Roof Replacement for Dugger Homeowners

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Recent Dugger Roofing Projects

5 before-and-after projects documented for the homeowner and the homeowners insurance carrier.

The Repairs We Inherit on Dugger Roofs

A fair share of what we find on a roof was put there by whoever came before us, and it usually tells a clear story. The most common inheritance is a second layer of shingles laid straight over the original. It saved somebody a day of labor once, and now the deck carries weight it was never framed to hold, fasteners cannot reach solid wood, and nobody has laid eyes on the sheathing in a very long time.

Fastening is the next thing we study. Shingles have a narrow band across the face where the nail belongs, and driving above it leaves the head gripping nothing but the tab above.

High nails, overdriven nails that cut through the mat, and staples left over from an older habit all reveal themselves the same way in wind. Whole runs of tabs come off in a storm the neighbors sleep through, and the homeowner is left believing the material failed.

Then there's the sealant. Somewhere along the way, a tube of caulk became the answer for every joint on a roof. We find it smeared across chimney flashing, packed around a split pipe collar, and troweled into a valley as a patch.

It buys a season or two, cracks in the first hard cold, and by the time it lets go the wood underneath has usually taken on water. Metal, lapped in the right order and fastened where running water can't reach the fastener, is what belongs in every one of those places.

Inside the attic the same pattern repeats. Bath fans blowing into the insulation instead of out through the roof or a wall, a ridge slot cut too narrow to move any air, or no slot cut at all beneath a vent that looks perfectly fine from the ground. We photograph every bit of it before we touch anything, partly so you can see what you have been paying to keep dry and partly so there's no argument later about what was already there when we arrived.

Repairs Do Not Wait for Good Weather

A roof fails on its own schedule, which tends to mean a weeknight in the middle of a storm. What matters at that point isn't the season.

It's how fast somebody can get there and how much of the water they can stop before it works its way down into the drywall and the insulation. So repair work runs all year for us, in whatever the weather is doing, and the approach shifts with the conditions instead of pausing.

In mild weather a repair is usually the whole job. We find the source, open up as much as we need to, replace what failed, and put it back properly. In the cold or the wet, the job often splits in two.

First comes stopping the water, which might mean a properly fastened cover over an open area, a temporary seal at a failed joint, or clearing an ice dam so the water behind it can get off the roof. Then the permanent repair follows when conditions allow it to be done right rather than merely done.

Inside the house, the first hour matters more than people think. Move what you can out from under the drip, put a bucket down, and if a ceiling is holding water in a bulge, it's better to poke a small hole at the low point and let it drain into a container than to let the whole section come down at once. Take photographs of everything before you clean it up, since your insurance may want them and memory is a poor substitute.

What you should expect from a contractor in that moment is a straight answer about when somebody can be there and what they will be able to do once they arrive. Weather can make a roof genuinely unsafe to walk, and anyone who tells you they will be up there in the middle of a lightning storm is telling you something about their judgment. Getting you dried in comes first, and the roof gets sorted out properly right after.

Before You Sign and While the Dugger Job Runs

The questions split neatly into two groups, and mixing them up is how people end up frustrated. Before you sign, the questions are about scope and accountability.

What exactly is coming off, what is going back on, who is doing it, what happens when the wood is worse than expected, and what the workmanship coverage says in writing. Those all have to be settled while you still have the option of hiring somebody else, because afterward they become requests rather than terms.

Once the job is scheduled, the questions become logistical, and they're worth asking a few days out. What time does the crew arrive and how many days is this expected to take. Where should the dumpster sit and where do you need cars moved from.

Will the material be delivered ahead of time and is it going on the roof or in the driveway. Does anybody need to be home, and how does the crew get to the attic if there's work to do inside.

During the job, the useful questions are short and specific. At the end of the first day, once the tear-off is done, ask what the deck looked like and ask to see the photographs while the roof is still open.

That's the moment when everything hidden becomes visible, and it's the last chance to see it for another few decades. If anything is being added to the price, that is when you should be hearing about it, well before the last day.

After the last shingle goes on, there are only a couple left. Walk the property with the lead, look at the flashing details up close where you can reach them, and get the final paperwork including the workmanship terms and whatever registration the material coverage requires.

Ask when the town inspector is coming if a permit was pulled. Then keep the folder somewhere you will find it, because the next person to need it might be a buyer's inspector some years from now.

Allowances on a Dugger Roofing Quote

No roofer can see under your shingles before the tear-off, so an honest estimate handles the unknowns openly instead of pretending they don't exist. That's what an allowance is. It is a stated amount of a particular kind of work included in the price, with a rate attached for anything beyond it, so nobody is guessing and nobody is negotiating from a bad position on the day.

Decking is the big one. Ours names a rate per sheet or board and includes a quantity in the base price, which covers what a typical house of that age turns up. If the deck is worse, the extra is priced at the same rate you already agreed to instead of at whatever seems reasonable while the roof sits open.

If the deck is better than expected and we use less than the allowance, that comes off the final bill. An allowance that only moves in one direction isn't really an allowance.

The other common ones are flashing and fascia. A chimney sometimes turns out to need the counterflashing cut into the mortar rather than surface mounted, and a fascia board can be sound at the corners and rotten in the middle where you cannot see it until the drip edge comes off. Both get handled the same way: a written price, photographs, your approval, and only then the work.

What separates a real allowance from a loose one is the process wrapped around it. Work should stop. You should get pictures of the specific area with enough context to know where on your house you are looking.

You should get a price in writing before anything happens, and you should have the option of saying no or of choosing a different approach. If a contractor cannot describe that sequence to you before you sign, the allowance in their estimate isn't there to protect you. It's there to protect their number, and you will discover the difference on the one morning you have the least room to do anything about it.

What the Written Estimate Actually Says

A number spoken in your driveway is worth nothing. What you should end up holding is a document that describes the job well enough that a different crew could pick it up and build the same roof. Ours starts with the measurement, the slopes and their pitches, and the total area in squares, so you can see that the price is tied to something countable instead of to a guess about your house.

Under that come the line items in the order the work happens. Tear-off and how many layers are coming off, disposal, the decking allowance with a rate per board or sheet and a quantity included, the underlayment, the ice and water membrane at the eaves and in the valleys, starter along the rakes and eaves, the field material, hip and ridge, and every piece of flashing by location. Ventilation appears on its own line with the intake and exhaust listed separately, because that's a decision you should get to make on purpose.

The parts that aren't included matter just as much. Our exclusions are written out where you can see them, along with the specific conditions that would trigger a change order and how you would be notified. Any change gets photographed, priced, and approved by you in writing before the work happens, so the last day of the job holds no surprises.

The back page covers the ordinary business items. How the payment schedule works and what's due when, roughly how long the job takes on a house like yours, who is responsible for the permit if your town requires one, what the workmanship coverage includes and for how long, and how that differs from the material coverage that comes from whoever made the shingles.

Read that page carefully, because it's where most of the disputes we hear about would have been prevented. If anything in it is unclear, ask, and if the answer you get is vague, ask again until it's written down in words you would be comfortable reading back to somebody a year from now.

Inside Dugger: The Roofs Behind Us

Roofing projects completed across Dugger's neighborhoods and surrounding areas. Click any neighborhood for the specifics we have learned working there.

Where we respond near Dugger

Indiana-licensed crews dispatched to Dugger and the closest surrounding communities.