We bit the bullet and decided to replace the roof this summer. We purchased Owens Corning asphalt shingles in Colonial Slate color from Lowe's two weeks ago. For $50, Lowe's delivered all of the supplies to our home Friday afternoon. We also rented a huge dumpster and 28-foot ladder with a lift for this little home project.
As with any home renovation project, you should prepare for something to go wrong. Point in case: five minutes into tearing off the roof, we saw a layer of asphalt shingles laughing at us. We now had to tear up two layers of shingles, which meant it wouldn't all fit in the dumpster we ordered, which meant more money for a second dumpster trip. Fortunately, the sheeting was all in good shape besides a small section on top of our screened-in porch, which meant saving time and money on not replacing it. Those wood shake shingles were nasty to tear up. Debris, dirt and wood chips everywhere!
Our crew was the best! Lucas and myself plus Lucas' dad, mom, brother, aunt, uncle and cousin and three friends.
Lessons learned:
1) Close your windows. A ton of dirt and soot flew in our screens. We had to wash and vacuum each window sill from the inside as well as wipe down nearby furniture.
2) Throw - don't push - crap off the roof. When you push debris off, it bounces off the siding and falls to the ground. We ended up ripping three window screens in the process. On the front side of the house we tried much harder to throw the shingles away from the house. We still managed to rip one on the second story. Not sure how much those will cost to replace, but they will have to wait until another weekend.
3) Have wasp spray handy. We disturbed a wasp family's home when we tore up the roof, and they weren't very happy. I can't believe no one got stung.
4) One story high is a lot different than two stories high. It's surprising how much difference one story can make. One person on our crew did just fine on the garage roof but couldn't handle being on the second story roof. He did an excellent job as our ground crew.