HOMEOWNER FACES DIFFICULTIES, PUTTING A ROOF OVER HEAD !

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By Nancy Keates

Editor's Note:
This is the 25th installment of "Teardown Diary," a feature by Wall Street Journal correspondent Nancy Keates. The column details her decision to demolish the Portland, Ore., home where she lives with her family and build anew. In the months ahead, she will chronicle what led to the decision, the financial costs, hiring an architect, knocking down her house, choosing the features of her new home and the final product.

The Good News: There is a mind-boggling array of new roofing options available.

The Bad News: Good luck getting enough information to pick one.

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In recent years, roofing manufacturers have used new technologies, engineering techniques and designs to come up with solutions to old problems. Love the look of slate but don't want the weight? Want wood shake but don't like the high price? Consumers can now choose between faux slates and shake shingles made from plastic, rubber or metal -- or even real stone and wood that are manufactured to weigh and cost less.

But it isn't so easy deciding which roof to put over your head. Because of the difficulty finding pricing and other details, my husband and I have found this task to be more difficult than other choices we've faced during our teardown project.

We decided early on that a metal roof -- specifically one we'd seen on a house we almost bought -- had the look and function we wanted. It was black and looked like slate; the owners told us leaves slid easily off the roof. Since we live in the woods, we also liked the idea that metal is fireproof.

We found the name of the manufacturer -- Interlock Roofing Ltd., a company based in Vancouver, British Columbia -- and gave it to the architect. When it came time for pricing out our project, the contractor came back with a bid that included a fiberglass asphalt roof with the alternate option of going with the Interlock metal roof we'd specified. The metal would cost us $49,800, he said, while asphalt would be $11,860 -- a difference of $37,940.

The cost included materials and labor, he said. The metal tile roof would have to be installed by the company itself, while he could use one of his long-standing subs to put up the asphalt roof. He looked into other metal roofs and found that they also required special installers and were expensive. Besides, we really didn't want a metal roof. It would be hard to repair because it was slippery when wet, we would hear every drop of rain that fell, and pine needles would get caught in the tiles, he said.

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Our architect suggested going with cheaper asphalt instead, since given the roof's height and the low uphill approach to the house, the visual impact of the roof wasn't critical, he said.

Despite the architect's reassurance, my husband and I remain unconvinced -- the way the roof looks is still important to us. So we asked to see other possibilities.

First up: A product made by TAMKO Building Products, Inc., called Lamarite Slate Composite Shingles, made of composite materials that the company says is fire-resistant, enduring, requires little maintenance and is easy to apply. Our contractor estimated it would cost $42,000 -- too much for something we thought looked too fake.

A few days latter, reading a building magazine, I came across an ad for a recycled rubber and plastic roofing material called EcoStar Majestic Slate that promised "class, elegance and durability" at "half the weight of slate." Since the material is more eco-friendly than asphalt (it is made from recycled materials and can be recycled again) it has the added benefit of making homeowners feel environmentally responsible.

My architect said he'd used the Majestic before and it was a "good product." So I called the company and they emailed me two addresses of local houses roofed with the material. But when my husband saw the roofs, he said they looked "too chunky." The estimated cost for us to put on the Majestic was also $42,000.

Surfing the Internet, my husband came across a company called Davinci Roofscapes. "A synthetic shingle shouldn't look like a 'fake.' It shouldn't just look 'similar' to rough-hewn cedar shake or quarried slate. It should be an authentic replica to all those who view the home," says the Web site.

In my own Internet search, I found a product called TruSlate, "The first slate upgrade in 500,000,000 years" the company says. In old fashioned slate, half of each piece of slate is never seen, tucked under the piece above it. This manufacturer replaces the part you don't see with a material called high-density polyethylene or HDPE -- commonly used for landfill liners and pond liners. By removing half the slate, the product is lighter and costs less. According to the company, TruSlate comes with a 75-year limited transferable warranty and any roofer can install it. The cost for our home: $42,930.

Both the DaVinci and the TruSlate looked beautiful. But since we are scheduled to tear down our house in less than three weeks, we need to decide soon.

Join a reader discussion on the Teardown Diary discussion board.

-- Nancy Keates is a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and lives in Portland, Ore.

Email your comments to teardowndiary@dowjones.com.

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