Pros & Cons of Roof Replacement During
South Elgin, Illinois’ Cold Months

Great question! Below are the top (5) reasons you should seriously consider hiring Apex Exteriors to install your new roof:

**Experience**

We have been installing and repairing roofs for nearly 40 years in the Chicagoland suburbs so as you might imagine, we’ve quite literally seen it all! This matters because collectively, our team has over a century’s worth of in the field real world experience tearing off and replacing low slope, steep slope, asphalt shingle, tile, cedar shake, metal, synthetic composite and even flat roofs for homeowners. It also means that we’re not going anywhere… so if a warranty issue does pop up in 5, 10, or even 20+ years from now, you can rest assured that we will be right here, where we’ve always been, to back it up and resolve your roofing problem. Not a lot of roofing contractors in our area can say that, let alone be around to make good on those promises in 5 or even 20 years. We can and we just did.

**Reputation**

We have worked hard in our company’s history to exceed our customers’ expectations in every interaction and it shows in our online reputation. As such, we have earned 250+ Google Reviews with a 4.8 star rating, earned an A+ BBB Rating (Better Business Bureau) and have numerous stellar reviews on other familiar websites such as Facebook, Houzz and Angi. You don’t get here by being mediocre. You don’t even get here by being just good at your trade… We got here because everyone in our company shows up everyday for our customers and we take genuine pride in the work we perform. Every. Single. Day.

**Labor**

Unlike the overwhelming majority of our competitors, we DO NOT hire subcontractors to install new roofs for our customers. We only use our full-time in house crew that are continuously trained to the highest levels of OSHA safety standards, fall protection and training, as well as roofing installation best practices and techniques which keeps our team miles ahead of the competition. This is crucial because temporary labor, or subcontractors, can very often be unskilled, unsafe, and unreliable causing huge problems on the timeline of your new roof as well as the quality in how is was ultimately installed on your home. This is not the time for you to take risks with protecting and maintaining what is likely your largest investment. We certainly won’t be risking it. Additionally, your project will have an assigned Project Manager to oversee the installation crew ensuring all installation standards are met, safety precautions like proper fall protection harnessing is being used correctly, your property is being protected during the job and no detail is ever overlooked.

**Certifications & Credentials**

At Apex Exteriors, we are extremely proud to have earned the highest level of credentials with CertainTeed, the maker of the finest architectural asphalt shingles on the market today. This used to be known as a “CertainTeed ShingleMaster Select” partner but that was recently updated to the CertainTeed ShingleMaster Elite designation. It quite literally puts us in the top 1% of roofing companies locally and that’s a real distinction with a real difference worth considering. We earned this not only because of the volume of asphalt shingles we purchase and install from Saint Gobain, the company behind the CertainTeed brand, but because of the extensive training and material expertise our team members have obtained through our partnership with CertainTeed. Simply stated… you can’t find a more qualified roofing company to work with on installing your new roof.

**Roofing Materials**

Your home’s new roof is only as good as the roofing materials used and the people installing it. Piggybacking on our credentialing and certifications comments above, we are extremely honored to be in the top 1% of local roofing companies that can say they are a CertainTeed ShingleMaster Select partner. Why do we install so much CertainTeed product? Because we’ve used the others in the past and they all had their fair share of issues from curling, short lifespans, flyoff’s, premature color fading, premature granule loss, and all the way up to the actual manufacturer not standing up to their product’s actual defects in a given production run. Sure we will install matching GAF, Owens Corning, Atlas, Tamko, IKO and Malarkey shingles when doing a repair or if a customer absolutely demands it, but we really prefer CertainTeed’s lineup of premium Landmark series shingles to their ultra-premium architectural asphalt shingle offerings like Belmont and Grand Manor. They are so good that we can even install their shingles in colder than ideal conditions and never have adhesion issues pop up down the road. The actual weight of a bundle (3 bundles are needed to cover 100 square feet) of CertainTeed’s shingles also tell part of the story. Since all manufacturers today use fiberglass mats for the foundation or base layer of their asphalt shingles, we know the additional weight or substance is found elsewhere in the manufacturing process of the roofing shingle. Case in point, a bundle of CertainTeed’s shingles are nearly always several pounds heavier than any of their competitors and that’s because weight matters here. It matters because it proves that the quantity of actual asphalt/bitumen and granules used in the making of the roofing shingle is more substantial… and more is better in this situation. More material and more mass mean more product to protect your roof from the elements and a higher likelihood of the shingle staying put even in extreme and severe high wind events. But it’s not just the shingles that deliver superior performing roofs for our customers. It’s the combination of using CertainTeed’s ice & water shield underlayments, hip & ridge shingle and venting components and executing proper roofing ventilation best practices. Add it all up and we have best in class roofing solutions that outperform the competition, so much so, that we are able to offer up to 50-year warranties on our CertainTeed installed roofing solutions.

That answer is dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, what specific roofing materials and products are installed and who installed your new roof. Let us start by explaining the most common roof types that we install and their expected lifespans assuming a professional like Apex Exteriors actually installed your new roof.

Asphalt Shingle Roof – You can reasonably expect a new high quality architectural asphalt shingle roof (most common) to last a solid 30 years before needing to be replaced. More premium asphalt shingles like CertainTeed’s Belmont or Grand Manor installed by a CertainTeed ShingleMaster Elite contractor like Apex Exteriors, the highest level of certification a roofing contractor can achieve, can be 50 or more years of life expectancy.

Cedar Shake Roof – A properly installed and maintained cedar shake roof should last 30 years and an unmaintained cedar shake roof can only be expected to last 20 years in our harsh climate

Metal Roof – A high quality metal roof or standing seam metal roof should be expected to give the homeowner at least 50 years of service. Like any roof, the quality of the actual metal roofing materials used and the skill or lack thereof of the labor installing the roof has everything to do with reaching these lifespans.

Slate Roof – An ultra-premium natural slate roof can be expected to provide a useful lifespan of 100 or more years. Unfortunately, most homes were neither initially designed nor constructed to handle the tremendous weight of a slate roof and are not going to be great candidates for this beautiful option unless significant and costly structural improvements were made to the existing building structure to carry the extra load.

Clay Tile Roof – Another beautiful and durable roofing option, clay tile roofs can be expected to give a homeowner in Chicagoland a general lifespan of at least 75 years and it’s not uncommon to get well over 100 years of life from this style of roof.

Synthetic Composite Roof – An ultra-premium synthetic composite roof like the offerings from Brava and DaVinci should last at least 50 years per the manufacturer’s technical literature and extensive laboratory testing, but the jury is still out on these options as DaVinci was founded in the late 1990’s and Brava launched in 2008. Time will tell but from our experience and opinion, we believe this is highly likely due to the high quality of these roofing products, their rigorous testing and having first-hand experience installing both of these brands’ products on many higher end homes over the past couple of decades.

This is an important question to ask before signing any contract for any work to be performed on your home or business by a contractor. Apex Exteriors does hold local licenses in all applicable cities and municipalities that require contractors to be licensed for all work performed in Illinois. We are also insured with an umbrella policy of $5,000,000 in coverage.

Being “bonded” basically translates to that we (Apex Exteriors, Inc.) have purchased a surety bond, also known as a third-party guarantee that is built to protect you financially if we were to fail to complete the job you contracted us to perform, or if we were to violate the terms of our agreement/contract, and lastly, if we were to fail to pay our suppliers or applicable subcontractors.

We can also pull any required permits in your city/municipality per your request. Our Illinois roofing licenses are located below.

104.015352

105.003372

Once we thoroughly inspect your roof and determine what material we’re installing and the true scope of your project, we’ll then be able to provide you with an accurate estimate for your new roof. Will it be the cheapest you get? The most expensive? No, and no. We tend to land in the middle if you were to get 5 proposals, charging what it takes to ensure our skilled in-house teams do the job properly and to the highest industry standards. We also want to get you the best roofing products and manufacturer’s warranty.

Okay Okay… stop dodging the question right?! For simplicity’s sake, all of these answers are assuming a full tear off and premium architectural asphalt shingle installation with gutter flashing/gutter aprons installed. We won’t replace a roof without this vital step as you end up turning a 25-year roof life expectancy into a 10-15-year roof by cutting corners. As the saying goes, penny wise… pound foolish. The ranges below are only guidelines but are also accurate in what you can expect your new roof to cost.

So starting off with a modest smaller single family ranch home in the Chicagoland market, a new roof will range in cost from $8,500 – $10,500. A mid-sized 2,500 square foot 2-story home will cost anywhere from $11,500 – $15,500 and a large custom home that is 5,000 square feet will cost anywhere from $28,000 – $35,000. Now to give you a sense of the higher end of the market, and you may want to sit down for this one, but every year we install several high end roofs (DaVinci, Brava, Cedar Shake, Metal, or Tile) on very large custom homes and those roofs cost several hundred thousands of dollars to install.