Most of these questions arrived by phone in the week after a storm, when the metro's roofs all report at once. Dale's answers, in Dale's way: the roof explained as a product record, covering, details, and attic, with the count settling every argument. If yours is not here, ring Call for same-day help and ask Ruth Ann, or send it in with the estimate form. Asking costs nothing, and the estimate is free, hassle-free, and no-obligation too.
Why do you ask what is on the roof before you talk about price?
Because the trade's two oldest arguments both begin with somebody pricing a roof they have not inventoried. A surface tells you the weather has been at it; it does not tell you which products are up there, how old they are, or which one is failing, and in Houston the gap between a roof's appearance and its product record is often a whole product generation wide. So the count gets done first: the covering, its generation, its age, and the details around it. Hold every roofer you ever hire to that same demand.
A hailstorm crossed my neighborhood. How can I tell if my roof is damaged?
From the ground, honestly, you mostly cannot, and any company that tells you otherwise from the driveway is selling something. Hail bruises a shingle by breaking the fiberglass mat under the granules, so the damage reads by hand: bruises that give under a thumb, granule loss in the storm's pattern, and soft-metal evidence on vents and flashing that records the storm's size. The read also counts the covering's age, because the same hail does different work on a five-year-old product and a fifteen-year-old one. Get the read, hear the pattern described in plain words, and let the products answer.
The black streaks on my roof keep spreading. What are they?
Algae, in almost every Houston case: a living film that feeds on the moisture this climate keeps on north-facing slopes and shaded roofs, and spreads the way anything living spreads here, steadily. The streaks are ugly and they are rarely the failure. What matters is underneath and alongside them: granule loss, which is the shingle's surface leaving, and the damp the film holds against the covering. Algae-resistant product lines exist because this climate is their home market; if a covering ever does get replaced, that is the conversation to have. Until then, count the granules, not the color.
My roof is twelve years old. A company told me it is worn out. Is it?
Twelve is a birthday, not a verdict. Some product generations do confess early, and the counter taught Dale which ones: certain builder grade lines shed their granules young, and their boots split on schedule at ten to fourteen years. Other coverings of the same age are in the middle of honest service. The read settles it: granule condition across the slopes, mat condition where it can be tested, the attic's heat story, and the detail generations around the edges. Ask the company which products failed and where, in those words. A read that cannot name them has not finished counting.
How much does a roof repair cost around Houston?
Ranges are the honest start; what the count and the attic show set your number. Around Houston, the planning figures run like this: a minor shingle repair sits at $300 to $650, tracing a leak and repairing it at $360 to $1,550, flashing work at $350 to $1,100, and most repairs land somewhere in the $300 to $1,600 span. Replacement, when an honest count says a roof is done, usually runs $7,500 to $13,000 for a typical Houston home in architectural asphalt, with smaller roofs from about $5,700 and premium materials above the asphalt bands.
Do I need a permit for a reroof in Houston?
Inside the city of Houston, reroofing runs through the city's permitting process, and most reroofs need a permit; out in the suburbs and the unincorporated county areas, the process for your address applies, and some deed-restricted communities add material and color approvals of their own. Small repairs usually fall below the permit line and replacements above it, but the honest answer always has your address inside it. Ask the company quoting you to name the permit your address calls for and to say plainly who files for it. A company that answers without hedging has done this paperwork before. (The community approval detail is general practice, stated for guidance; specific requirements vary by community and are marked for verification at build.)
The insurance company sent an adjuster after the storm. What should I do with their report?
Treat it as one read among several, and keep it. An adjuster's document is a record of what one reader found on one day, and it is useful exactly to the extent that it names products, slopes, and damage patterns rather than conclusions. Set it beside a roofer's count of the same roof: where the two agree, you have ground to stand on; where they differ, the difference itself is information, and it is usually about the mat under the granules, the layer a quick read skips. What this company does not do is negotiate with your insurer or promise any outcome with one; the count is our work, and claims are yours and your carrier's. (This answer states the company's posture only; it makes no promise about any insurer's decision.)
Do you cover my neighborhood?
The map is the Houston metro in the location set: Katy, Sugar Land, The Woodlands, Pasadena, Pearland, League City, Cypress, Spring, Humble, Kingwood, Missouri City, Deer Park, La Porte, Friendswood, Tomball, Richmond, Bellaire, Baytown, Conroe, and Clear Lake. The home corridors are the prairie west, the pine belt north, the bay side southeast, and the inner ring, each read on its own terms. Just past the lines? Worth a call to ask; the map has edges, not walls.
Two roofers looked at my roof and disagreed. How do I choose?
Ask each of them to count it. Opposite verdicts on one roof are almost never settled by better talking; counting settles them. Have each company state which products are on the roof, their approximate ages, and which one is failing, then hold both accounts up against the granule loss and the attic heat on your own roof. Then put the founder's test to each of them, in these words: what would your answer be if repairs were your only living? The company whose answer holds up under its own count is the company to hire, even when it is not us.
Still leaking, literally or otherwise? Call for same-day help, or open the free estimate and start there.