Part H · the register

Keep Tear-Off Grit Out of Your Kirkwood Curb Inlet

A Kirkwood tear-off sends grit toward the street, where the curb inlet can clog, so ask each roofer how the crew keeps it out.

When a roof comes off in Kirkwood, much of the mess stays on the lot, in the dumpster or in the magnet pass over the yard. The part that leaves the property is the fine material: granules, bits of old felt, nail stubs and dust that wind or rain carries toward the street. The curb is where that material tends to end up in the wrong place. The storm inlets there take rainwater into the storm sewer, and an inlet packed with shingle grit or leaf litter backs water onto the pavement. The crew will not call that a roofing problem, but it is a problem on your street, and it can end up in front of your house.

This page is for a homeowner who has a roof bid in hand and wants to know what the bid says about the street before the crew arrives. It does not cover the storm sewer system itself or any rule the city may apply to work in the public right of way. Those questions belong with Kirkwood's public works staff. A roof bid should do something narrower: say how the crew will keep grit off the street, and who checks.

Town roofing

Kirkwood has older blocks where the parkway is narrow and the curb sits close to the front of the house, and newer lots where the driveway apron is the only paved edge between the house and the street. In both cases the crew's path from the roof to the dumpster usually crosses the same strip of concrete that rainwater uses to reach the inlet. Late October makes that path harder to ignore. Leaves are coming down, the first heavy rains are arriving, and the inlets fill with leaves well before anyone opens a roof. A tear-off this week adds shingle grit and dust to a drainage path that is already carrying leaves.

A tear-off sends grit toward the street by three routes. Wind lifts fine dust off the old shingles, and the risk is greater on the slope that faces the street when the afternoon breeze picks up. Rain carries material when the open deck gets wet and loose debris washes off the eave into the gutter. Boots and wheelbarrows carry it down the driveway and out to the curb. Each route needs its own answer in the bid, because a plan that covers only one of them leaves the other two open.

The wind route is the one homeowners tend to overlook. A crew can work the street-side slope in the morning and leave debris exposed through an afternoon gust. Ask whether the street-facing eave gets a tarp or a board at the end of each day, and whether the old shingles go into the bin as they come off rather than being stacked at the eave where wind can reach them. Ask also who clears the street if a gust moves material across the road.

Rain is the route that catches a homeowner by surprise. An open roof that takes a light rain on the first night can send wet grit over the eave and out with the water running off the gutter. Ask how the crew covers the open deck overnight and which slope gets covered first. A bid that says only weather protection as needed leaves the decision with the crew on the day the rain arrives, and you will not be there to see which choice they made.

The boot route is the one that reaches the curb most directly. Crews walk the driveway in boots loaded with grit, and the dumpster or material pile is often parked at the apron. A short sweep of the driveway and the curb line at the end of each day is the simple answer, and it takes little crew time. Some crews sweep only once, at the end of the job. That saves labor, but it leaves grit on the street for days, and a few days of grit at the curb is exactly the material a rainstorm pushes into the inlet.

Walk the curb yourself

Walk the curb on the first evening after the crew leaves, and again the next morning. Take a phone photo of the gutter line, the apron and the inlet, and note the time. If grit or nail stubs are sitting at the curb, tell the crew foreman that day rather than at the end of the week, and ask that the photo go into the job file. A dated record shows what the crew left and when it was cleared. Ask for the scope and the photo log in writing, so the curb photos sit in the same file as the rest of the job.

Winter changes the stakes. A clogged inlet in November is a drainage nuisance. The same inlet in January, when snowmelt runs down the grade and freezes at the curb, becomes a sheet of ice across the street and a slip hazard for anyone walking past. Kirkwood's freeze and thaw cycle is hard on standing water, so a curb left dirty in October can make the first hard freeze harder to manage than it needed to be.

What it costs

Curb cleanup is almost never a separate line on a roof bid. It is folded into crew time, the dumpster rental or a general site cleanup figure. That is normal, but it means the cost of keeping grit off the street stays invisible unless you ask. Look for the words that describe the street itself: driveway sweep, curb line, storm inlet. If the bid says only site cleanup or debris removal, ask what those words cover before you compare it with another bid.

Two bids can match on the total and still differ on the street. One crew may sweep daily and carry that labor inside its crew-day rate. Another may sweep once at the end of the job and assume the weather will hold. The second bid can look cheaper on paper, and then the cleanup becomes your job to chase when the grit reaches the inlet or the apron floods. The difference should appear in the written scope, not in the first conversation at your door.

Ask also whether clearing the inlet or the street is billed separately if the work leaves it dirty. A bid that promises to clean up its own mess is not making the same promise as a bid that puts the sweep and the inlet check into the scope. Read the words for both, and ask the roofer to put the answer in a sentence.

What to ask

• Where does the crew sweep at the end of each day, and does the sweep reach the curb line and the storm inlet in front of the house?
• Which slope gets covered first when rain is forecast, and does the crew tarp the open deck overnight?
• How does the crew keep loose shingle material from blowing across the street on a windy afternoon?
• Is the dumpster or material pile placed so that wheelbarrow and foot traffic stay on the driveway apron and off the parkway?
• Who clears the street and the inlet if material gets there, and how soon after you call?
• Will the daily curb photos go into the written scope or job file that the homeowner receives?

Get the answers in writing. A bid that does not mention the curb can be fixed by adding a sentence to the scope before the crew is booked, which is far easier than settling it on the day the wind comes up. If a roofer cannot describe the sweep, the street is not part of the plan.

If an inlet clogs after the job and the crew does not clear it, call Kirkwood's public works staff to report the blockage. Do not reach into the inlet yourself. Keep the dated photo file open while you wait, because it shows what was on the curb and when.