ROOF REPLACEMENT
RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL ROOFING
Free Roof Inspecition
An Epert Team of Highly-Qualified Roofing Pros
Owen’s Corning Truedefinition® Duration® Shingles with Lifetime Warranty
Superior Customer Service
Understand the Full Roof Replacement Process
American Choice Exteriors wants to make sure you understand the roofing process, as well as the jargon used in the roofing trade in order to make informed decisions regarding your full roof replasement.
American Choice Exteriors specializes in the Owens Corning Truedefinition® Duration® Shingles for full roof replacements. We are a Owens Corning Preferred Contractor. Most of our moderately-sized, professionally-installed roofing jobs with American Choice Exteriors take only 1 day to install weather permitting. The overall process followed by our professional roofing crew goes like like:
- Remove all existing shingles, deposit them in our American Choice Exteriors dumpster: Damaged or old valley flashing and drip edging is also removed at this time. Our crew will use tarps to protect your foundation plantings and shrubs during tear-off and will use magnetic tools to pick up nails and metal objects from your lawn.
- Make minor repairs on the roof if it is in good condition: If not, replace bad/rotted wood with new plywood sheathing.
- Install upgraded Ice & Water (Ice Dam) Shield: The ice guard membrane is a synthetic waterproof barrier material designed to prevent melting ice from backing up under the shingles and penetrating through the sheathing, where the moisture can cause severe damage. It will be installed at the bottom of the roof (eave) and anywhere the roof is penetrated such as chimneys, pipe flanges, and the valleys.
- Lay down underlayment over the roof sheathing: We’ll do this by stapling a synthetic material to your roof and closing it in with round stickers to keep water from getting in. Installing the underlayment is simple but requires great care, as we want to ensure there are no wrinkles or gaps that will allow water to penetrate your roof. We use synthetic material rather than tar paper because it is much more water resistant and will better protect your roof.
- Apply metal drip edging around the edge of the roof, both the eave sides and gable sides: The edges of your roof are a common area that rain can find its way in through. when rain hits your roof, it travels down to the edges where it can collect in the fascia. By installing a drip edge around the edge of the roof, we ensure that water is drected into your gutter. The metal drip edge is nailed in place over the ice & water shield.
- Where necessary, apply a new valley flashing along with areas where two roof planes meet: The valley flashingis typically nailed to the roofing deck and sealed with roofing caulk.
- Apply the starter strip: Starter strips are what we install right before we lay the shingles. We use starter strips to ensure that the butted shingle bond doesn’t get exposed to the underlayment. The starter strips help cover the joints between the shingles and make sure your whole roof is waterproof and wind-resistant. Before we install the starter strips, we draw lines on your roof to ensure that they are properly aligned. We’ll then install starter strips in all the places that we’ll later install shingles, including the lower eave edge of the roof as well as the rake edges. The starter strips on the rake edges of the roof will ensure that when you look up at the edge of your roof from below, you’ll see a nice even line rather than the uneven ends of the shingles.
- Install the shingles: Next up we’re finally ready to start installing the shingles. We’ll work from the bottom up, offsetting the new shingles from the starter strips to ensure that there’s no overlap. When nailing in the shingles, we drive the nail flush with the shingle rather than cutting into it. We’ll nail the shingles into place one at a time, overlapping them to cover the nail. By laying the shingles down in a staircase order from left to right, we slowly work our way up the roof toward the peak.
- Install accessory items/flashing: This is the point in the roof replacement process where we’ll replace all of the necessary accessory items on your roof including caps, boots, and vents. We’ll also install flashing around these areas to prevent leaks. We’ll nail the flashing into the roof in each of these shingles at the outside edges. Then, by using a roofing caulk, we’ll seal the flashing to the roof and keep it airtight.
- Ridge Vent: This continuous vent along the peak of the roof will improve the ventilation in your attic and helps protect your roof preventing winter ice dams. While many older roofs don’t have ridge vents, we absolutely recommend installing one when we replace your roof as it affects the overall integrity of the roof.
