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Do-it-yourself roofing: You decide if it's worth it

Tammy McGee | • Published September 03, 2009

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The kitchen is sanded, prepped, and ready for primer. It had to be put on the back burner for a few days, however, because we had roof issues, and Mr. B decided to deal with it himself. With only limited time to get the roof squared away before the rain, I decided my talents were needed there. What talents, you ask? That was my question to myself as well, because Tammy doesn’t do heights.

Roof work is one of those home projects that are touchy. If you’ve never done it before, there is way more to it than I ever thought. Luckily, the hubby is mathematically inclined so when angles and measurements became a factor, he wasn’t a complete nitwit. I threw the book in the air and said, “Good luck honey.”

I figured I would do some of the grunt work like bringing the bags of tiles from the garage to the backyard. Have you ever picked one of those up? I pulled three bags of tiles (one at a time, of course) out of the back of our truck into the wheelbarrow, and watched the tire on the wheelbarrow flatten immediately. There is definitely major poundage happening in those bags. We had 24 of those to move from front to back, and then up the ladder and on to the roof. Mental note: Find someone to parachute those suckers on to the roof next time. Mr. B hoisted those bags on to his shoulder and up the ladder to the roof, one at a time.

I did spend a lot of time cutting tiles. Contrary to what you might think, you might buy your roofing tiles in 3-tab sheets, but we used 2-tab, and 1-tab sheets too, and those we had to cut ourselves - small price for me to pay to NOT have to climb the ladder. When they were cut, I took a stack of five at a time and tossed them on to the roof.

The roof job was a tough one. Was it worth doing ourselves? I vote ‘yes,’ but then I didn’t have to do the real heavy lifting part of the work. Mr. B also votes ‘yes,’ but at the same time, our house is relatively small, with almost no pitch to it. Also, Mr. B had a ‘connection’ in the roofing supply business so we did get a price break on all the materials. That’s something you would have to go and research to see if the cost savings is worth it for you.

My advice? Have help. Rent the nail gun, and have some working idea of what you’re doing before you start. We used Black & Decker’s “Roofing, Tiling, and Siding” book. It was thorough, and easy to understand. As far as supplies goes, the material we looked at was cheaper at Home Depot, than it was at Lowe’s. We were curious to know what our savings were between the materials ‘connection,’ and if we had hired a roofer to come and do it.

Now, I can get back to the kitchen work without having to move that darn bucket around in the pantry where the roof WAS leaking.