Roof Repair in Audubon, New Orleans
Grand early-1900s houses facing the park and the university campuses, on some of the largest residential roofs in the city. Slate, tile and long shingle runs, all under mature live oak.
- Audubon Park and campus corridor
- Large roof areas, long runs
- Slate, tile and heavy shingle
Audubon building stock, and what it means for a roof
Audubon sits between the park and the river, wrapped around the Tulane and Loyola campuses. The housing is early-twentieth-century and built to a scale that matches the setting — wide detached houses with deep porches, substantial roofs, and in many cases slate or clay tile chosen when those materials were the default for a house of that standing.
The practical consequence is roof area. These are among the largest residential roofs in New Orleans, with long uninterrupted runs that need proper staging rather than ladder access, and enough surface that a small percentage failure is still a significant repair. The live oak canopy around the park adds the same debris load the rest of Uptown deals with.
Why Audubon 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.
Long-run fixings
Extended slopes expose fixings to more thermal movement. Nail pops and lifted courses show up mid-run, not at the edges.
Tile slippage
Clay tile on a large roof shifts over decades. A handful of displaced tiles opens the underlayment to driven rain.
Gutter capacity
A big roof in a 63-inch-a-year rainfall city overwhelms undersized guttering, and the overflow lands at the foundation.
Repair, or is this the start of a replacement?
This is the question worth answering before money is spent, and it is answerable from the roof rather than from the ceiling stain.
A repair is the right call when
- The covering across the field is sound — not brittle, not shedding granules by the handful.
- One identifiable detail has failed: a vent boot, a length of flashing, a valley, a slipped slate.
- The decking underneath is dry and solid where it is opened up.
- The roof has years of service left and the failure is local, not general.
A repair is throwing money away when
- The shingle cracks when it is walked and the granules are gone — common on 2006–2008 recovery-era roofs now aging out.
- There are multiple separate leaks in different parts of the roof at once.
- The deck is soft, delaminated, or showing termite galleries when it is opened.
- The same spot has been patched repeatedly and keeps returning.
Why we trace before we patch
Water almost never enters directly above where it shows up inside. It runs along the top of the decking, follows a rafter, and drops at the first obstruction — which on a long New Orleans shotgun can be a considerable distance from the entry point. Patching above the stain treats the exit, not the cause, which is why the third patch fails as reliably as the first two did.
The part of a New Orleans roof nobody photographs: what the Formosans have done to the framing
Greater New Orleans spends an estimated $300 million a year on Formosan termite control and the repairs that follow. Formosan subterranean termites are specifically known to colonize roof framing, and colonies reach into the millions. Any roofer working this city who does not open up a suspect deck and look is not doing the job.
Where we find this, we say so and we stop. Structural damage of this kind needs an entomologist and, where load-bearing members are involved, a structural engineer — alongside the roofer, not instead of one. Laying a new covering over compromised framing hides a structural problem under a twenty-year warranty, and we will not do it.
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 Audubon Park, Audubon Zoo, Tulane University and the surrounding streets. If your address is in Audubon, it is in the service area — there is no travel surcharge anywhere inside Orleans Parish.
Roof Repair near Audubon
Everything else we do in Audubon
Roof Repair in Audubon — straight answers
Can you tell me the cost over the phone?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who will. The price of a roof repair is set by what has failed and what condition the deck is in underneath, and neither of those is visible from the ground or from a satellite image. We inspect, then quote in writing.
The same spot has been patched before and it keeps leaking. Why?
Almost always because the patch went where the water appears rather than where it enters. Water runs along the top of the decking and drops at the first obstruction, which on a long New Orleans roof can be a good distance from the entry point. We trace it properly before patching anything.
Will you tell me if a repair is not worth doing?
Yes, plainly. If the covering is brittle, shedding granules and leaking in several places, a repair is money spent on a roof that needs replacing shortly anyway. We would rather say that and lose the small job than take it and have you call us back in a year.
My roof is large — will you quote per square or for the whole job?
For the whole job, in writing, after someone has been on the roof. Per-square pricing quoted over the phone is where large-roof jobs go wrong, because it assumes the decking, the flashing and the valley metal are all in the condition the caller thinks they are. On a roof this size that assumption is expensive when it turns out to be wrong.
Roof Repair in Audubon?
Call and we will get someone on the roof, then put what we find in writing.