- Ride cap Shingles: One of the last things we do when we replace a roof is to install ridge cap shingles to overlap the field shingles.By using ridge cap shingles, we give the peak of your roof a neater finished look.To install them, we separate them at the perforation and bend them over the peak before nailing them in.We use longer nails to make sure that these shingles penetrate all of the roof layers into the roof deck.
- Complete the final cleanup and haul the debris away: Now that our job is almost done, we want to leave your home in perfect condition. While we clean our job sites daily, we will at this point do one final cleanup and haul away the last of the debris. We make sure to leave your home looking as clean as your brand new roof.
- Final Inspetion: We want to make sure that our work is done to your satisfaction, which is why our roof installation process ends with a thorough inspection.We’ll go over your new finished roof with you to ensure that everything looks the way you imagined it would.
- Lifetime Warranty: We stand by the quality of our work. That’s why we offer lifetime warranty to our customers to cover manufacturing defects for as long as you own your home. If any part of your roof is defective from our installation process, we will replace it for free.
Replacing a roof is a long and tricky process. Many roof replacement companies won’t include important steps such as installing ridge vents or trimming the excess material from ridge cap shingles. Through our thorough process, we here at American Choice Exteriors hope you’ll see the care we take in our work to ensure that your roof is as attractive as it is protective. Contact us today to let us take care of all of your roofing needs!
OUR CUSTOMER IS OUR #1 PRIORITY!
We Specialize in Owens Corning
TrueDefinition Architectural Shingles
What Sets Us Apart From The Competition?
We Don't Use Subcontractors
Lifetime Warranty
Price Match Guarantee
Customer Testimonials
We love hearing from our customers! We invite you to read many more 5-Star reviews and testimonials from our clients.
Cities We Service In Maryland
Rockville, Clarksburg, Gaithersburg, Potomac, Silver Spring, Germantown, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Olney, Clarksville, Frederick, Burtonsville,
FAQ
We get lots of questions from our clients. Below are just a few of the most common ones. But we understand every roof is different, every house is different, and you may have specific questions regarding your specific situation or project. We’d love to answer them for you!
Give our team a call at (301) 687-2345 We look forward to speaking with you.
I have missing shingles, does this mean I need a new roof?
Does my homeowner’s insurance cover roof damage and leaks?
Will my insurance go up? I don’t want to be canceled or put a “dent” in my insurance.
Why can’t I find a random repairman to do the job?
What products do you use?
With American Choice Exteriors we only use quality Architectural Shingles, Premium Synthetic Underlayment, and other high-end roofing materials. We want to ensure you are “covered” by your new roof for many years to come. We know we are putting you in the best possible position come hail, wind, or water! Your roof will be the same quality roof we would use to cover our own family.
How do I know this is not a scam and that at the end of the process I won’t owe unexpected money?
American Choice Exteriors is as transparent as possible throughout the whole process. You are more than welcome to join our experienced inspector on your roof once we have completed our initial inspection so we can show you the findings. For those not able to climb their roof, we are more than happy to provide photos, live conference video call, or drone video to make you feel comfortable knowing what is going on with YOUR roof. Our goal is to make you feel secure every step of the way. We are upfront about any costs or potential costs so there are no surprises. At American Choice Exteriors we understand the unfortunate truth that so many people get taken advantage of – but our entire business is based on the principle that your comfort and satisfaction is our ONLY and NUMBER ONE priority.
How long will the entire process take?
What makes American Choice different than every other roofing contractor out there?
Knowledge – With a combined total of over 30 years of experience in the industry American Choice Exteriors knows how to get the job done the right way the first time. We are knowledgeable about materials, roofing systems, etc. and can confidently assist you with all of your exterior needs.
Upgrades – With American Choice Exteriors, you will get upgraded and still pay nothing more than you would for the basic materials. We know that in upgrading your roof, we are making an investment in you, and you will trust us with one of your most important investments, your home!
Family – We are family owned and operated. You will feel this from the moment you call us on a Sunday to get a free inspection and we pick up the phone. You will feel this when we drive through your neighborhood after working on most of your neighbors’ homes and people are waving as our truck rolls through. Family is important to us. Your family is no exception.