Roof Installation in St. Roch, New Orleans
Nineteenth-century shotguns and Creole cottages around St. Roch Avenue and the Campo Santo. Modest, well-built stock, much of it now well past the life of its last roof covering.
- Shotgun and Creole cottage stock
- St. Roch Market and Campo Santo
- Aging coverings, sound framing
St. Roch building stock, and what it means for a roof
St. Roch grew around the St. Roch Chapel and its Campo Santo cemetery, filling in through the later nineteenth century with shotguns, doubles and Creole cottages built for working households. The framing on this stock is generally cypress and generally sound; it is the coverings that have had a harder life.
A great many roofs here are on their last covering cycle — three-tab shingle laid fifteen or twenty years ago, now well into granule loss, with the algae streaking that this climate produces on any aging asphalt roof. The honest conversation in St. Roch is usually about timing a replacement rather than finding a repair, and about what can reasonably be deferred.
Why St. Roch 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.
End-of-life granule loss
Three-tab shingle in this climate loses its granules and goes brittle. Once that starts, patching buys months, not years.
Algae streaking
The black streaking on these roofs is algae feeding on the shingle. It is cosmetic at first and a covering-life issue later.
Vent boot cracking
Rubber plumbing-vent boots perish in the UV load here well before the shingle around them does. A cheap part, a common leak.
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 St. Roch Market, St. Roch Cemetery & Campo Santo, St. Claude Avenue and the surrounding streets. If your address is in St. Roch, it is in the service area — there is no travel surcharge anywhere inside Orleans Parish.
Roof Installation near St. Roch
Everything else we do in St. Roch
Roof Installation in St. Roch — 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.
How do I know whether to repair or just replace it?
Condition of the covering across the whole roof, not just at the leak. If the shingle is brittle, losing granules and cracking when it is walked, then a repair is money spent on a roof that will need replacing shortly anyway, and we will say so. If the field is sound and one detail has failed, a repair is the right call and we will say that too. Either way you get it in writing after someone has actually been up there.
Roof Installation in St. Roch?
Call and we will get someone on the roof, then put what we find in writing.