When you’re looking at replacing a roof for your home or commercial building, there’s a lot to consider. What you want to pay, the look and feel of the roofing, and even your ownership goals all impact your decision to buy a new roof.
Steel vs. Wood Shingle Roof Replacement
Metal roofing is gaining popularity for a few good reasons. First and foremost, it lasts much longer than a wooden roof. Wooden roofing degrades over time, while metal roofing withstands the elements easily.
Because of that resilience, steel shingles last up to three times longer than a wooden roof will. But wooden shingles can save you a lot on materials. In Alberta, wood shake shingles enjoy an average price of $9000 for materials alone on a 2000 square foot roof, whereas steel shingles come in at about $17,000.
But either way, shingles bring the tremendous advantage of partial replacement. That’s one thing residential owners need in the event of a few faulty shingles to keep costs low. But no matter which you choose, you have to think about labour costs. One advantage we have is keeping all our labour in-house to avoid subcontracting labour markup.
Labour really can’t be underestimated. And if you’re thinking about replacement every 20 years versus every 50 or 60 for metal shingles—that’s more than double, almost triple the labour costs.
Commercial Roofing vs. Residential Roofing Maintenance
Different ownership goals are an understated factor. A commercial building leasing property will be a lot more inclined to think in terms of decades. But residential homeowners might well want to move within 30 years, the resale value of which is not guaranteed.
Ultimately, you have to put yourself in the shoes of a homebuyer, and not necessarily your own. People have changing tastes, and a roof with metal shingles might not perform well on resale if roofing aesthetics remain on the side of wooden shingles. For many decades, a homeowner banking on calling the same house their home would have a lot less of a headache than a homeowner trying to sell a home with unconventional roofing.
Nevertheless, market share of metal shingle roofs is constantly gaining. And in our experience, investing in the future could pay off a lot more than expected. Roof maintenance is a lot cheaper than roof replacement in Calgary, and metal shingles’ one-time cost has satisfied more than a few of our customers who have found their forever-home locally.
At City Roofing and Exteriors, we take pride in our work and serving Calgarians. We work hard to assist our customers in providing proper roofing systems to meet your budget and needs. We guarantee that you will be satisfied with our work, give us a call at (403) 608-9933.
