A small city with an old core
Rochester is its own city, separate from Rochester Hills, with about 13,000 residents and roots in the early 1800s. Main Street is Rochester Road, M-150, and the heart of downtown runs between the Clinton River and Paint Creek bridges. J&M Roofing works here on houses and on commercial buildings, and every estimate is free.
Older houses than next door
By census-based estimates, somewhere around 8 to 11 percent of Rochester’s homes were built before 1940, roughly three times the share in Rochester Hills. The Rochester-Avon Historical Society’s downtown walking tour points to houses built for the town’s merchants and professionals that still stand: an Italianate Victorian, a Queen Anne, and an English Country Manor-style house among them. On North Main, just north of downtown, houses built between 1905 and 1913 have mostly become offices and businesses.
Away from downtown, the city looks more like its neighbors. The median home is from the early 1980s, and there are plenty of condos and newer single-family streets.
What older roofs need
An older Rochester house rarely gets a simple roof job. The usual findings:
- More than one layer. Michigan’s residential code caps a roof at two layers. Older houses have often been roofed over at least once, which means the next roof starts with a tear-off.
- Board decking. Houses from before the Second World War were usually sheathed with boards, not plywood. Gaps, rot and old nail holes have to be dealt with before new shingles go down.
- Complicated shapes. Queen Annes, dormers, porches and brick chimneys mean valleys and flashing, and that is where most leaks start. Many are a careful roof repair, not a new roof.
When it is time for a full roof replacement, it pays to have the decking, flashing and attic ventilation looked at as part of the same job.
Downtown, the older two- and three-story commercial blocks, like the 1899 Masonic Block at Fourth and Main, typically have low-slope roofs behind a parapet. Those are flat roofs, with their own problems: ponding water, tired seams and flashing at the parapet walls.
Permits in Rochester
Permits come from the City of Rochester Building Department at 400 Sixth Street. The rules here are specific. A re-roof needs a permit when more than 25 percent of the roof is being replaced. Any repair estimated at more than $600 needs one too. A roof replacement ends with a final inspection, and every building contractor has to be registered with the City of Rochester, not just licensed by the state.
Where we work
We work throughout the city: the streets around Main and University, the neighborhoods near Rochester Municipal Park where the Paint Creek Trail begins, and south toward Avon Road, where Rochester Road crosses into Rochester Hills. Our base is in Rochester Hills, so Rochester is next door.
If your roof is leaking or you’d like a straight answer about where it stands, ask for a free estimate.