RetireJapan

Hi everyone,

Link to photo of my roof: https://twitter.com/nick_ramsay/status/ ... 5577160704

Our house is 30-years old and we last had the roof and walls painted 12 years ago. We keep getting salesmen at the door saying we need to get the roof painted, and my wife strongly agrees with them.

For me, though, it's a huge expense - likely 1 million yen. I teach English part time on DMM Eikaiwa, and that's the equivalent of 2,000 lessons!

If this were the UK, I'd consider it an investment, but here... even if I got it painted, it could just blow off in the next typhoon (we lost a bunch of tiles in 2018 that way).

Have any of you been in this situation? What would you advise? Thanks.

You mention tiles, but what exactly is the roof material?

Once I knew that, I'd go to the biggest local home center and ask (prospectively) about the same roofing material--what is its normal arc for care and maintenance (and life span), what type of care/maintenance it requires (painting?), and that kind of thing.

Maybe they would or wouldn't recommend painting. If they do, then price the products they suggest, and maybe consider it a DIY project.

Even if you want to get it done, do not go with anyone who is proactively trying to sell you this service. Make sure you get a few quotes from companies you reach out to (and recs from friends if possible).

The previous advice is good. One million seems very pricey if it’s only the roof you are talking about. A 30 year old roof will also likely need replaced at some point in the not too distant future, so it may not be worth an expensive maintenance job at this stage. Why not ask a couple of local roofers for an opinion/quote?

It depends, of course, but in general for a normal sized house you should be looking at around 0.4-0.5m yen for a roof painting job, not 1m. It should be considered a part of normal house maintenance as it could lead to your roof being less water resistant, and water damage can be much more costly long-term. Definitely get at least 3 estimates.

nickr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:44 am I teach English part time on DMM Eikaiwa, and that's the equivalent of 2,000 lessons!

Off topic, but you're doing lessons for 500yen a pop? I hope they're short! Otherwise you're underselling yourself.

Hmmm It all depends on the material it would seem.

https://protimes.jp/journal/yanetosou/y ... price-2176

@captainspoke, good idea. I can definitely ask at the home center. DIY is out of the question, though. My roof is really complicated, it has 13 different sides/slopes!

@RetireJapan, I'd like to get at least three quotes, but these guys don't make it easy. They come round, climb over the house taking photos, print off a an album full of photos showing the worst parts and then expect an hour-long tea ceremony while they go through a binder of options.

@Beaglehound, you're right, it can't be a million. Perhaps with the walls, too. We definitely can't afford a compete roof renovation, so it would probably be wise to get it painted soon before it deteriorates too much.

@mighty58, good advice. Regarding DMM Eikaiwa, I started doing it in the mornings after giving up my kindergarten work. It's low paid ($10 an hour), but really easy, flexible, mostly enjoyable and requires zero prep. And it's just to supplement my regular Eikaiwa classes.

@Kanto, that's a really good link. Thanks for the info.

@mighty58, good advice. Regarding DMM Eikaiwa, I started doing it in the mornings after giving up my kindergarten work. It's low paid ($10 an hour), but really easy, flexible, mostly enjoyable and requires zero prep. And it's just to supplement my regular Eikaiwa classes.

...

1000 yen per hour is well, well below market rate. I strongly suggest renegotiating.

Make sure you avoid these sales people. They take a 50% cut of the total cost of the repainting from the company that actually does the job.
If you need some serious work to the roof there are more options around nowadays. The house opposite is 38 years old and had a new roof. From what I could make out, this involved putting plastic panels on the existing roof. By that I mean that there was no major reconstruction ion of the roof. It took 2 guys a couple of days to complete. The result looks pretty professional. You might want to look into that. As for sales people, someone put a handwritten note in my mail box telling me that the roof needed work on it. This was 2 months after I had the whole of the roof and the walls repainted by the company that built the house.

@Stuart, 50%? Wow. I should get into that line of work!

I’ll have to look into what other roofing options are available. Plastic panels is an interesting idea. Cheers.