Stan in Oly, WA
Well-known Member
I'm getting bids on reroofing a tiny (500 sq. ft.) rental house I own in a town where real estate values are low. I'm tired of being a landlord and plan to sell the house as soon as possible. Not putting on a new roof is not really an option, for a couple of reasons I won't go into here.
The first two roofers to get back to me were both old guys, like me---it was immediately obvious they both had common sense and lots of experience. They both told me that the shiplap sheathing is brittle and is not going to hold any type of fasteners very well (I specified that I wanted the new roof installed with hot dipped galvanized nails). The first one told me that he can not in good conscience do the roof except to tear off the existing composition roofing and sheathe over the shiplap with 1/2" CDX. There were a number of other things he would do, so there was no doubt that it would be a first class job---but it would cost $10,000, which might turn out to be as much as 15% of the FMV of the house. The other roofer would do a roofover, but it's clear that it would result in a case of turning future problems over to whoever buys the house---which is not what I want to do.
I haven't been able to think of a way to achieve a good outcome in this situation. I welcome any suggestions.
Stan
The first two roofers to get back to me were both old guys, like me---it was immediately obvious they both had common sense and lots of experience. They both told me that the shiplap sheathing is brittle and is not going to hold any type of fasteners very well (I specified that I wanted the new roof installed with hot dipped galvanized nails). The first one told me that he can not in good conscience do the roof except to tear off the existing composition roofing and sheathe over the shiplap with 1/2" CDX. There were a number of other things he would do, so there was no doubt that it would be a first class job---but it would cost $10,000, which might turn out to be as much as 15% of the FMV of the house. The other roofer would do a roofover, but it's clear that it would result in a case of turning future problems over to whoever buys the house---which is not what I want to do.
I haven't been able to think of a way to achieve a good outcome in this situation. I welcome any suggestions.
Stan