’ve selected a contractor and roofing material, an involved process of measuring and ordering components is the next step.

EagleView can work concurrently with your roofing contractor by allowing the contractor to remotely measure the dimensions of your roof. EagleView utilizes low-flying airplanes to take high-resolution images of your house, which can be recreated into a 3-D model of your roof. This technology saves your contractor time, and you money, by allowing them to get accurate measurements and order materials in accordance to your needs.

While this process may seem even more expensive than having a roofer measure by hand, Patrik says it’s actually not.

“If we [use] a man, it takes approximately an hour. And half the time, it doesn’t get done on-site,” he says. “They’ve got to go back and spend more time putting it together, then do all the calculations, and then prepare a proposal.”

By the time the estimators get to your house, he says, they already have all of this information. Plus, it eliminates the need to have someone tromping around on your roof, which could potentially damage it, and minimizes the risk factor for the roofer; the cost of which is passed onto you. Patrik says it’s half the cost of a traditional roofing estimate, and increases the accuracy of the bid.

Listen to the whole show.

State Roofing is a proud sponsor of Home Matters.

Home Matters with Pete and Rob can be heard on KIRO Radio every Saturday at 8 a.m. and Sunday at 6 a.m. or anytime at KIRORadio.com. Like Home Matters on Facebook.