Want to upgrade shingles, what options are there for me? Roof has steep pitched mansard section. Trying to figure out what works/looks good where the mansard meets the gable roof. Any advice is appreciated.
Pic of house
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Certainteed Highland Slate or Grand Manor myself on a mansard, but its really a personal pick…
A Grand Manor would look very nice on that house, unfortunately it’s one of the most expensive shingles.
I think GAF has a less expensive version.
Grand Manors with a couple courses of Carriage House for accents.New siding on the dormers,Copper toppers for the dormers,Copper counter flashing and step flashing on the garage, copper aprons on the dormers,copper valleys on the front dormer.Copper gutters,
Level the trusses on the garage and your home will be the talk of the neighborhood.
A green or red door with some brass hardware and kick plate would be nice too.Maybe a cobble stone walkway and some Anderson or Pella windows… 
Look from pics and cost from owner says to paint and touch up detail to dormers and siding and if you have a roof issue, go for a repair from a highly reputable company as it looks fine from pics.
maybe you should re-read the question…
[quote=“kage”]
maybe you should re-read the question…[/quote]
Maybe you can read my answer, again! I never recommended a brand and also said the style there looks fine. I answered the question with less words than most as I also covered what most looking at roof materials are really looking for.
Atlas storm master slate,economical, great looking shingle,fish scale design,one piece shingle!
I’ve worked with GAF Grand Canyon shingles in the past and they seem do to the trick.
I’m going to guess whatever your budget allows. Could be Presidentials, could be grand canyons, might even be XT25.
What about Decra, they’re nice?
Thanks for the replies guys. Sorry I was away, my kid plays college ball and it was a 2 game weekend.
So it sounds like I am on the right track, I like a lot of the shingles mentioned, plus the Hatteras and Slateline. I was wondering if those luxury shingles would be too think for the mansard to gable transition, but it sounds like they aren’t. I don’t mind the extra charge, I don’t plan on doing this again for awhile. It will break my bank, but looks are more important at the moment. This roof was put on in '73, and looks like it too. But I don’t see how the Grand Manor works with the uneven edges on them. How’s that look on the gable to mansard transition? The roof is so visible, I really want it to pop.
I began ripping the rotted wood off the dormers today, it’s fried, hidden by the layers of paint. Going back with a cedar shake or thereabouts. I found I have a metal roof on the dormers, wasn’t expecting that. It’s rusty, so not copper.
[quote=“Roofmaster417”]Grand Manors with a couple courses of Carriage House for accents.New siding on the dormers,Copper toppers for the dormers,Copper counter flashing and step flashing on the garage, copper aprons on the dormers,copper valleys on the front dormer.Copper gutters,
Level the trusses on the garage and your home will be the talk of the neighborhood.
A green or red door with some brass hardware and kick plate would be nice too.Maybe a cobble stone walkway and some Anderson or Pella windows… :D[/quote]
We think alike, on the copper anyway. I wanted copper counter flashing, but can’t swing that AND the luxury shingles too. This is a middle class area too, might be a bit much. I wanted copper that would patina, but there’s was coated too. The door is stripped and will be stained for now, to match the garage. Garage had 13 distinct layers of paint I stripped off.
As far as leveling the boards, that is the 1 by boards inside garage, and this is what I did there. Still need to trim it out, it’s uneven the way they centered the garage.
flickr.com/photos/52529566@N … hotostream
My goal is to rebuild this house as it was in 1945. I even found the guy who help lay the brick, he was an apprentice and 19 at the time. I was going to paint the brick, can’t do it after meeting him. The windows will be rebuilt, dismantled and rebuilt as they originally were. It takes me about a month to do one. Half round gutters to go back on, though not in copper. Shutters in house being stripped, tons of other projects too.
Look up GAF Camelot II shingles. They are almost an exact match of the Certainteed Grand Manor at a fraction of the price. These higher end shingles you are looking at are too thick to make the roof transition. You will probably need a custom edge metal at the transition point if you go that way. Spec is 6 nails + hand sealing on a mansard btw.
gaf.com/roofing/residential/ … ngles.aspx
That would look nice.
