What are The Cheapest Ways To Roof Your House?
Facts About Building and Roofing Projects
The issue of building projects had been a major search term online for Nigerians seeking directions on how to go about their building projects at a lower cost.
However, no matter any amount of posts online to answer such questions, it is believed that more articles are still needed to make the issue more specific and clear to anyone embarking on building projects.
Issues of how many blocks to build a house? Cost of blocks in their various sizes? The number of bags of cement needed for a building project? & cost of roofing a house in a building project? and among other issues relating to such project that had actually been a trending search, so I thought it necessary to make a more specific post in regard to roofing projects.
When it comes to roofing there are many factors that will determine the choice a builder should make, and such factors include; financial capacity, the required quality of the building, durability in comparison with the aesthetic of the building, and the size of the building, etc. these factors will determine the type of materials, builders, and beauty the building will have at the end of the entire project.
10 Cheapest Ways To Roof Your House
However, if management and less cost of roofing a building are the major priority of the owner, then the following ideas can be necessary and would help to reduce the cost of all the roofing budgets.
For a building owner to reduce such costs the following must be observed:
USING DIRECT DEALERS:
If the building is a big one, no need of buying roofing materials from the market. The reason is that over 90% of the roofing sheet dealers in the Nigerian markets are third-party dealers.
The actual importers and manufacturers have their own offices and they still accept clients directly, which may not actually be marketers on the condition that they buy in a specified minimum quantity.
Buying your roofing sheets and materials like aluminum roofing sheets, nails, facials, etc. from them will cut off the price being added by the third-party dealers in the market.
Besides that, some of the companies can specify some months or years of guarantee in their roofing sheets, which can become an advantage and an assurance of quality product.
CONSIDER YOUR FINANCIAL STRENGTH & DURABILITY:
Quality is good and a good characteristic of quality is durability if your roofing budgets were focused on cost reduction only without giving thought to durability.
Then you may end up repeating the entire roofing process after a specific period of time which technically may not be viewed as being economical.
The real economical idea must put durability into consideration.
The ranges of roofing sheets in Nigeria are:
- Stone tiles (metro tiles)(per square meter )
- Long span Aluminum roofing sheets (by roof measurement)
- Short span Aluminum roofing sheets (Cameroon aluminum roofing sheets) (4 feet by 6 feet, 50 pcs, cost =N54, 000)
- Cameroon zinc roofing sheets (an alloy of zinc sheets)(2 ½ feet by 6 feet, 20pcs, cost N22000)
- Corrugated Zinc roofing sheets (iron sheets plated with zinc on the surfaces) (2 ½ feet by 6feet, 12 pcs, N10,000)
- Asbestos roofing sheets (breakable roofing sheets) (2 ½ feet by 6feet, N1200 per piece)
- Plastic roofing sheets (2 ½ feet by 6feet, N900 per piece)
Please note that the prices mentioned above were as at the 2018 market price, a lot has changed in terms of price currently.
These listed roofing sheets are according to their cost starting from the first to the last respectively.
The choice you make as the owner of the building will determine the cost of the roofing budgets, however, their durability will depend on the thickness and the material that the roofing sheets were made from.
AESTHETIC IS A CHOICE:
The beauty of the roofing is a choice for the building owner. The beauty of roofing lies in the actual type of roofing sheets used not necessarily in terms of quality but color, neat arrangements of the sheets, how current the roofing sheets are in the market, and the type of buildings that uses such type of roofing sheets.
Any type of roofing sheet chosen can last depending on some factors but some can last more than others.
Therefore, if money is a problem for the roofing budget consider going for the cheaper and durable roofing sheets like the types in numbers 4 & number 3.
ABOUT THE WOODS:
A lot of secrets had been hidden when it comes to the types of woods available for roofing and the best type. The carpenters and builders specialize in their experience to make a good fortune from their clients when it comes to woods for roofing works.
From my records, there are two basic types of woods for roofing which are; softwoods and hardwoods. Some carpenters claim that softwoods are better for roofing, for the reason that it makes their work easier since the wood can be cut and nailed easily with less stress.
While the hardwoods provide the opposite of that by making the work harder and more time-consuming.
However, some experts have specified hardwoods to be able to bear more loads and not easily eaten by termites.
Whichever wood the builder and client accept to use in the building, should be treated with condemned oil or a special chemical to avoid termite attack on the wood after the roofing project.
The treatment should be done before starting the roofing activities to give the woods time to soak the chemical or condemned oil and also get dried up for good handling.
ABOUT THE CARPENTERS:
When making the choice of a carpenter to roof your building go for the experienced one even if their cost is higher because a mistake of an inexperienced carpenter can cost you more than that which the experienced carpenter would have charged.
Another point is to ensure you do not entrust the buying of the roofing materials into the hand of the carpenter, otherwise, you may be on the way to being duped in terms of quality.
Instead of that, ask the carpenter to make specifications for all the materials that will be needed for the job, then go to the market with a builder or a wood dealer to obtain the best quality for your roofing.
MAKING CALCULATIONS FOR THE NUMBER OF WOODS:
Knowing the number of woods for the roofing is not an easy task and may require the assistance of a builder, a carpenter, or an architect to obtain the actual number of woods which can be in an estimated figure.
Using the obtained number to make your purchase is a good idea for saving costs and avoiding wastage.
REQUIRED WOOD SIZES:
The normal sizes of woods used in roofing are 2inches by 2inches plywoods, 2inches by 4inches plywoods, and facial boards.
These three wood sizes are the most used in roofing except in special cases. Some may be omitted and other sizes may be added.
HOOK UP THE ROOF WITH LINTELS:
Before commencing the roofing activities properly, it is recommended to anchor the base woods of the roof below the building lintels using ¾ rods.
This is to ensure that the building and its roof were properly fitted together such that nothing would make the wind have any effect on the roof after the project.
BEST LABOR BARGAINING OPTION:
During the roofing budget, do not bargain to make your payment a daily pay option rather, give it out as a contract to the carpenter and install someone to monitor the use of materials you provided.
The terms of the contract should specify the date your roofing will be completed to avoid unnecessary delay in the process.
Paying for the labor daily will cause the work to be delayed because more days mean more money.
PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROOF SKELETON:
The final beauty of the roof does not rely on the roofing sheets alone rather the roof skeleton job has its own role to play.
If the skeleton was made incorrectly or out of specifications for the roofing sheets, then there will be distortions on the roof surfaces after placing roofing sheets on them.
It is important to invite an experienced builder to confirm the skeleton work of the carpenter before making your last payment on the contract bargained.
Also, before inviting the roofers to place the roofing sheets if that will be done by another group.
Conclusion
The above ten steps are the cheapest ways to roof your house, they can be employed when carrying out a house roofing project to assist in managing the expenses and reducing the costs. Please use the comment section to give us feedback.
