1. When Will the Shingles Arrive?
Shingles are typically delivered from a few days before the start-up to the day of a new roof installation project. Talk to your roofing representative and let him know your situation. Things like neighborhood bylaws or just how much room you might have for the amount of roofing materials required for your roofing project. The delivery driver will place these shingles in the driveway unless you instruct your roofing contractor to place them in a different location. To ensure you are ready to receive delivery of the shingles, ask your roofing contractor when they will arrive. In most cases, the roofing company will not know exactly when the material will arrive, possibly only the day of arrival. Armed with this knowledge, you can move cars to ensure the delivery does not inconvenience anyone in your household.
2. Will You Be Covering My Flowers or Shrubbery?
Flowers and shrubbery can be damaged by falling debris during a new roof installation. Some roofing contractors cover plants to protect them, but others prefer to let homeowners take protective action themselves. Talk to your contractor to find out who will protect shrubs and flowerbeds, at Roof Crafters we always take care of this detail. If you need extra care, please let your roofing representative know. The Equipter mobile roofing debris trailer will help protect your yard from nails and it is able to lift up and over tender shrubs. Even with tarps and the Equipter and extra care sometimes shrubbery gets damaged. Stay in constant communication with your contractor when they are in areas that may be of extra concern.
3. What is the Clean-Up Process?
After installing a new roof, Roof Crafters contractors clean up leftover shingles, loose nails, and other debris associated with the new roof installation. Check that your roof contractor plans to clean up before the job starts. After the job, if you are unhappy with the clean-up, do not hesitate to ask the contractor to carry out a secondary sweep for nails. During any re-roofing project, there will be thousands of nails and hundreds of square feet of roofing felt torn off your roof in preparation for the new roofing shingles. Every care possible is taken to clean up all roofing debris, however, sometimes a few nails can get caught in the grass. It is always a good idea to mow your lawn prior to your new roof installation. Mowing your lawn will make it easier for the magnets that are used dragging your yard to pick up nails.
4. What is the Warranty On My New Roof?
It is very important to understand the terms of the warranty that comes with your new roof. In particular, you need to ask whether you or the contractor is responsible for registering the warranty. CertainTeed roofing materials are the first choice for your new roof with Roof Crafters. The warranty will normally be registered by the roofing company. Once the roofing project is complete your warranty will be uploaded to your SSA client portal that is provided to you by Roof Crafters. Since your new shingle warranty will be in your Roofing CRM program SSA, you will have access to it along with all other roofing information from pre-job pictures, contract, insurance scope of loss, and any other paperwork forever. SSA is your Roof Crafters cloud-based CRM, Customer Relationship Management program that stores all your information and can be accessed from any device at any time.
New Roof Installation: Pre-Work Checklist
Before your new roof installation starts, there are a few things you can do to minimize disruption. Use this new roof installation pre-work checklist to prepare and ensure you know what to expect during the installation.
1. Protect Your Pets
Ask your roof contractor whether pets need to be put up during the installation. Dogs and cats can be injured by falling debris and get in the way of contractors, so it is often a good idea to keep them out of the way. Some animals may be sensitive to the loud noise made while roofing if your pet is super sensitive you may even want to board your pet.
2. Protect Your Property
Move or cover valuable items in the garden, such as statues and planters, so they are not damaged during the installation. Move items off outer walls and interior shelves, and remove pictures from the walls, as vibrations can cause them to fall and break. Roofing crews walking on the roof, nailing of the shingles, and laying the bundles of roofing shingles on the roof’s deck and ridge can in some cases cause severe vibrations. One bundle of CertainTeed, which is the heaviest shingle on the market, can weigh 240 LBS or even more if you are installing a class four shingle.
3. Manage Gates
Your roof contractor might need you to leave gates open so they can access the property. Alternatively, you can ask them to keep gates closed to protect pets or kids. Be sure to discuss your preferences for gates on your property before the work starts.
4. Make Special Requests
If you have any special requests for your roofing contractors, let the team manager know about them in advance. Where a septic tank may be, special care around swimming pool pumps or any others.
5. Cover Valuables in the Attic
During the new roof installation, contractors must remove felt from the roof decking. Roof Crafters removes all old felt and shucks all nails from the roof deck. This is the best roofing practice; however, it can cause an after-roof installation clean-up in the attic. This can cause debris to fall through cracks in the decking into the attic. The old felt is most likely asphalt-based and in many cases, tears into tinny little pieces that fall between the roof’s decking and through other holes during the roof install like where the old ridge vent was removed, or old wind turbines were removed. Cover all valuables to protect them from dust and debris.
6. Rare and Unexpected Things but Possible
In rare cases, water lines, A/C lines, and electric lines may be hit by a nail penetrating the roof’s deck. This should never happen if the water, A/C, and electric lines are installed to code. All these lines should be strapped down to the rafters or other flooring joists. There is no way to know prior to the roof installation if this could happen and even if the attic was inspected there still may not be any way to see this. In many cases, the lines when hit are at the very eve of the house and just can’t be seen. This is not the roofing contractor’s fault and you need to just be prepared in case it does happen.