[quote=“Tar Monkey”]Look up GAF Camelot II shingles. They are almost an exact match of the Certainteed Grand Manor at a fraction of the price. These higher end shingles you are looking at are too thick to make the roof transition. You will probably need a custom edge metal at the transition point if you go that way. Spec is 6 nails + hand sealing on a mansard btw.
gaf.com/roofing/residential/ … ngles.aspx[/quote]
That is good info to have about the nailing specs. I assume they know, but good for me to verify with them.
I was also looking at all of the II versions of their top end shingles, knowing they were thinner. I don’t mind the upcharge in price of the more expensive versions, since it is a little to pay for a higher end look, but what you say about the transition makes sense, was my original reason for this thread. I do not like that metal edge you spoke of, that is what I am trying to avoid.
[quote=“Miragesmack”]
too thick to make the roof transition. You will probably need a custom edge metal at the transition point if you go that way. Spec is 6 nails + hand sealing on a mansard btw.
gaf.com/roofing/residential/ … ngles.aspx
That is good info to have about the nailing specs. I assume they know, but good for me to verify with them.
I was also looking at all of the II versions of their top end shingles, knowing they were thinner. I don’t mind the upcharge in price of the more expensive versions, since it is a little to pay for a higher end look, but what you say about the transition makes sense, was my original reason for this thread. I do not like that metal edge you spoke of, that is what I am trying to avoid.[/quote]
Using metal at the pitch transition is far superior to simply folding the shingles over the pitch break.
I would go so far as to say that using metal is the “right” way and simply bending the shingle over the pitch break is less than ideal to put it nicely.
Thanks for making this more difficult! :lol: Almost all of the Gambrel homes I see are folded over, but all are 3 tab, including in magazines, etc… The ones I have seen with the break have a wood strip along the line, which I presume covers the metal transition. They are not always Gambrel, sometimes they are bi level type homes.
In the end, I doubt I will have any say on this, it will depend on the roofer. He will make the ultimate call I guess.
[quote=“Miragesmack”]Thanks for making this more difficult! :lol: Almost all of the Gambrel homes I see are folded over, but all are 3 tab, including in magazines, etc… The ones I have seen with the break have a wood strip along the line, which I presume covers the metal transition. They are not always Gambrel, sometimes they are bi level type homes.
In the end, I doubt I will have any say on this, it will depend on the roofer. He will make the ultimate call I guess.[/quote]
The simple truth is that residential roofing is a messed up retarded business.
There are a couple obvious reasons for this and some that are a bit more subtle.
The biggest reason is the relatively low cost of entry into this business.
Along with the low cost of entry is a perception that it is mostly simpletons work.
This leads to all sorts of unqualified people thinking that they can buy some tools and they are now a roofer.
When you get these people that don’t really know what they are doing (and it is surprisingly a majority of them it seems) bidding jobs they miss a lot of stuff and simply don’t know how to properly deal with other issues.
Properly bidding a job takes skill, knowledge, & experience, something many people who call themselves roofers seem to lack.
Many residential roofers sell based on price alone, this hurts everybody involved.
Now we have a scenario with too many unqualified people trying to do what is viewed as low skilled brainless work.
These unqualified “roofers” go around giving bids that are too low to sustain a business and since there are a lot of dumbasses in this business these low prices get looked upon as the norm or what is known as the “going rate”.
Well it is the going out of business rate and real roofers with real businesses have to go up against this every day.
Unfortunately many markets have more unqualified “roofers” than qualified ones.
This going out of business rate is so prevalent that many homeowners are shocked when they get a realistic bid to do quality work.
A realistic bid from a legit company will frequently be 2x as much as others.
When people get a realistic bid many feel as though they are being gouged because they are comparing it to a bid from someone who doesn’t really know what they are doing.
From a labor aspect roofing is pretty simple most of the time, for a person of average intelligence.
But 1/2 of the people you meet are below average intelligence, by definition…
Many roofing companies have all of their procedures in place based on high production, do the whole roof in 1 day, or 2 if it is large.
