Materials, compared
Cost per square, cost per year.
Slate costs several times what asphalt does. Divide by the number of years each one lasts and the comparison looks very different.
Casco / All three, compared
Installed cost.
Ranges reflect pitch, height, staging and detail. A square is 100 square feet of roof. Every estimate is written and itemized.
How to think about it
A $16,000 asphalt roof that lasts 22 years costs about $730 a year. A $70,000 slate roof that lasts a century costs about $700 a year, and the house never has another roof torn off in your lifetime. That arithmetic isn’t right for every house or every owner, but it’s the right place to start.
What suits which house
- Slate: steep Victorian and Gothic roofs, churches, and any house that had slate originally.
- Cedar: shingle-style cottages, Capes and coastal houses where the look matters.
- Copper: bays, porches, cupolas, valleys, and flashing on any of the above.
- Standing seam: farmhouses, low-slope porches, and owners who want long life at a lower price than slate.
Not sure which suits the house? We’ll come look.
A Yeti Trades Co. portfolio site
The heritage roofing site, built in seven days.
Sixteen pages: three materials compared by lifespan, a repair-before-replace argument, ice dams explained for Maine, and Portland’s historic districts covered.