Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Freret, New Orleans
Early-1900s bungalows and shotguns along the Freret Street corridor, much of it renovated in the last fifteen years. Newer coverings over older structure — and the two do not always match.
- Freret Street corridor
- Heavily renovated stock
- Bungalows and shotgun doubles
Freret building stock, and what it means for a roof
Freret is a neighborhood of early-twentieth-century bungalows and shotgun doubles that has seen sustained reinvestment along the Freret Street commercial corridor since the late 2000s. A large share of the housing has been renovated in that window, which means a lot of relatively recent roof coverings.
Recent covering is not the same as sound roof, and Freret is where we see that distinction most often. Renovation-driven re-roofs are sometimes done to a budget and to a schedule, laid over decking that was never properly assessed, with flashing details rushed at the awkward junctions. The shingle can be twelve years old and the problem underneath it ninety.
Why Freret 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.
Renovation-era shortcuts
Fast re-roofs during a flip skip deck replacement and reuse old flashing. It holds for a decade, then it does not.
Added dormers and pop-tops
Renovations that added roof volume created new junctions, and those tie-ins are the usual leak on a renovated house.
Ventilation changes
Insulating a bungalow attic without matching the ventilation traps humidity against the deck — a serious problem in this climate.
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 Freret Street, Napoleon Avenue, Samuel Square and the surrounding streets. If your address is in Freret, it is in the service area — there is no travel surcharge anywhere inside Orleans Parish.
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration near Freret
Everything else we do in Freret
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Freret — 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.
My roof was replaced about ten years ago — should it be leaking already?
Not if it was done properly, which is the useful thing to establish. In Freret we see a lot of renovation-era re-roofs where the covering went on over decking and flashing that were left as found. The shingle itself may have another fifteen years in it while the flashing at a valley or a chimney has already failed. We check the details before assuming the field is at fault.
Slate & Tile Roof Restoration in Freret?
Call and we will get someone on the roof, then put what we find in writing.