Where to get low cost building materials?
 

I have a long list of home projects to work on, but most importantly I need to replace my asphalt shingle roof. Every time I mow the lawn I find more shingles that have broken free, and the roof is now old enough to drink (21 years).

I'm going to do the work myself since I have 3 and 4 day weekends, and have a negative cash-flow due to my wife being in med school. Is there a cheaper place to get building materials than Home Depot or Lowes? If not, do the materials ever go on sale?

I'll probably do a tear-off of the original roof and install architectural asphalt shingles, but I'd like to hear other suggestions if there are better products, or if you think I should just roof over the original.

Next year I want to replace the LP siding with something else, likely Hardieplank (suggest alternatives please). At the same time I'll replace the south facing windows which all had gaskets crack and fail due to direct sunlight. I have no idea how to choose a window that will stand up to decades of sunlight.

Is a home improvement store the place to buy these things, or are there cheaper places to source the materials? I have a truck and trailer, so self-delivery is no problem.

Don't get screwed on disposal fees.
Metal roof is one of the cheapest roofing materials.

How do I avoid getting screwed on disposal? I was just planning to take it to the dump.

Call first.
If they are going to charge you too much just put a little in your trash every week.

Now you're thinking like me. It might take a year to dispose of it, but I don't want to pay much.

That's what burn barrels are for. :thumbup:

Try Craigslist. There's a materials section. I've seen some fantastic bargains there.

This might be cost-effective in the long term, but some sort of thermal insulation is required. BTW what about those fiber-cement shingles (asbestos-free, naturally)? Is it available there too?

Whatever. Metal roofs are often put on right over the existing roofing material.

Find your local Habitat ReStore | Habitat for Humanity Int'l

^ Oh yeah, those too!

Doubling the weight load on the roof just seems wrong and lazy.

I know the rest of the world or at least almost everywhere I have been uses cement shingle but they are very rare in the U.S.
In the U.S. we normally use asphalt composite shingles or steel for residential roofing.
Nothing like seeing a rickety shack buckling while holding up 9 tons of cement roofing.

I had thought about installing solar panels, but I'll likely be moving in the next 2 years. I'll still keep the home, but I doubt renters would want to pay extra just because their utility bill is lower. Electric rates are very low here at $0.08 per kWh, and my roof isn't facing directly south.

My plan is to build our next house, and that will be the one to get solar or wind. Probably 5 years out on that.

I'll check with the ReStore places to see if a deal can be had on asphalt shingles. Failing that, maybe I can get a 20% off movers coupon to work. The post office used to supply the coupons.

Why not both? :)

You might ask me about geodesic domes. They're rare because they are all owner self-built; generally by people who don't understand how they should be architected. Here is one built on the Oregon coast in 1980:

http://jonmacken.com/images/south%20%5Boverview%5D.JPG
http://jonmacken.com/dome.html

I'll be grid-tied, so I won't have a need to supply all of my own power. As long as I generate close to what I consume, I'll be happy. The technology I choose will depend on what will produce the most kWh per $ for that location. Ideally I'd find a site suitable for micro-hydro, but that requires a small stream with lots of elevation drop, or a large stream that can be dammed.

I have many concerns about domes. The first being of noise isolation between rooms. I want a place where loud movies could be played while others sleep. I also don't like how much roofing material is used, and the difficulty in replacing it due to the compound shape.

I do like the fact that a sphere has the most interior volume to surface ratio, and is a structurally sound shape. It seems like it would be efficient to heat and cool too. Beyond that, I don't know what the advantages are.

.

Metal roof over existing shingles.

Then your done.

For life................................

;)

>

Yeah, though I don't know about the over part - though I freely admit I'm no roofing expert.

The other good part is that you can find metal roofs that will stand up to a reasonable amount of wind. I've seen several neighbors lose large chunks of their shingled roof in a good winter storm - and they go right ahead and replace it with more shingles.

Metal roof over pitch-wise sleepers. With a continuous ridge vent and eave vents. The 'hot tin roof' drives a passive ventilation system AKA free air-conditioning.

I've only lived in one dome myself; but TLDR it was the cleanest quietest and warmest place I've ever lived [Alert:small sample size].

Cleanest because, if you think about it dust settles in corners. When the air circulates in a torus shape inside a[n approximate] hemipshere, the dust leaves with the ventilation air. :thumbup:

Quietest because outside sounds can't get in! And if the speakers are placed appropriately, they don't need as much power to reach whatever level you desire. And the neighbors won't complain. OTOH, with a saddle-curved entry tunnel the whole structure becomes a instrument in the landscape. Don't point it at the neighbors house.

Warmest because it had radiant floor heat in the concrete slab. The biggest problem was in the winter you had to wear slippers. It was cheap-@ss construction T-111 siding asphalt shingles, aluminum window frames. A well constructed dome might be low-heat-loss and be heated by a copper globe full of (solar heated) water in the skylight. (the weight would act as a keystone, post-stressing the whole thing)

Oh—noise: All walls are radial to the center; no hallways, just alcoves. In an open dome sound travels along the surface; you can face the wall and whisper and someone on the other side can hear, but someone in the middle can not. Contrarywise, all the sound that passes through the middle can be muffled by a cylindrical absorber (maybe a spiral staircase). Or, cancelled with a speaker....

I'd better stop. Why isn't this in Saving@Home?

