Each spring, after the first heavy hail passes through Hennepin County, the same discussion takes place on thousands of driveways. Your roof is obviously going to need replacing, and the siding on your south side needs some work too. Do you replace one now and wait for another three years before dealing with the other problem? Or do you tackle both of them?
That’s a reasonable question, and the straightforward answer might not necessarily be “replace both”. However, when the timing is right, replacing both at once will save you money, reduce inconvenience by half, and provide you with a home that has a consistent look. In the article below, you will learn where exactly the savings come from, how much these projects usually cost in Minnesota, when it’s reasonable to separate them, and what common mistakes could make homeowners spend thousands of dollars extra.
Why Roof and Siding Replacement Often Belong in the Same Project
Your roof and siding aren’t separate systems. They meet at the eaves, the rakes, the wall-to-roof transitions, and the flashing that ties them together which is exactly where most water intrusion starts. Replacing one without touching the other means a crew is guessing at how the new material will marry up to the old.
Doing both at once lets one team detail those transitions correctly the first time.
What Actually Overlaps Between the Two Jobs?
- Setup and staging. Scaffolding, dumpsters, permits, ladder jacks, and site protection get paid for once instead of twice.
- Tear-off and disposal. One waste haul, one cleanup crew, one round of magnet sweeps across your lawn.
- Flashing, drip edge, and trim. These are the shared parts. New siding installed against old, brittle flashing rarely seals the way it should.
- Gutters and fascia. If gutters are coming down for the roof anyway, siding work behind them costs almost nothing extra in labor.
The Minnesota Weather Argument
In this part of the country, freeze-and-thaw is tough on exteriors. If moisture gets past some wobbly trim in November, it will freeze, expand, and by March, that tiny crack will have turned into a rot situation.
A complete exterior remodel will let you do everything at once, including ventilation, ice and water shields, and house wrap. That’s the part homeowners underestimate: it isn’t just cosmetic, it’s the difference between a wall assembly that dries out and one that stays wet.
What It Costs and Where the Savings Actually Show Up
Pricing swings widely based on square footage, roof pitch, siding material, and how much rotten sheathing turns up once the old material comes off. As a working range for an average Twin Cities home, asphalt roof replacement often lands somewhere in the mid-four to low-five figures, while siding replacement typically runs higher especially with fiber cement or engineered wood.
Bundled together, most homeowners see a meaningful reduction versus two separate contracts.
Where the Savings Come From
- Mobilization costs paid once. Crew scheduling, equipment delivery, and site setup are fixed costs. Splitting the jobs means paying them twice.
- Shared disposal and permitting. One dumpster rental, one permit process, one inspection cycle.
- Volume pricing on materials. Ordering roofing and siding together often improves supplier pricing.
- No rework. Trim, flashing, and gutter details don’t get torn out and redone a second time.
- Insurance efficiency. But if one storm affected both, it is easier to file one claim covering the whole issue rather than two separate claims two years apart.
Mistakes to Watch Out For
Probably the most common mistake is selecting the shingle color and the siding color based on small sample swatches that have been separated by months in time in a showroom. What looks good on a 4-inch sample swatch does not necessarily coordinate when it covers 2,000 square feet of wall space.
The second mistake is skipping the sheathing inspection. Once siding is off, you have a rare, cheap opportunity to check the wall for rot, missing insulation, and failed house wrap. Cover it back up without looking and you’ve wasted the only chance you’ll get for 25 years.
The third: hiring two different contractors and assuming they’ll coordinate. They won’t. Someone has to own the transition details, and if nobody does, the warranty finger-pointing starts the first time water shows up inside.
This is where working with a single home exterior contractor matters. Intelligent Design Corporation is a company that was established in Maple Grove. Since 2001, it provides services for roofing, siding, windows, and storm restoration. These services also include dealing with insurance claims; most homeowners view insurance claims as the hardest part of the whole work. As an authorized GAF Master Elite contractor, the team explains the transition from roofs to walls as one whole process rather than two separate ones.
FAQs
Is it less expensive to replace both the roof and siding at once?
Almost always, yes. Combined set up, cleanup, permits, and labor expense usually means lower overall costs than booking the work in separate appointments. The exact difference depends on your house’s size and what kind of materials are used.
Which should come first if I’m only able to tackle one?
The roof, in nearly every case. A failing roof lets water into the structure. Worn siding is mostly a curb appeal and efficiency issue until it starts letting moisture through serious, but rarely as urgent.
What is the time for an exterior roof and siding job?
Typically, it will take from one to three weeks for most single-family homes. It should be noted that the roof is installed before the siding.
Will replacing both increase my home’s value?
National cost-versus-value studies have repeatedly ranked exterior projects highly in terms of value, while siding replacement in particular tends to do quite well. In addition to resale value, a coordinated roof and siding package will provide an immediate boost to curb appeal.
Can insurance cover both after a storm?
Often, yes. If hail or wind damaged shingles and siding in the same event, both can be included in a single claim. Documentation and a contractor experienced with adjusters make a significant difference in what gets approved.
Conclusion
Replacing your roof and siding together isn’t automatically the right call but if both are aging out, if a storm hit both, or if you’ve been putting off exterior work for a few seasons, doing them as one project almost always costs less and lasts longer than doing them piecemeal. The savings are real. The bigger win is a weather barrier that was designed as one continuous system instead of two jobs stitched together years apart.
If you’re weighing roof repair services in the Twin Cities against a full exterior renovation, get a free, no-obligation inspection before you decide. A qualified contractor can tell you in one visit whether your siding has another five years in it or whether you’re about to pay for the same scaffolding twice. Call Intelligent Design Corporation at 763-315-0745, or request a free in-home estimate and bring photos of your problem areas. Financing options are available.
