Roof Repair 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.
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 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 Repair near Broadmoor
Everything else we do in Broadmoor
Roof Repair in Broadmoor — 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 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 Repair in Broadmoor?
Call and we will get someone on the roof, then put what we find in writing.