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-   -   Would this be a good deal for a roofer or is it a dumb thought (

Doug Crf 04-05-2006 02:58 PM

Me and my wife bought a house about a year ago.
The roof has three layers of shingle's,It seem's to
be in ok shape.Not exelent but just ok.
What I was wondering is if this sound's like something
a roofer might want to do.
Please only answer if you are a roofer or know a roofer and
ran it by them.
Ok here it is.I am wondering if a roofer would want to trade
labor like me doing some tear off work for them in trade of
doing my roof.
I use to do tear off's like 20 years ago and I did a little bit
of three tab and shake shingle's.
I would be doing the whole tear off on my roof my self and
I could help with alot of the roofing.
Also I would be willing to do all the work for the person first
before we even started doing my roof,we would just have to
make some kinda contract.And I would want to get a few
refrence's from them.
And O yea my roof is a pretty simple roof.The house is an L
shape and it's 1350 square feet.
I am also going to mesure my roof and see how much it would
cost to just pay and have it done,just the bare roof after I
have torn it off
Could I just do simple mesurments or do I have to do all those
crazy mesurements like I have seen on-line.
So what do you think?
Any thought's
Thank's Doug

bob the builder 04-05-2006 06:49 PM

I would say a trade off isn't a bad idea if you had something to offer besides tearing off roofs which is mindless work that just about anyone could do. If you hire a insured contractor and help him install shingles. Well lets say he isn't watching and you don't do a good job installing and it leaks, whose fault is it? Liability is an issue with roofs and I wouldn't have a customer help me ever, or I wouldn't be responsible for it leaking. The other issue is you helping this contractor tearing off other roofs. If you fall whose insurance will cover it?


jproffer 04-05-2006 09:53 PM

Tearing off yourself is something I (as the roofer) would shy away from.

I come over and look up at a bare roof (or so I think, from the ground), give you a bid and you accept.

Job Day:
I get up ON the roof to find out that it wasn't so bare after all. Nails that haven't been pulled. Wood that is less than acceptable (to me anyway), etc.

Let's even leave the wood replacement out of it. But there's a 1000 nails that I have to pull, either as I go, or before I start.

NOW, I have obviously already thought about this, so am I going to let it happen as I said above? NO....I'm going to raise the bid, at least some, for the possibility of this problem (these problems) occuring. So you're paying full for the install, and maybe half of what the tear off would cost you anyway.

Now throw the wood back in there that I DIDN'T know about before..and didn't order materials for, and you're paying $50/hour/worker while we wait for material to come and there goes the rest of your savings.

To answer your actual question: If you build a relationship with a roofer and pitch this to him and he goes for it, then great...tear off OTHER roofs to pay your debt...but I would personally stay away from doing my own....conflict of work for the roofer on your own roof...naaa.

MJW 04-06-2006 05:03 PM

I really don't care for the idea myself. We have done a few like this and it just doesn't work out well. The last one, the guy used our forks and dumpster for the weekend. He was to tear all the shingles off and put the ice shield and tarpaper on. All we had to do was get the shingles and install them. The guy called on Monday morning and said, I have it all tore off, but now it is going to rain and I have no help. He says, I have to go to work. So we went and tarpapered it in the rain, just to save his a$$. I was not very happy at all.
The schedules just never seem to work out right, and I would say most real roofers wouldn't go for it.

Lefty Lucy 05-09-2006 11:21 PM


Originally Posted by bob the builder
... if you had something to offer besides ..mindless work that just about anyone could do. ... Bob


RooferJim 05-09-2006 11:44 PM

Bad idea, sorry

