Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Faubourg Marigny, New Orleans
The city’s first suburb, laid out in 1805 immediately downriver of the Quarter. Creole cottages and early shotguns at high density, with historic review on anything the street can see.
- Faubourg Marigny Historic District
- Creole cottages, 1805 street grid
- Frenchmen Street corridor
Faubourg Marigny building stock, and what it means for a roof
The Marigny was subdivided in 1805 from the Marigny plantation and is the oldest faubourg outside the original city — which is why the street grid shifts angle here and why the housing reads as an extension of the Quarter rather than a departure from it. Creole cottages dominate, with early shotguns filling in through the later nineteenth century.
Roofs are steeply pitched and close together, and the density is close to the Quarter’s without the Quarter’s parapets. Most of the neighborhood is inside the Faubourg Marigny Historic District under the HDLC, which means the same visible-work review discipline applies here — a point that catches out owners who assume only the Quarter is regulated.
Why Marigny 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.
Abutting eaves
Cottages built close together leave almost no gap at the eaves. Water and debris collect in that gap and back up under both roofs.
Original rafter spacing
Early-nineteenth-century framing was not built for modern covering weight. Deflection between rafters opens the covering along its lines.
Chimney flashing on old brick
Soft historic brick and old mortar make chimney flashing a recurring failure point on this stock.
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 Frenchmen Street, Washington Square, Crescent Park and the surrounding streets. If your address is in Faubourg Marigny, it is in the service area — there is no travel surcharge anywhere inside Orleans Parish.
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration near Faubourg Marigny
Everything else we do in Faubourg Marigny
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Faubourg Marigny — 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 am one street from the Quarter — am I under the Vieux Carré Commission?
No, but you are almost certainly under the HDLC instead. The Vieux Carré Commission’s authority stops at the Quarter’s boundary; the Marigny falls under the Historic District Landmarks Commission, which runs a separate review for its own designated districts. The practical effect on a roof is similar — visible work gets reviewed — but the body, the timeline and the guidance differ, so it matters that the right one is approached.
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Faubourg Marigny?
Call and we will get someone on the roof, then put what we find in writing.