that does seem like an outrageous price! 1000 bucks a square foot? No damage to the structure?

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1000.00 a square. A square of roofing is 100 square feet. Yes it is high but when insurance companies and contractors are involved anything goes.

As a do it yoursel project it would not be too bad usually. A lot of your decisions wil have to wait until you know what is there first. On older structures the existance or lack of rot is always a concern.

Since it is hard to ventilate an old roof like that and for many other reasons metal roofs when allowed are the way to go. Asthetically sometimes pleasing and sometimes not. Cost about twice at my location compared to doing shingles. Thats if there are no complications like you may experience providing a substrate for synthetic shingles.

Then both systems might be about par. Low installation time with metal and moss growth etc as an issue is no longer an issue. Not properly vented will usually not hurt steel roofing either.

Roof insulation can be planned in as well in one way or another as I agree if the tie collars are well engineered pull the false ceiling. Really opens things up. There are many ways to insulate inside as well. Gyprock and put false beam type rafters spaced four feet apart for example over it. A couple of inches of foam insulation on the roof or 1 1/2 inch stuff is really not enough if you intend to live there year round.

Although I do not know how cold it gets there. Energy prices will always trend upwards in my opinion for the remainder of your life .So plan for how long you want to reside there probably and plan renovations that take that into consideration.

Just looked at the picture. To pull that ceiling will become a major makeover. The place looks in decent shape inside so it would be quite a job. I probably would not pull the ceiling because of that. Especially if you have to farm much of the work out. From an economic perspective it may not be dollars well spent to rip and tear in there.

Quality and taste of the water supply is also always something to examine plus the state of the septic system. Most so called home inspections are or do raise issues of the ability and true understanding of the person doing them.

There is little doubt in my mind that you can probably replace the roof yourself. Or have some friends with past experience help you out. It is a small roof.