Rubber Roofing

[hedhunter9]

Anyone out there experienced with flat roofs ? Rubber roofing, Torch down, Built up. ?

We had a storm a few days ago and it ripped off a third of our roof.
Just the Build up or what ever it is called.
It was placed over the original stuff. Hot tar and gravel over the Plywood.
Water ran in the back of the shop and all insulation got wet.

We had a co come in and pull down the insulation and they put a dozen big industrial blowers and a few dehumidiifers in there for 3 days to dry all the rafters and ceiling.

Up on the roof, they pulled the roofing material that had blown loose back to its original spot and put up 50 foot of Blue tarp. Using boards and 6 inch screws they secured it down and threw tires in a bunch of spots. Then used mastic to seal the edge on the high end..
The guy said they would have to replace the whole roof, couldnt repair just the third that came up. 72 feet long by 40 feet wide.

Waiting on the pqperwork, but the one guy told me a new roof would run about $30K ! Say what ? How much? Yep $30K Commercial roof.

I checked several places on material costs and they would only run $3k to $5k.

$25,000 for labor ? Holy cow someone is getting rich fast !
Even if insurance pays this, it is still a rip off. and I dont think its right.

Bob

 

[Gregdoo]

While I'm not a roofer, I have a low slope BUR (Built up roof) on my garage. Probably 22' x 35'. It is gravel on asphalt base on the plywood deck. Had 2 commercial roofers come out to give me a quote for some repairs, as it was leaking at the lower edge. One quoted $4500 for the job. Another quoted $1500 if I did the tearup of damaged area and put down new plywood deck (35' x 2'). Anyway, after more research, it appeared I could buy materials for a new roof of EPDM for about $1300 for the whole roof (DIY install). This will be the way I go. There are a few sites that sell the materials online. As a note, you don't want the EPDM in contact with the old asphalt, so you'd want to consider a barrier material. I plan to use some foam sheets I got used from a commercial roofer (not counted in cost estimate above.)

 

[Architorture]

Tear off costs can be substantial. And a lot of what you pay for on a flat roof is the warranty which usually only comes with an approved installer...which means not you.

I think most of the big players like Firestone frown upon having an epdm roof put over top of a BUR due to the asphalt reaction issues mentioned above

 

[djjsr]

Get a couple more estimates. I got quotes for torch-down on my roof a few years ago (36x84) and the numbers varied by over 50%.

I also got quotes on replacing just about 1/3 of the roof and nobody said it couldn't be done. Maybe your situation is different.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Any reason you are not using your homeowners insurance to replace the roof?

A claims adjuster should write up a Statement of Loss and then you should be able to hand that over to a roofing company with your deductible and get it done.

Insurance will probably come in around $13-14k without the insulation portion.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Check with Sears, Lowes, Home Depot. They all do installed roofing and over free quotes. At least you would have the warranty and backing of a national company, and you can probably finance it if you have to.

I think $18k - $19k would be about right.

 

[hedhunter9]

I have insurance. But Just couldnt believe the $30k price. Especially when I found out the material cost...

The insurance adjuster was supposed to be here Wed or Thur, but hasnt shown yet. Because of the widespread storm and all the multitude of claims that came in Im sure they are swamped..

One other roof guy I talked to said they charge $500 a square for tear off and replace. That would put it at about $15k. Which is still a good profit for a couple days work.

I have a call into another roofer to try and get a estimate from them.
Will see how this all shakes out..

Bob

 

[Architorture]

Big storm went through...probably lots of messed up roofs and winter is coming...I wouldn't bet on getting a great deal from anyone

Who installed the roof and how long ago?

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Why so focused on the materials cost?
Brake pads are less than $10 but a brake job starts at $79
A Bandaid is only pennies but the doctor visit to stitch up that wound and apply the bandage could be a couple hundred dollars.
You have to consider the cost of the equipment, the liability insurance, the potential warranty maintenance, the worker's comp insurance, the wages of the workers, the disposal costs, PLUS all the materials.
I know a bunch of roofers, trust me none of them are getting rich and its a damn hard way to earn a living.

Your friend that said $500 per square is pretty close to the going rate. You have 34 squares, so you're at least $17k.