You can roof over old asphalt shingles, usually up to three total layers. If you already have three layers, your roof leaks, is visually sagging or the existing tiles would create an irregular surface, you will want do a tear down. After the tear down, replace sagging or rotted sheathing and/or support beams. This is also a good time to put on ice guard, if it isn't there already. Codes usually require it on new construction. [Also, if you have been thinking of putting in sunroofs, sun tunnels, vents or any other penetration, do it while the roof is bare.]

Roof tear downs create a large amount of trash, much more so if you are replacing sheathing. I doubt you will be able to keep the pile hidden while you whittle it down with the weekly garbage pickup, though I do like the idea. My father disappeared a torn up cement driveway that way, one or two chunks at a time over a decade.

You might want to schedule a dumpster. They cost around $120 and up around here. They will usually drop it and return in a a few days to a week or more. Keep an eye on it, because people will fill it with their own junk when you aren't looking.

Working on ladders or on the roof is serious business. BE VERY,VERY CAREFUL!!!!!! I was only very careful and did some serious damage.


There is a local manufacturer here in Utah, Bartile, that sells a large selection of fiber-cement roofing tiles.


A have an uncle who built a geodesic dome house east of Auburn, California. If you look carefully, you can see it through the trees, off to the right of the westbound lanes of I-80. He also used an all-weather wood foundation. It was nice, the one time I visited. He sold it about fifteen years ago, as it was too big to take care of at his age (now deceased).

It was a rather small frequency dome. There is a much higher frequency and larger diameter dome home here in Salt Lake. It is in the Holladay area, between Wasatch Blvd and I-215. I read about it in an alternative architecture book my parents gave me when I was a boy. A few years ago, it was for sale and I went on a tour of it. It was pretty nice inside. sometime in the last thirty years an owner had put up shingles over the exposed foam that covered it originally. It improved the look substantially. The house and property had nice views but too much road noise and priced too high for me.

A dumpster rent for me in 2008 was $250 when I was living in Virginia.
Call first, I too was assuming it would only be around $100.

I can dispose of the roofing material for $10/yd, or $87 per ton. How many yards and tons would you imagine a 2 story, 2100 sq/ft house would have?

... That reminds me that I need to buy a measuring tool so I can figure how many squares I'll need.

I still don't know if there are advantages or disadvantages to leaving the existing roof on. I'd think it would offer an additional layer of water protection and insulation.

Don't know what ice guard is. I'm planning on putting felt down, if that's what it is.

I'm interested in a ridge vent, but don't know how difficult that would be to do. I like the idea of getting rid of the plastic vents altogether and just having a continuous ridge vent, but I don't think I have enough ridge. The 4 sides of the roof are almost triangles that meet at the top, leaving a short ridge of maybe 10 ft.

The dome in the picture cost $70-90K, was worth $120K on completion and was up on the market ten years ago at $1/4mn.

If I thought even one ecomodder cared, I could put up a thread on Saving@Home about how to make ceramic hexagonal tiles out of clay and sand and heat.

Edit: I think ice guard is sheet metal above the gutters. :confused:

To tear off or not is a judgment call. Ask someone who has looked at it. Roofing squares are 3x3'. Take the rough measurement, adjust for dormers and add 10%.

Ice guard is also known as ice and water shield. It is an underlayment that is waterproof, adheres to the roof decking and self-seals around small perforations (nails, screws, staples). Code determines if it needs to be used, how deep it needs to be from the edge and on which edges, based on the roof pitch and local climate. Similar material is used to seal window openings and windows.

Ridge vents are pretty easy to install. I don't know if 10' will be enough to vent your attic space. Each manufacturer should have some published guidelines. Turtle vents are ugly, but you may not have a choice.

I used 22 packs (1 shingle out of the 22nd pack) of 75mph architectural shingles weighing of 68lb per bundle. The shingles that came off were the cheapest known to man 55lb per pack. So I assume it was around 1,200 of shingle, then there was the section of flat roof, that was rolled shingle, used 6 of those rolls, but don't recall the weight.
For a 1400 square foot house.
Figure how many packs of shingles it would take to redo it and that will give you a pretty good idea of the weight.

That's what was used to replace the old ceramic shingles in the building where I live:
http://www.imbralit.com.br/images/pr...lha_P3_4mm.jpg
At least back here it's the most cost-effective roofing.

Generally the lowest cost energy in most parts of the country is
1. Natural Gas electricity generated at home
2. Heat produced by compost.
3. Heat produced by homegrown biomass/wood

Everything else is somewhat more expensive, including solar.

Shingling over is the easiest thing to do, you wouldn't use tar paper or ice barrier. Instructions are on the package of shingles. Nice thing is you can be relaxed on time. It is recommended that you replace any missing tabs first.

You will have to remove the existing ridge row. I prefer the rolls of low profile shingle over ridge vent unless you have existing metal to reuse. I had some of the taller stuff that came in 4' lengths and it has a foam filter to keep bugs etc. out and after 10 years the filter was rotten, yep had to replace a 10 yo roof last summer. Not cheap at about $2.25/ft.

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr -- What's in that? Because when I put P3 SEM Aminato in Google; the results are bracketed by asbestos removal ads.

O MIRANTE | Operação de retirada de amianto da Escola P3 de Almeirim doesn't mention the product and seem to be about a P3 school.

Telhas e caixas d is unreadable because it throws up a 'Like us and register' pop-over. As if....

I don't know about P3, might be related to its thickness in milimeters, but sem amianto means that it's asbestos-free.