Roofing ·
What a Roof Replacement Actually Costs and How Long It Takes in Horry County
Cost and timeline are the two things every roofing search is really about. Here is what drives both of them in Horry County, in writing and before anyone comes out to your kitchen table.
Image described: A roof midway through replacement, old shingles stripped to bare sheathing on one slope
Nobody searching for a roofer wants a page about craftsmanship. They want to know roughly what it costs and roughly how long they will have people on the roof. Here is the honest version.
What actually moves the number
A single figure on a web page would be wrong for most of the people reading it, and we would rather our website and our estimate said the same thing.
So here is what moves it, in the order it usually matters, so that when you get quotes you can tell which ones are real.
The six things that actually set the price
Squares. Roofing is priced by the square, which is 100 square feet of roof surface. Not your house footprint. A single storey house with a wide, low roof can have more squares than a taller house with a smaller footprint.
Pitch. A steep roof costs more because it is slower and needs more safety setup. Anything a person cannot comfortably walk on changes the labour.
Complexity. Valleys, dormers, chimneys, skylights and wall intersections all take time and all need flashing. A plain gable roof and a cut up roof of the same square footage are different jobs.
Layers. If there are two or three layers of old shingles up there, tear off costs more and disposal costs more.
Deck condition. This is the one that changes after we start. Nobody knows what the decking underneath is like until the old roof is off. A good estimate says what replacement decking costs per sheet so you are not negotiating in the middle of the job.
Material. Architectural asphalt is the common choice here. Metal costs more up front and lasts longer. Impact rated and higher wind rated products cost more again.
How long it actually takes
The work itself is short. Most single family roofs here are one to two days on site once we start. A large or complicated roof runs to three.
The part that takes longer is everything before that: material lead time, the permit, and weather. A re-roof generally requires a permit in Horry County and we pull it. Rain decides when we can safely open a roof at all, because a roof that is torn off has to be dried in the same day.
So when a roofer gives you a date, the honest question is whether that is the start date or the finish date, and what happens to it if it rains for a week.
Five questions worth asking any roofer
Are you tearing off or going over? Going over is cheaper and hides the deck.
What is your price per sheet if the decking is bad? If they have not thought about it, they will be making it up on the day.
What wind rating is the assembly, and are you nailing to that pattern? The rating is not just the shingle.
Who pulls the permit? If the answer is that you do not need one, ask again.
What happens to my landscaping and my driveway? Magnet sweeping for nails is not optional and not everyone does it.
What we do
We get on the roof and into the attic before quoting. We tear off to bare deck so we can see what is under there. We tell you what we find with photographs, and we give you a per sheet number for decking before we start rather than after.
Related