Compare roofing quotes on what they do in the valleys

Subdivisions built in the eighties and nineties are on their second roof now, and a fair number took that second roof as a layer over the first. Stripping two is close to twice the labor and twice the disposal of stripping one. A quote priced for a single layer on a roof that has two will not stay at that price.

Pine litter in a valley holds water against the deck for weeks, and the sheathing there is often soft long before anything shows inside. Nobody sees it until the shingles are off. A price per sheet, and the count the estimate assumes, bounds that risk instead of leaving it to be argued on the roof.

Felt and synthetic are different products at different prices, and only one of them shrugs off the downpour that rolls in between tear-off and shingle in a Carolina summer. "Underlayment included" does not tell you which. Ask for the product by name.

Ice here is occasional rather than annual, but when freezing rain comes it comes onto pine-shaded roofs that are already damp, and the valleys are where it holds. Whether the membrane runs the valleys, the eaves, and around every penetration, or only the code minimum, is a different roll count and a different day.

Where a dormer meets the slope or a garage roof meets the wall, the step flashing can be replaced or sealed and left. Sealing is quicker, and under a summer of humidity and a winter of freeze-thaw it is the first thing to fail.

A brick chimney on the shaded side of a slope grows algae and holds pine litter against its uphill face all year. Counterflashing cut into the mortar, a sound crown and a cricket to shed the litter are separate work, and they are regularly absent from a headline number.

A Piedmont attic in August runs far hotter than the air outside and ages the shingle from underneath. Reinstalling the vents that were there does nothing about it. Adding intake at the soffit and exhaust at the ridge is real work, and the quote should say whether it is doing that or putting things back as found.

The metal at the eave and the starter course under the first row are where water runs off a roof full of pine litter and where the fascia goes soft. Both are cheap, both are easy to leave off a quote, and both are where rot starts when they are missing.

Gutters under longleaf and loblolly fill with needles every season and hold them wet. Whether they come down and go back, get replaced, get guards, or get worked around is a line the quote should state. If the fascia behind them is soft, that belongs on the quote too.

Each county and town in the Piedmont issues its own permit and inspects on its own schedule. Whether the contractor pulls it, bills it separately, or leaves it to you are three different arrangements, and only one puts a license on the file.

The manufacturer stands behind the shingle, and an algae-resistant rating is part of that. Somebody has to stand behind the installation, which is what fails in the valleys. A material warranty with no written labor warranty covers the part that rarely goes.

A dumpster on a driveway, two layers of shingle coming down through pine branches, a magnet sweep of a lawn covered in needles and red clay. Small lines, and most of what people complain about after the crew has left.