 

[bwane]

I was Property Management for 17 years and flat roofs **** so bad, I can not understand why anyone would want one. I had about 150 buildings including a 3 acre building and leaks were a constant problem. It always seemed to me that it would be cheaper and a whole lot better to build a gable roof over the flat ones and if ir was MY building, I wouldnt hesitate.

 

[BillK]

Why so focused on the materials cost?
Brake pads are less than $10 but a brake job starts at $79
A Bandaid is only pennies but the doctor visit to stitch up that wound and apply the bandage could be a couple hundred dollars.
You have to consider the cost of the equipment, the liability insurance, the potential warranty maintenance, the worker's comp insurance, the wages of the workers, the disposal costs, PLUS all the materials.
I know a bunch of roofers, trust me none of them are getting rich and its a damn hard way to earn a living.

Your friend that said $500 per square is pretty close to the going rate. You have 34 squares, so you're at least $17k.

Scott,
Glad you said it because I was going to All of these guys should own a legitimate business and see what it really costs to do things. I have heard that workmans comp insurance for roofers costs 80% of wages. That means that if you pay a guy $20 an hour, the workmans comp is an additional $16 an hour Not sure if its true but I would not be surprised. Add in all the rest of your expenses and the price starts sounding pretty reasonable. And like you said, I dont know of many millionair roofers

 

[6768rogues]

At the school where I retired, a typical building roof cost about $1 million, but they were substantially larger than your roof. Most commercial roofing products are accompanied by long term warranties, and that coverage is expensive. They also need to be properly installed by certified installers to make the warranty valid. Make sure your warranty will be valid and that you don't pay for it, later finding out it is no good.

 

[bdamico]

I have four flat roofs--freaking hate them. Continual worries, pooling we can reduce but not eliminate and elastomeric recoatings blah blah blah (but don't go too long between recoatings or then you eat up the build up below and then more repairs). And then I could go on and on about EPDM. Wheee. Run fast to a hill.

 

[Angelfire]

Although not a real fan of flat roofs, my house in ABQ really needed to be flat to blend in with the architecture of the area. And the folks in ABQ have had flat roofs for ages so maybe they're a bit better suited to doing them, I dunno. Either way, I recently did an addition on my home and acted as the GC. When it came time to research and lock in the roofing, my head was spinning. The typical roof here is tar and gravel and many of them have lasted well over 50 years. However, with today's regulations and such, many of the products they had then, are not available today. I had 5 roofers give me bids for a built up tar and gravel....prices were all over the shop but the one commonality is none of them would warranty it for longer than 5 years (3 years in one case) which tells me this approach is probably not a good one these days. I briefly looked at torched on roofs and decided I really didn't want that mainly because I worried some knucklehead would burn my house down and I was concerned their lifetime was minimal at best. I then started looking at the membrane roofs. TPO and PVC (skipped the EPDM). I liked the PVC but the only places giving me quotes were very expensive. Lifetime warranty however which was nice. I ended up with TPO. Wide range of prices so I picked the guy with a good reputation and who fell out in the middle of the price range. I'm still a little leery of how well it will hold up under our brutal UV exposure but a year on, and it still looks great. It also provided an added advantage this past summer as our cooling bills dropped significantly (our TPO is white which is reflecting a lot of the heat). I did end up having the entire roof done vs. just the addition part as well as the entire roof on my detached garage. I did do one thing over and above the standard and that was I wrapped all the parapets with Ice/Water shield before the TPO and Stucco went on. That seems to be the area that cracks and dies first which then lets water into the frame/walls. Hopefully now, that will hold off any issues for a while. I can't say I what I did was right or the best option but it's working well for me so far.
Cheers,
cc

 

[MG44]

I Have a flat roof on a storefront with cold modified bitument that I did myself. Was pretty simply. Found a building supplier closing out, got the stuff for $10 a roll.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

My shop (added by the old man former owner) is an oddball 13 ft x 28 ft. It has a pretty damn flat roof of 2x8's laid next to one another and no sheathing! It had leaks so I had the old roof torn off and a torch down done on it for less than $1000 - I don't honestly remember the price, it was probably 4-5 years ago. Works fantastic.

I considered buying or renting a roofer's torch and doing it myself. Then I thought I'd be better off NOT burning my shop down or falling off the roof! lol.