How long should a roofing job typically take?

Typical 2100 SQ ft home (30 squares) 4 1/2 pitch.

One quote told me they start and finish in 4 days and this includes the 3 inspections?

I got another quote from another company and I was told it takes 2 months due to the 3 inspections (I guess time to schedule etc…)

What is expected for such a job in terms of how long to complete, I am just concerned that in the southflorida heat, all that exposed felt will get damaged over 3-4 weeks.

The second company did provide a impressive documentation package with tons of references, detailed quote and some interesting information about avoiding bad contractors etc… No pressure to sign at all, and I was upfront about getting 3 quotes. Impressed with them.

depending on what part of the country your located in. florida has much stricter (if thats a word) laws than NY. so…i cant really answer this one. gweedo is from florida maybe he can answer, but be prepared…he is a free spirit :smiley:

  1. “Stricter” is indeed a word. You’re safe there (unlike a lot of my fellow roofers who are a bit …lacking… in the spelling arts).

  2. Florida is indeed a tight market for inspections & permits, etc.
    a. I lived in South Florida for 25 years (for Gweedo & the thread originator: Tampa for 3 years while Dad was @ Macdill AFB, Winter Park [Orlando area] for visits with the Grandmom & Fort Lauderdale for the majority. Graduated from Stranahan High…).
    b. While I don’t know what municipality you’re working with, Jdobbs, however “most” cities try to get as fast a turnaround as is possible between the dry in (tearing off old shingles & felt, then installing new felt) & the Shingle.

  3. I was back in Florida roofing as recently as 3 years ago & was in the Fort Pierce / Port Saint Lucie area. Back then, there was a LOT of roofing co’s in town because there were a LOT of people who needed roofing repairs. The cities / counties were doing their best to keep up with all the permits & inspections but in every situation I didn’t once see a single “drive by inspection”. This was the same no matter if the co. was Blinky’s (in Port Saint Lucie for about 30 years) or with a ‘travelling’ co. who is based out of state.

  4. I am unaware of a “3 part” inspection; unless things have changed, usually it’s usually a 2 part process other than the actual permit.
    –I. Co. applies for a permit, usually a 30 minute process @ worst (outside of the waiting process @ the city / county offices). A permit application does / says two things: I, the homeowner of said property, is aware that a roofing project is going to be undertaken @ my property. I, the applicating roofing contractor have licensure, insurance & workman’s comp (where required) in this city / state & will be callign for an inspection within the allotted time frame of this permit application.
    –II. Once approved, permit is placed @ the homeowner’s house in a prominent location & accessible to the inspector.
    –III. Work commences & the roof is torn down to bare wood. In Florida, this would be removal of all shingles, felt & drip edge. New felt according to the correct pitch, drip edge & any transition metal or peel & stick products are applied (where required).
    **–III. Roofing co. calls in the “dry in” inspection request to the permit issuing municipality. **In a perfect world, they would send out an inspector within a day or so, however there’s a trade off between keeping a lot of inspectors on hand who might not be standing around with anything to do. In most cases, they attempt to get out for an inspection within 2 or 3 days. For those who don’t know, a good week in South Florida means it only rains 3 times… & only once a day. That’s why they try to get the inspections fairly rapidly.
    –IV. Roofing co. goes out (hopefully the roofing co. got their scheduling done correctly) one day after the dry-in was approved & install the shingles. If they are 95% sure the roof will be completed in one day (i.e. no unforseen trouble & they have all their the right sized crew), the final will be called for that same day of installation.
    –V. Permit issuing authority then goes out & inspects the finished roof & signs off on a properly completed project.

Of course, all of this is assuming the roof was done properly on each of the steps & there weren’t any red tags or corrections required.

As for the process taking 2 months or some similar kind of long period, all I can assume they are stating from start to finish - this doesn’t mean you have a roof that’s exposed for more than 2 weeks (there isn’t really even a roofer out there who likes an occupied house to stay dried in for more than 2 or 3 days).

You can also check with the various cities & see if they have any good or bad reports on either co. & it sure can’t hurt to solicit 2 or 3 additional estimates. Every little bit of education (such as going online to roofing.com & asking questions such as this) is a good thing.

Hope that helps…

Hi,

If he tells you it will be done in 4 days. The fifth day you will be wondering what is going on. The 7th day you are pissed. 9th day you are calling everyone and threatening to take action.

So I would not tell you 4 days either.

Ask the guy instead of us why he said 2 months. My guess, he is giving you the worst case sennerio.

most roofs take me 1 day, but i always tell the homeowner to give me a week just in case.

Jobs usually take us 1 to 2 days max unless it is really cut up steep and difficult. I always tell customer 1-2 days to cover my butt. I guess it would all depend on the size of the company, weather, location where roofing etc…

Easy roofs 1-2 days, large roofs 2-3 days, nasty roofs 4 days to a week!

Usually it takes less time than what I tell the homeowner.

the reason i always say 1 week (even a 12 square 1 layer ranch) is, if for any reason you run over the time you think it will take, you are covered with the home owner. if you tell them 2 days and it takes 4…then they are getting antsyand think you dont know what you are doing. if you tell them a week (tell them “just in case”) and you finish in 2 days, then they are always happy. just covering bases.

The problem with “covering your bases” is that you leave yourself open on the other end, maybe leaving doubt as to whether all the work actually got done, and whether they just got raped for cash. Estimating time sucks!

furthermore, in the ft. lauderdale area it was taking several weeks to a month to get an inspector out there a little over a year ago (i knocked on doors and asked :smiley: ) when I was there. Tough to make a promise on behalf of an inspector, I’d agree the guy that said 2 months was probably covering his butt.

it depends how you word it to the home owner. i would say…like…“give me a week, its 80 today it might snow tommorow (ny weather :smiley: ) , but it probably wont take that long.” stuff like that.

nothin left for me.

gweedo.

I did a 260 square flat roof last winter that took us 3 months, with removing gravel, building up low spots, hotting down a HDWF, mopping a base, tearing out drains, torching an APP cap, flashing, metal, etc. It snowed or rained 39 days straight, and it is hard to do hot in the rain. So that brought my average way down for the year.

i tried to put a pic in but I dont know how to inbed them. I did a fifty square shingle rip on a victorian mansion last year that took me a month. A real pig it was. Had just about any detail you could think of. Cupola, barrell dormers, mansards, saw tooth dormer, a deck to disassemble and reassemble sitting in a 10/12 pitch valley… real pig. I actually made good money on that nightmare too, on account of I bought WAY too much copper and had to return a lot :smiley:

go to photobucket.com …register, upload your picture to photobucket, then copy the weblink, come to roofing.com, click img. paste your weblink, then click image again. that should work. …that is your homework for today, because now i want to see this monster. but be prepared, these guys are brutal at tearing your work apart. :smiley:

Only if your specs are whack LOL

Hey i dont tear anyone apart anymore im reformed and recovering. I would just like to see the pretty pictures.

Im familiar with photobucket, however, I forget the password, and the system isnt sending me a new one. I tried to start another account but it says I already have another account to that email address… I dont have pictures of the finished product anyhow, I’m slow on technology, what I have is pictures from the town assessors office. This year I’ll have pictures, I dumped my partner so I can do my own thing and invest in what I want… without needing approval.

yahoo email is free and you can have as many as you want.

Marshall, when you on the photobucket image location, it automatically copies the entire formula you need; no need to click “img” before & after the link.

BTW, we haven’t heard back from the customer… I wonder what ever happened to them, LoL.