Update – brought to you by popular demand – part two of this article: How to Estimate a Roof – learn how to price a roof based on roof size, cost of roofing materials and other factors, and how roofing contractors price their roof. But first – learn how to measure a roof – full guide below.
Roof Measuring Guide:
This in-depth, yet simple roof measuring guide will help you measure your roof, and with the help of the Roofing Calculator you will be able to estimate your roof replacement cost. This guide will be helpful to homeowners, roofing contractors and roof estimators / salespeople alike, as it will describe the process of measuring and estimating roofs, which I used as a roofing salesman.
Read the rest of this entry »
Roofing Calculator Updates:
Bellow are chronologically presented features and functions updates to our Roofing Calculator. We periodically adjust price settings or add new functions and different roofing materials (previously not included) to make our Roofing Calculator more useful to you and better able to relay the actual “on the street” roofing prices that homeowners can expect to get from local roofing contractors.
We recommend that you learn how roofing prices are calculated by different roofing contractors. You will discover two most popular methods of calculating roof cost – Per Square Roof Pricing (most common) and Materials, Labor, Overhead and Profit method of estimating roof costs.
Planned Roofing Calculator updates:
In the next month or two we will be rolling out our first version of Solar Metal Roofing Price Calculator, which is going to estimate the cost of installing a steel standing seam metal roof combined with Uni-Solar thin-film PV laminates – flexible solar panels for metal roofs – see photograph of a solar metal roof with solar thermal heating bellow:
Together with a Solar Roofing Calculator we are developing a new Solar System Cost Calculator which will estimate the solar system cost, based on the number of solar PV panels you plan to use on your roof, your desired electric output, solar cost per watt, and solar system payback period, as well as many other functions and information about solar prices, roof solar installation and how to prevent roof leaks when installing a solar system.
Recent Roofing Calculator updates:
Mar. 25, 2010 – We are working on adding a setting for the number of floors that your house has as this can change you per-square pricing significantly. Most roofing contractors have an up-charge for the second floor, and an even bigger additional charge for the total roofing cost for 3-story homes, such as Victorian style homes, or triple-deckers that are very common in the urban areas.
In the same update we will include not only straight mathematical progression for steep roofs vs. shallow or low-slope roofs, but also an average premium which roofing contractors charge when calculating the roofing cost. On average, roofing contractors will add $60 per square for a 12 pitch roof vs. a walkable roof (less than 7 proof pitch).
Mar. 10, 2010 – New Metal Roofing Calculator: We’ve added a new, specialized version of our roof price calculator which is designed to calculate metal roofing prices for standing seam metal roofs, steel and aluminum shingles, stone-coated steel roofing (such as Decra or Gerard metal tiles), and specialty metal roofing – copper roofs and zinc roofing.
Future updates for the Metal Roofing Calculator will include price calculation for snow-retention systems such as rib-mounted (for standing seam metal roofs) snow-guards, Railing-snow-guard systems with one, two or three horizontal bars, as S-5 type clips.
Metal Roof Price Calculator will also estimate approximate Cool Roof energy savings and provide an average roof life expectancy.
Feb. 25, 2010 – We recently included TPO roofing into our roofing calculator, as it is the fastest flat roof material right now, because of its relatively low price compared to PVC roofs. However, we feel that you as a homeowner need to know the difference between PVC and TPO roofing: Why TPO is less expensive, facts about ever-changing TPO formulations (the way TPO roof is made and what goes into the product, as this determines the quality), and how long you can expect a TPO roof to last. Learn more about Pros and Cons of TPO roofing and the state of flat roofing today.
Feb. 21, 2010 – We added a specialized Metal Roofing Calculator (see link above or on the side), and now you will be able to calculate the cost of almost every metal roofing system readily available today, including standing seam metal roof, interlocking metal shingles, copper and zinc roofing, stone-coated steel and corrugated / vertical rib panel roofs.
Update: As of Jan. 1, 2011 the tax credit for cool roof installation has been reduced from “up-to $1500″, to a maximum of $500 or 30% of total cost of cool roofing materials (whichever is smaller). I believe this is because we ran out of bailout money, and because, too much money goes for Oil Companies subsidies.
Original Cool Roof Tax Credit “Scam” article:
Do you have a cool roof such as PVC or TPO white flat roof, or metal roof not rated as “cool” by Energy Star?
Tough luck – you will not be getting that $1500 promised to you by Obama’s Economic Recovery Act, and here is why:
The energy-efficiency tax credit, so widely advertised by the government and roof manufacturers, turned out to be a scam for those homeowners who installed a truly “COOL ROOF” such as a white PVC or TPO roof, White Roof Coating, or even a Spray-Foam Roofing system. It reminds me a Bush-like patronage of the Big-Oil in terms of support, which this Energy Efficiency Tax Credit Bill provides for Asphalt Shingles manufacturers, while cool roofing manufacturers and roof owners get screwed.
In the end, the tax credit applies only to Metal Roofing systems (which are cool as it is, even when you do not consider a cool-roof paint, such as Kynar 500 or Hylar 5000, and similar metal roof coatings), and – you got it – “cool” asphalt shingles, as well as other bitumen-based roofing systems which are considered “cool” by Energy Star and EPA.
Really – asphalt shingles??? Asphalt shingles would be the least energy efficient roofing system for sloped roofs. They store solar heat, and transfer it into your house even after the sun goes down. An average color (not black) asphalt shingle roof goes up-to 165-170 F degrees on a 95 F degree day, and remains hot almost into the next morning.
The asphalt shingles manufacturers such as GAF, Tamko, Certain Teed and others, created a gimmick in the form of Cool Roof shingles. OK – these shingles are lighter in color, and the granular surface is coated with reflective materials, but they still will be much hotter than any metal roof without Cool Roof paint / coating. And they cost a lot more than regular shingles – over $2500 extra on an average 20 squares new asphalt shingles roof. The roof prices for such “cool asphalt roofs” are very close to a metal roof such as Interlocking Steel shingles, and assuming a life span of average asphalt roof to be about 15-20 years, vs. Metal Roof life of over 50 years, it looks like a very bad deal for the homeowner. Keep in mind that both a Metal Roof and a cool asphalt shingles roof would qualify for the cool roof tax credit of up-to $1500.
Owners of true Cool Roofs are getting screwed to benefit the oil industry.
The most ironic fact in this story, is that this so called “energy efficiency tax credit” supports big roofing manufacturers, who use petroleum-based products to produce these supposedly cool roofs. And these “cool asphalt roofs” will end up in a landfill in 15-20 years, making our nation “even greener” than it already is. This reminds me of G.W. Bush era, when the US was getting greener, but somehow big oil was getting more and more support from the government, while green energy and green building companies were struggling and there were minimal subsidies (if any) for any green or solar projects.
While the uncool asphalt shingles roofs do qualify for the energy tax credit, the truly cool roofs are out of luck. Consider these facts:
A white PVC (and TPO) roofing membrane such as IB Flat Roof, reflects over 95% of solar heat. On a 95 F degree day, this white PVC roof will barely reach 100 F degrees. You can put your bare knees on this roof and it won’t burn your skin. Try doing that on a black surface roof such as rubber roof. You will jump up almost immediately, as your skin will start to “burn” when in contact with a 170 F degrees surface. Try to be in a room under such a black rubber roof. Unless you crank your AC to maximum power, you will be sweating as if you were in a sauna.
There are some Metal Roofs, which do not have a cool roof coating, or are made from unpainted metals – so called mill finish metal roof. These metal roofs are still very energy efficient, even though they do not have a “Cool Roof” label.These roofs will be in fact much cooler that the “coolest” asphalt shingle roofs, or a cool modified bitumen roof, but its not cool enough to get you $1500 tax credit.
If you have a black roof (e.g. a rubber roof, tar roof or bitumen roof), and decided to either be “green”, or reduce your HVAC operation costs, or both, and hired a roofing contractor specializing in spray-roof coatings to install this liquid-applied white roof. Well, you too are out of luck…
So it does not matter if you have an “actually cool” roofing type of a roof on your home or business – you will not be getting your Energy Efficiency Tax Credit if you have any of the above mentioned roofing material types. Keep in mind that Energy Star actually recognizes white (and some other colors) PVC and TPO Roofing systems, as well as spray-roof coatings as Cool Roofs. They just did not include these roofing materials into the Cool Roof Tax Credit program.
It is unfortunate and a shame that real cool roofs and homeowners who invest in these premium priced roofing systems get screwed, while imitation products like cool asphalt shingles qualify for this $1500 tax credit.
Reference information: Energy Star Roofing Systems, qualifying for Cool Roof Tax Credit – note: old link to Energy Star site no longer works, so we replaced it a link to Cool Roofing Council, where you can find list of qualifying “cool roofs”.
Still – concepts explained above still apply
Calculate roofing costs and annual cool roof energy savings using Roofing Price Calculator.
Calculate costs of different metal roofing systems such as Standing Seam, Aluminum and Steel Shingles, Copper and Zinc metal roofs, using metal roofing calculator.
Learn more about different roofing materials talked bout in this editorial.
