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If you’re building a house or planning to do so, keep reading this article! We’ve prepared a guide that’s going to help almost anyone who’s looking to choose a type of roof for their home. Without further ado – let’s look into the things that matter when you’re trying to choose roofing materials and types.
Looking into the future
When selecting the housing project or when looking at different roof sheeting materials, people want to think about the right-now and completely overlook the future. However, you have to keep in mind that you and/or your family will be living in that house for a while. If the material of choice isn’t durable, is very extravagant or isn’t versatile or well-made, you’ll be struggling soon after the roof is put up.
When choosing a roof, you have to look at these things:
- Warranty from the manufacturer (and/or the contractor that’s putting up the roof)
- Resistance to UV
- Resistance to temperature changes (with accordance to your climate zone)
- Load resistance (for snow)
- Application of solar panels (if you’re not choosing solar tiles outright).
All of these features can be super important for the long-term ownership of a roof.
The aesthetics of surrounding nature and the neighborhood
It might be tempting to go all out and choose something that you feel would look nice, but… If you completely ignore the aesthetics of the surrounding landscape as well as the neighborhood, you might end up with a house that’s going to have much lower resell value and that might be an eyesore for everyone around you.
First, get familiar with the architectural style and age of your home (if applicable). Such knowledge can be obtained through a consultation with an architect but it’ll prove helpful when choosing the roof. Some neighborhoods might even have restrictions on the choices of materials in terms of aesthetics.
Technical recommendations from professionals
Sadly, when a person is building a home, they forget that whilst having the money to bankroll the construction, they don’t possess enough knowledge on the matter. When you negotiate with contractors and/or architects, they might have suggestions for you to make your project more:
- Aesthetic
- Cost-efficient
- Time-resistant
- Unique
Listen to them if they have suggestions and try to accept their insights to have a better house!
Cost of the entire project
People usually just look at the cost of the materials for the roof. However, in most developed countries, material cost only consists of about 30 to 45% of the total project cost. When choosing a roofing material, you should be aware of the construction cost (labor). Some materials are more expensive, both money and time-wise to put up whilst others offer reasonable affordability.
Also factor in the potential timeframe for renovations. Roofing types which last <20 years might be cheaper than those with a 50-year lifespan but the cost of refurbishment and renovation might offset the extra spending twice or three times over, meaning that the higher initial cost would’ve proven to be a much better solution.
