Roof Installation in Broadmoor, New Orleans
1920s bungalows in the lowest-lying bowl in the city. Drainage is the whole story here — where the water goes when it leaves your roof matters as much as whether the roof sheds it.
- Low-lying — drainage critical
- California bungalow stock
- Raised basements, settled foundations
Broadmoor building stock, and what it means for a roof
Broadmoor occupies a natural bowl between the ridges, and it is among the lowest ground in New Orleans — it flooded badly in 2005 and has flooded in ordinary heavy rainfall since. The housing is mostly 1910s to 1930s California bungalows, raised on the shallow raised basements typical of that era here, with the wide eaves and exposed rafter tails of the style.
Roofing in Broadmoor is a drainage problem as much as a covering problem. A roof that sheds water perfectly well into a gutter that discharges against a settled foundation is still causing damage. Ground settlement across the bowl has also racked some of these houses slightly over a century, which shows up as ridges that are no longer straight and valleys that no longer sit where the original builder put them.
Why Broadmoor roofs fail the way they do
Three things we see repeatedly on this stock — not a generic list, and not the same three as the next neighborhood over.
Downspout discharge
Water leaving the roof correctly and landing against the foundation is the most common problem we find here, and the cheapest to fix.
Racked structure
Long-term settlement in the bowl pulls rooflines out of true. Coverings crack and open along the line of movement.
Wide-eave soffit rot
Bungalow eaves overhang deeply. Persistent humidity plus poor ventilation rots the soffit and rafter tails from below.
Tying new roof into old without causing a problem
Installation is not replacement. The roof has not failed — the building is changing. Different buyer, different risk, different sequence.
- Warranty continuity. Cutting new work into an existing membrane can void the warranty on the part you are keeping. That gets established before anything is opened up, not after.
- Elevation work. Raising a house above base flood elevation lifts it into faster wind. A specification that suited it at grade may not suit it eight feet up.
- Additions and pop-tops. New roof volume meeting an old roof creates junctions that did not exist before. Those tie-ins are where a new-build roof leaks first.
- Rooftop decks and galleries. Traffic-rated assemblies over occupied space are a different system from a roof nobody walks on, and the drainage has to be designed rather than assumed.
- Historic-district infill. New construction inside an HDLC or VCC district is reviewed on how it reads against its neighbors, roof included.
- GC sequencing. Dry-in timing drives everybody else on site. We schedule against the trades that follow us, not in isolation.
Replacement is a different job
If the roof you have has failed and you are replacing like for like, that is a replacement, and it runs differently — different survey, different cost drivers, different conversation about tear-off and decking. See roof replacement instead, and if you land on the wrong one, say so on the call and we will point you at the right one rather than quoting you for the wrong job.
A re-roofing permit is required in Orleans Parish — and three different commissions may review it
Residential re-roofing permits are applied for through the Department of Safety and Permits. Properties inside a historic district require additional review time before the permit is issued.
Four stages, no surprises
Inspection
Someone goes onto the roof. Not a drive-by, not a satellite image — the covering, the flashing, the valleys and the deck condition, looked at directly.
Diagnosis
What has failed and why, traced to the actual entry point rather than the spot where water shows up inside.
Written scope
What we found, what we propose, and what it costs, in writing with photographs. No number quoted cold over the phone.
The work
Carried out to the agreed scope, dried in each day, site cleared, and documented for your records and your insurer.
Working around Napoleon Avenue, Broadmoor Arts & Wellness Center, Washington Avenue and the surrounding streets. If your address is in Broadmoor, it is in the service area — there is no travel surcharge anywhere inside Orleans Parish.
Roof Installation near Broadmoor
Everything else we do in Broadmoor
Roof Installation in Broadmoor — straight answers
We are working with an architect and a GC — can you coordinate?
That is the normal arrangement on installation work. Dry-in timing drives the trades that follow us, so we schedule against the program rather than in isolation, and we talk to whoever is running the job.
Will new work void the warranty on the existing roof?
It can, which is why it gets established before anything is opened up. Cutting new work into an existing membrane without checking the warranty terms is a common and expensive mistake on additions and rooftop decks.
We are elevating the house — does that change the roof?
It can change the specification. Raising a building above base flood elevation also lifts it into faster wind, and an assembly that was adequate at grade may need enhanced fixing once it is up. This matters most in Lakeview, Gentilly and the Lower Ninth.
My roof seems fine but I keep getting damp at the base of the walls — is that the roof?
Possibly, indirectly. In Broadmoor the most common version of this is a roof draining correctly into guttering that then dumps the whole roof’s water within a foot of the foundation. In a low-lying bowl with a high water table, that water has nowhere to go. It is worth checking the discharge before assuming the covering has failed.
Roof Installation in Broadmoor?
Call and we will get someone on the roof, then put what we find in writing.