Roof Repair in French Quarter, New Orleans
Creole townhouses built after the fires of 1788 and 1794, most of them slate or clay tile behind a parapet. Every exterior change here answers to the Vieux Carré Commission, and we plan the job around that from day one.
- Vieux Carré Commission jurisdiction
- Slate and clay tile, repaired not replaced
- Courtyard and gallery access planned
French Quarter building stock, and what it means for a roof
The Quarter is the oldest building stock in the city and almost none of it is original to the French colonial period — the great fires of 1788 and 1794 took most of that. What stands today is largely Spanish-influenced Creole townhouses raised after those fires: two to four stories of brick or stucco, built to the front property line, with courtyards behind and cast-iron galleries over the banquette.
Roofs here mix slate, clay tile and low-slope sections hidden behind parapets and party walls, often all on one building. That matters because the Vieux Carré Commission — which governs the Quarter under its own enabling legislation, separately from the rest of the city’s historic districts — treats what is visible from the street as a preservation question, not a contractor’s choice. Standing seam metal is generally not accepted as a substitute for an existing slate or tile roof here.
Why French Quarter 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.
Slipped and broken slate
Individual slates work loose long before the roof as a whole is finished. The correct answer on a Quarter roof is usually a matched replacement slate, not a tear-off.
Parapet and party-wall flashing
Buildings share walls on both sides. Water entering at a neighboring parapet shows up inside your top floor, which changes whose repair it actually is.
Hidden low-slope sections
Behind the visible pitched front there is often a flat rear over the service wing. It is the part nobody sees and the part that usually leaks first.
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 Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, The Cabildo and the surrounding streets. If your address is in French Quarter, it is in the service area — there is no travel surcharge anywhere inside Orleans Parish.
Roof Repair near French Quarter
Everything else we do in French Quarter
Roof Repair in French Quarter — 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.
Does the Vieux Carré Commission have to approve my French Quarter roof?
If the work is visible — the slate or tile field, the ridge, coping, or anything facing the street — then yes, it goes through the Vieux Carré Commission, a separate body from the HDLC with its own authority under the Louisiana Constitution. A re-roofing permit from the Department of Safety and Permits is required as well, and historic-district properties take additional review time before that permit is issued. We build that time into the schedule rather than discovering it mid-job.
Roof Repair in French Quarter?
Call and we will get someone on the roof, then put what we find in writing.