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The quality and integrity of the roof on your garage is important – almost as important as the roof over your head. After all, the garage is there to provide weather and theft protection for your car – and your car is probably important to you, right? Your garage should be in good shape then, and it all starts with the roof. Speaking of which – perhaps it is time to maintain or replace your garage roof?

Garage roofing should of course be done properly or it could result in leaks or other malfunctions. The question is, then, whether you should do the work yourself or hire a roofing contractor. One is cheaper – the other is perhaps more safe. But before you decide, let us look into what a garage roof is, or what it can be.

Garage roof types
Generally speaking, the demands here are not as great as for the roof on your home. A roof on a garage usually does not have as large a span, since garages are mostly smaller in width. Any attic space in a garage is usually only used for light storage, which means the roof trusses don’t need to support much more than the load of the roof itself. But even then, you still want a quality construction. Anything else would be a waste of your time and money.

Pitched roofs are common for garages; as are flat roofs. Many people whose homes have pitched roofs, like to copy the look of that roof to their garage. Often the roofing material and the wall material is the same, giving a nice coherent look to all buildings on the property. Others choose flat roofs instead; either because that corresponds to the roof construction on their homes, or because it is somewhat cheaper. Flat roofs are not completely flat of course; the have some pitch – usually sloping down from the front to the back of the garage, to make the roof appear flat from the facade. It is critical that rainwater can always be drained away from the roof, as it would otherwise find its way into the construction and cause damage. With that in mind, I would personally always choose a pitched roof – even though there are pros and cons for both types. The greater the ability to drain away rain water – the better, in my opinion.

Garage roofing materials
The market for roofing materials is huge and so is the selection. Some swear by corrugated sheets of metal or plastic; while others are more into shingles – which again can be made from steel, slate, wood, asphalt, etc. Then there are the classic clay roof tiles – when you want something extra nice. Each of these products have their advantages and disadvantages, but if I had to single out one of them as slightly inferior to the others, it would be anything made of any kind of plastic. Why? Because plastic tends to become brittle from exposure to sunlight over the course of some years. What started out as a flexible material, can then become quite sensitive to the pull of powerful winds, or to being hit by objects like branches falling off trees or hailstorms. In fact, I’ve even seen completely new plastic roofing sheets being torn to bits by hails the size
of cherrys! This sort of weather does occur in some parts of the world, so think about it before you invest in plastic rooing materials. Most of the other materials should be fine though. A good shingle or tile roof can last for hundreds of years if installed correctly, and if a tile or shingle does fall off during a storm, it can be easily replaced. Metal roofing sheets also have a decent lifespan, and are relatively cheap. A steel roof would look fine on a garage, and would have the advantage of being rather light, compared to clay tiles or slate shingles. This lets you use a light trussing for your roof.

Hiring a garage roofing contractor – or DIY?
Whether you take on the job yourself or hire someone to do it, depends on several factors. First of all, you should have some constructing skills before attempting something like roofing. A roof must be strong, safe and watertight, and you need to be able to thouroughly plan the work to achieve these goals. This includes knowing how to take accurate measurements for the placement of trusses, how to anchor the trusses to the loadbearing walls, how to stabilize the trusses vertically, horisontally and diagonally, how to lay out rafters or sheathing correctly, how to install a moisture barrier and how to properly install the roofing material itself. Depending on the roof, there can be a lot of little details that may not seem obvious, but are vital to the integrity of the roof nevertheless. A skilled do-it-yourselfer could do this for sure, so if you know someone like that, you might recruit their help for this sort of project. If all this sounds way too difficult, then you should probably hire a contractor. Depending on the scope of the project and the amount of money involved, you may also want to ally yourself with an engineer or architect or other knowledgeable person; to help you assess the project material delivered by the contractor. You could also hire a building inspector to go over the finished roof before you send the last payment to the contractor. This will give you a heads up, if the roofing is somehow lacking in quality. I am not implying that all contractors are dishonest – rather that building projects (including roofing) are both so relatively expensive and so very important, that it doesn’t hurt to make sure. If you run into a dispute with a contractor over work done, it could in the worst case become a long and painful process to have things corrected or get compensation. Better safe – and slightly paranoid – than sorry. An alternative to have your garage custom built, is to purchase a prefabricated garage.
This would get you a tried and tested construction, and a much more transparent deal, should you not be satisfied with the product.

I hope this little writeup has helped you toward some decisions about your new garage roof. Be sure to read the other helpful articles about garage roofing on this site.

Category: Garage Roofing

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