Good morning all,
I am enclosing a photo of my dutch colonial. It has a gambrel roof–so I’m told, that we would like to change. We just aren’t sure what we need to change. Prior to moving in, the previous owners added a white strip across the top of the front I guess to help break up all that black.
What we don’t like is the starkness of the black and white. The roof currently just has plain old black shingles. Any suggestions on what could change the look drastically? Would just grey dimensional shingles help? I’ve seen some of the discussions on cedar, is that product tremondously different price wise? You can’t really see it in the photo too well, but this roof is just ugly–the shingles are big, flat and boring. This is the city auditors photo, I should post one of mine with closeups so you can see the details.
We plan to put an addition on the back of this home someday and depending on what we can and can’t do–both financially and zoning wise, we would probably incorporate the roof cost with the addition. Does anyone have any good photos for inspiration or any other ideas?
Thanks.
Replies
How about a prefinished western red cedar shingle roof with a copper flashing at the break?
Cedar, at least to me is the way to go on your house.
Red cedar is right and be sure its still green when you get it so its not so brittle.
All the cedar roofs I see look so breath taking IMHO and your house is half roof so.....
For my house I'm going to re-cedar the existing roof and to the additions I'm doing now.
Thought about a green on the trim to match the copper gutters that will turn a sort of green.
My house is red and shall remain that way.
I hate (I mean dislike) blandness.
Be well
andy
"My life is my practice"
Andy,
Thanks for the reply. You think just tear off the old roof and replace with cedar, leave everything else as is? I do like that idea, will have to investigate costing. Wasn't it your website I saw a before and after w/dramatic difference? Very pretty. I also like the copper flashing idea from Cedar. There are many dutch colonials in my area with that bump out or whatever you call it on the second level--with the set of windows bumped out. In fact, I haven't found a dutch colonial in my neighborhood with the same roof line as mine. Do you think this is the original roof line??
Isn't there "faux" cedar? Is this worth investigating?
Your roof would be easy to rip because you could do it easly in sections being that theres a dramitic difference from the top to bottom sections.
Yeh, that was probably my website you saw(http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM). Not sure why it's not there anymore but I haven't revised it in a long time (too busy) and onto much more interesting projects.
Ripping the entire roof? You wouldn't have to. You could go over it if you created airspace between the roofs but I'd highly recommend removing the existing ....just because thats me, not because you'd "have to".
Different strokes for different folks.
My guess is that it'd be certainly easy to rip the lower sections off b4ing that they're only walls really.
How many roofs have been put up there?
Nahhhhhhh.rip it and do it right.
Isnt all that difficult and from the looks of your property you should be able to place dumpsters directly below with ease.
Be ripped
andy"My life is my practice"
Thanks Andy,
I do know a new roof was put on over the back of the house about a year ago against the roofer's wishes. We had a leak in the fall and unfortunately for the previous owners, they failed to disclose that they had roof repair last spring. I spoke with the roofer myself--thanks to nosy next door neighbors who had his card. He told me he wanted them to rip off the back but they just wanted the easy way out to put the house on the market. Well, its not going to pay for them to have done that when I'm through with them! So, there are at least 2 roofs on the back.
You refer to the front as "walls" which is kind of how I see it, and I have been wondering, can't that just be replaced with siding materials--shingles, whatever, not roofing material? And then add the gutter at the top? The back of the house is mainly the same except for a big stained glass window that juts out. Boy does it look ugly with shingles plastered around it. I'd really like to peel those off and just have it be wood, or whatever the heck is under it.
mitty
call a roofer and ask for the cost to remove it.
You sort of have to "be there" to get the whole picture.
Good luck and let me know how it goes.
PS...you know, if you bought the house in the past year or so there's a disclosure law the seller has to fill out.or pay the buyer $500 not to.
All lawyers around here recommend paying the $500 because the seller will never stop hearing issues.
Kind of a stupid law if you ask me. Means just another five hundred bucks off the price of the house in most cases.
At least thats the law in NY.
BE well
andy"My life is my practice"
Hey Andy,
Guess what, had a roofer come out for an estimate to replace the roof. Guess what's under my bland shingles? Cedar! He quoted me about 12 grand to tear off shingles, cedar, whatever the stuff you install the cedar on, resheet, and reroof with dimensional shingles. Also some minor flashing repairs.
Can you believe they put these ugly shingles over cedar. I had an architect come out too for ideas. He's going to work me up something just to help it aesthetically for now--maybe some kind of moulding (?) details, window boxes etc. We want to put an addition on someday so he is going to give us some inexpensive ideas we can use now that could stay with the addition. For $12k, that roof is staying till we do the addition, ugly or not!
Thanks for your help and advice.
Janet
Janet
I've uncovered cedar roofs dozens of times.
Its pretty typical actually.
Keep getting estimates along with recamondos.
I'm having the perfections delivered here and boomed on Tuesday.yeeee ha
Geezzzzz.twelve grand? I feel so much better now doing it myself.....and I have 40 sq to do with a huge rip off as well........lets see...40sq times........
Be a builder
andyMy life is my passion!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
It's pretty common to overlay cedar shingles with asphalt. I once ran into a cedar roof with 6 layers of asphalt on top. I wondered why the shingle molds were 1x6 instead of the normal 1x2. They were covering up the thickness of all the shingle layers. If your roof is not currently leaking and you're considering adding an addition, by all means, wait until doing the addition to reroof the existing. If you're using asphalt, its hard to get a good match several years down the road. More than likely, the cedar is installed over split sheathing, so you may be able to avoid the cost of resheathing if you reroof with cedar. Make sure you get good references before hiring a roofer to install cedar shingles. There's lots of good asphalt roofers out there that don't have any business installing cedar and vice versa.
here's a before and after of a gambrel we did
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
here's some other gambrels...
one of the things missing on yours is the trim ar the break, and any kind of eave detailMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Hey mike,
on your first picture ---as it was loading---that gutter jumped right out at me as a problem.
do my eyes decieve me---or did you add a kick so you get get a little garrison style overhang type thing going on there.----looked much better.
BTW----took my new 10ft. A frame trestles out to a project yesterday. they were fantastic once they were up------but a bit heavy and awkward for me to carry and errect solo. Way better than working off of ladders though.
yes... that was the house that jack built...and his father .. jack...and his grandfather jack...
the water used to dribble down back into the wall and on the way to the sill.. so we "fixed "it..... here's a pic. of "tails"
hey....10' A-fames are on the cusp... i can handle the 8' ok... but our 12's are definitely two-man ...
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore