If you’re brainstorming for ideas on how to best renovate your house or how to lay the blueprint for a brand new one, the chances are that the thought of having a roof must have caught your attention.

How do you want it done? Should it be patched, or should it be flat? There are several factors to consider when going about this particular path. There are many pros but also cons to flat roof materials. However, in metropolitan and urban settings, people are starting to shift to flat roofs instead. Why? Let’s analyze some advantages and disadvantages of this roof material in relation to it’s cost, quality & longevity.

FLAT ROOF ADVANTAGES ANALYSIS:

1)    Accessibility

Since the roof is flat and not tilted, it is easily accessible and getting to it is not a big hassle. The use of a ladder is all that is required to get to the roof. Furthermore, if you feel the need to have some maintenance work done, you don’t have to worry about falling off or having your stuff roll off the edge.

2)    Durability

As mentioned above, accessing the roof is very easy. Furthermore, since the structure is extremely basic and flat, the life-span of the gravel and the tar used can easily last for about 20 years or more.

3)    Space

A flat roof essentially means that you have a lot of space to store things you may not normally use in the house or renovate the free space to suit your needs and hobbies actively.  If you’re considering a flat roof for a commercial business, this gives you extra space to have a cubicle or office set up on the roof.

4)    Cost

As far as the installations and services are concerned, flat roofs are the cheapest alternative there is given that the cost is relatively very low. This is because the structure is extremely basic and you don’t essentially have to design or decorate the floor of the roof.

FLAT ROOF DISADVANTAGES ANALYSIS:

1)    Drainage

Since the roof is not patched or tilted, there is a high chance of little draining problem especially after it rains. In patched roofs, the water normally flows down due to gravity, but in flat roofs, it is essential to have a proper drainage system. If a puddle is formed, there are chances that the water will seep through the material the roof is made of and may cause further leaks.

2)    Life-span

The material that is normally employed when making flat roofs is a bit scarce. The most common choice people prefer to use when constructing a flat roof is bitumen, but the main disadvantages this carries is the limited lifespan, which is about 10-15 years. Alternatives are available such as PVC or polycarbonate roofing, but since these products are relatively new to the market, there is an ambiguity about how long the material will last in general. Furthermore, these materials are also relatively expensive which brings us back to the original question – if the cost is the same as a pitched roof, then why not go for aesthetics?

Save time and money and speak to an elite flat roofing expert in Brooklyn, Queens & all of NYC. Inquire about our affordable flat exteriors designed to maximize your buildings plumbing, cooling, heating and waterproofing capabilities. Call us now for a fast & free estimate on all roof maintenance, repair and installation services. Our seasonal roof maintenance plans can save you thousands of dollars on home improvement costs. Call us now to find out more.

Royal Roofing & Siding Brooklyn 2380 Ralph Avenue Brooklyn , NY 11234 (718) 536-2667

It’s no secret that since the birth of the internet, it’s been much easier for people to shop and find essential services. Among the many services available to arrange and order online is home improvement;
most notably offered by the websites Angie’s List and Home Advisor. These two prominent names in the home improvement industry revolutionized the way we all hire roofers, kitchen remodeling companies, general contractors and any other service category you can ever imagine.

Angie’s List was founded in 1995 by William S. Oesterle and Angie Hicks. The idea formed when Hicks, working under Oesterle at the time, needed to find a contractor for him in Colombus, Ohio. Hicks moved to Columbus and joined her boss in creating Columbus Neighbors, a call-in service based off of a similar service called “Unified Neighbors” based in Indianapolis, Indiana that provided reviews of home care and lawn services throughout Columbus. Hicks personally signed up members and customers by going door to door collecting ratings of local contractors.

After one year and 1,000 members recruited, Oesterle raised money from investors for the sake of developing the business. In 1996, the company bought Unified Neighbors and moved to Indianapolis. In 1999, with Internet usage becoming more commonplace, the company moved its member and consumer database to the internet. Over the following years, the website consumer base grew dramatically, eventually beginning to include services such as health care and auto care. Today, the website offers what many call a freemium service. There is a basic membership which offers over 10 million reviews that one can get for free, but a paid service with additional features is also available.

Unfortunately, Angie’s List also has its fair share of drawbacks. It has been shown that contractors can pay the website more money for them to offer discounts to customers from Angie’s List. In return, they get pushed to the top of the site’s search results regardless of factors such as average review scores and relevance to a user’s search criteria. Additionally, oftentimes when a negative review of a business is posted, Angie’s list staff will try to “rectify” it with the user before removing the review. Furthermore (and possibly their worst offense), it’s been found that many contractors that are labeled as “Angie’s List certified” are actually unlicensed.

HomeAdvisor, which was Angie’s List’s biggest competitor until they merged in October 2017, on the other hand, prescreens all of the people they list, immediately insuring that those hired by the websites users are actually qualified for the job.

HomeAdvisor was founded in 1998 by Rodney Rice and Michael Beaudoin under the name ServiceMagic only having rebranded to the name HomeAdvisor in 2012. It was bought out by Interactive Corp. (or IAC for short) in 2004. In January 2008, Craig Smith was appointed by IAC as a new CEO of ServiceMagic, while Beaudoin and Rice became advisors and co chairmen. Over the next year, ServiceMagic would go on to buy out several businesses from various European countries offering similar services in order to create a European branch of the company, simply called ServiceMagic Europe. This trend would continue for several years, buying out service websites from countries like Canada, the UK, and Germany until eventually, as mentioned above, merging with Angie’s List in late 2017.

As with any other service, however, this one has also come across a fair share of criticism. It’s prescreening process are flawed, with loopholes having been discovered allowing contractors that have been hired by criminals to use the site, and it has had over 600 negative reviews written about it. Additionally, they have been found to have sold user data to contractors without the users’ knowledge or consent without any discretion as to who the data is being sold to.

Trusting a 3rd party to provide you with a few quality home improvement contractors has proven to be an effective thing while at the same time having it’s flaws. At the end of the day, doing your own independent research and studying contracting companies first hand is the most effective, yet time consuming way of finding a quality local contractor.