This may sound impressive and it certainly looks impressive when you see a good crew go to work, they get a lot done fast.
The problem with this is that in my experience it simply is not possible to do roofs this quickly and still do it according to manufacturer specs.
To get around this experienced roofers have developed many proven procedures to make the roof last at least 2-5 yrs, this gets them past their legal requirements to stand by their work.
Many roofs will start to leak or blow off after 5 yrs, because they weren’t put on correctly.
The thing is that a incorrectly installed roof can look identical to a correctly installed roof.
The customer is happy because they think they got a good roof, well you don’t really know how good your roof is until it is on for a little while.
Like I said almost all roofing companies can put on a roof that is problem free for 2-5 yrs.
Your roof should last at least 20 yrs, easily.
Another thing is that good roofers will use good material, good material costs more, it just does.
Homeowners don’t know the difference between good material and worthless crap, they aren’t expected to.
Roofers that are selling based on their low low price use the cheapest material available, and they install it as quickly as possible.
This leads to a bunch of bad roofs all over the city.
Part of this is the customers fault for having unrealistic expectations and not doing their homework.
The unrealistic expectation comes in the form of price shopping.
We have been taught to shop around for bargains, there is nothing wrong with this.
But.
When you are buying a roof, even though they may use exactly the same material the end product will be slightly different from one roofer to the next.
This is not like buying a tv where you can directly compare one product to an exact same model, many people don’t seem to understand this very simple concept.
A good illustration of this is the exposed fastener metal roofs that have become so popular lately.
Well lately people have been thinking that they want a metal roof.
To a homeowner a metal roof is a metal roof, whats the big deal.
Well a real metal roof designed for a climate controlled structure is expensive, all of them are expensive.
To put it another way, a metal roof worth having is expensive, it is out of most peoples budget realistically and this is why they haven’t been very popular for residential roofing.
Metal roofing is a commercial product.
Well, these exposed fastener metal roofs are cheap, about the same as shingles which is believe it or not, pretty cheap.
These exposed fastener metal roofs are not meant for residential use, they never were.
This doesn’t stop unscrupulous roofers from selling them as metal residential roofing.
This is just what many homeowners want to hear, cheap metal roof.
Since they are pushing cheap many of these “metal” roofs are installed over the top of existing roofs, to save money…
Within 10 yrs many of these cheap metal roofs will look like crap from uneven fading and/or leaking from worn out screw holes.
The roofers pushing the cheap crap don’t mention this aspect of these types of metal roofs.
The homeowner is happy because they think they got a good deal on a lifetime roof, well they didn’t, they just screwed themselves.
The only person that will tell them that is some know it all roofer on the internet…
I could go on and on, most members here deal with what I am talking about daily.
People that actually install residential roofing material to manufacturer specs are extremely rare, many people simply aren’t willing to pay what it costs to do things right because they think it is too much $ compared to others.
Well said Ax!!
Sorry for the delay, but out of town this weekend again.
And thanks for the thoughtful response. I went into this deal knowing it was a hornets nest, and things have been worse because of the recent storms we have had. I preferred to do it myself, but realize my limitations. I hope I picked a good roofer, they came with recommendations, I liked the guy, and my insurance adjuster said good things about them, right after he told me he can’t say anything per company rules. My insurance claim will likely be denied since I was forced to replace the (working roof) by them a few months ago, but we will see.
I chose the highest bidder, save for one that was out of the ballpark, and the least impressive person. He wanted over $20K for 14.5 squares of 3 tabs. I assume he didn’t want my business and bid high, as I have done in the past, because I did nag them all for details along the way. I chose the company I liked before the estimates came in. Today we settle a few details, like nails and copper flashing, and then I sign the contract. Still disagree with him on venting, but I am installing the gable vent, so I have some control over that.
I will try to post pics when I get it completed. Thanks for the advice, would love more if you got it, still haven’t settled on the exact shingle yet. ** Leaning toward GAF Slateline with copper flashing/counterflash at the moment, because I think the other luxury types may be a bit fussy for my little house in a middle class area. Still open to a few others too.**