Two places with one name
“Lake Orion” means two things. There is the Village of Lake Orion, a small town of under 3,000 people, and there is Orion Township, the much larger township around it. J&M Roofing works in both, on homes and on commercial buildings, and estimates are free.
The village and the lake
The village goes back to the 1820s, when mills went up along Paint Creek. It was incorporated in 1859. Fire took the business district in 1862 and again in 1874, 1894, 1901 and 1902, so most of the downtown standing today is younger than the town itself. When the railroad arrived in 1872, the lake became one of the most popular resorts in Southeast Michigan. By 1909, mail was delivered by boat to more than 300 cottages on the lake and its islands.
That history shows up on the roofs. Older village houses and lake houses can carry more than one layer of shingles, older board decking, and chimneys and additions built decades apart. Michigan’s residential code allows no more than two layers, so a lot of these jobs start with a tear-off and a good look at the deck. Houses on the water also take the wind straight off the lake, which tests the edges of a roof first. For an older house, a careful roof inspection before anyone prices a new roof is money well spent.
Downtown’s commercial buildings typically have low-slope roofs behind their front walls. Those need the same attention as any flat roof: drainage, seams and flashing where the roof meets the walls.
The township
Orion Township covers 36 square miles and has 42 lakes larger than five acres. Much of the township’s housing is recent. Census-based estimates put the median home at about 1992, and roughly one in eight was built between 2010 and 2019.
A subdivision house from the 1990s is now at or near its first roof replacement. That first roof replacement is the right time to fix attic ventilation, add the ice barrier at the eaves that code requires, and replace tired flashing. Not every aging roof needs replacing, though. A lifted shingle or a failed pipe boot is a roof repair.
The township also has commercial roofing along M-24 and industrial buildings off Silverbell, and it is home to GM’s Orion Assembly plant. Our commercial roofing page covers that side of the work.
Permits in Orion
Building permits in Orion Township come from the Charter Township of Orion Building Department at 2323 Joslyn Road, and inspections are booked online through BS&A. The Village of Lake Orion is a separate government with its own planning and zoning. The building permit forms posted on the village’s website are the township building department’s, so the safest first step for a village address is a call to the village office.
Where we work
We cover the village streets down to Atwater Street, where the Paint Creek Trail ends after its 8.9-mile run from Rochester, plus the township along M-24 (Lapeer Road), Joslyn, Baldwin, Clarkston, Indianwood, Waldon and Silverbell.
For a lake house, a subdivision home or a storefront, request a free estimate.