Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Central City, New Orleans
Dense nineteenth-century shotguns and doubles either side of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. Long narrow roofs, party-wall proximity, and a lot of housing stock older than the covering on it.
- Shotgun and double stock
- Long, narrow roof planes
- Oretha Castle Haley corridor
Central City building stock, and what it means for a roof
Central City is one of the densest nineteenth-century neighborhoods in New Orleans — block after block of single and double shotguns, camelbacks and corner storehouses, built from the 1870s onward for working families and still overwhelmingly that stock today. Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard runs through the middle of it.
A shotgun roof is a long, narrow plane, usually a simple gable, which makes it one of the more straightforward roofs in the city to work on. The complications are age and budget history: many of these roofs have been repaired repeatedly and cheaply, sometimes with three-tab shingle laid straight over whatever was there, and the deck below has been carrying that for a long time.
Why Central City 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.
Stacked cheap repairs
Layer over layer without tear-off is the most common history here. It adds weight and hides the deck’s real condition.
Camelback transitions
Where a camelback’s rear second story meets the single-story front, that step is a recurring leak point.
Ridge and edge uplift
Long simple gables catch wind along the ridge. Uplift starts at the ridge or the rake and works inward.
Keeping a historic roof rather than losing it
A slate or clay tile roof that is shedding units is usually not finished. It is usually telling you something specific, and the specific answer is cheaper than the general one.
- Establish what is actually failing. On most historic roofs the slate outlives the copper. Valleys, step flashing and gutter linings go first, and the symptom presents as a slate problem.
- Match rather than substitute. Replacement slates are matched on color, size and thickness; tile is sourced to profile. The HDLC and the VCC both treat a visible mismatch as a change to the building, not a repair to it.
- Check the fixings, not just the units. Nail fatigue is what makes a slate roof start dropping slates at random rather than in one area. That is a re-fixing job, not a re-roofing job.
- Respect the deck. Original plank decking under a century-old slate roof behaves differently from modern sheathing, and modern underlayment has to be specified to suit it.
- Document for review. Before-and-after photographs and a written material schedule are what a historic-district review actually wants to see.
What the commissions will not accept
Design guidance for the local historic districts is explicit that standing seam metal is typically not an appropriate material to replace asphalt, slate or asbestos roofing. Traditional slate and clay tile are supported for restoration, and modern substitutes are permitted only where they match in material and color. If a contractor proposes stripping your slate for metal because it is quicker, that is a review problem as well as a preservation one.
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 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, Dryades Street, A.L. Davis Park and the surrounding streets. If your address is in Central City, it is in the service area — there is no travel surcharge anywhere inside Orleans Parish.
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration near Central City
Everything else we do in Central City
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Central City — straight answers
Can my slate roof be repaired rather than replaced?
Usually, yes. Slate is one of the few coverings where individual units genuinely can be replaced, and a roof dropping the occasional slate is more often telling you the fixings or the copper valleys are tired than that the slate itself is finished.
Can I put metal on instead? It is cheaper.
Not in a local historic district, in most cases. Design guidance is explicit that standing seam metal is typically not an appropriate replacement for asphalt, slate or asbestos roofing in these districts. Traditional slate and clay tile are supported for restoration, and substitutes have to match in material and color.
How do you match a slate or tile that is no longer made?
On color, size and thickness for slate, and on profile for tile, sourcing salvaged or matched stock rather than putting the nearest available item on the roof. A visible mismatch is treated by the HDLC and the VCC as a change to the building rather than a repair to it.
I have had the same leak patched three times — why does it keep coming back?
Because the patch is almost certainly not where the water is entering. On a long shotgun roof water can travel a considerable distance along the deck before it shows on a ceiling, so patching directly above the stain treats the symptom. We trace to the actual entry point first and will tell you honestly if the answer is that the covering has reached the end of its life rather than needing a fourth patch.
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Central City?
Call and we will get someone on the roof, then put what we find in writing.