Part H · the register

Kirkwood House Styles and the Roof Detail Each One Hides

Kirkwood house styles each keep roof trouble in a different place. Here is what to check on your own house before you compare any quote.

Kirkwood has several house shapes on its streets, and each one keeps its roofing trouble in a different place. A brick ranch with a low hip roof, a steep gabled cottage with a dormer, and a split-level with a lower roof stepping down over the garage all fail in their own ways. Before you compare any quote, it helps to know which detail on your own house deserves the closest look.

This page is for a homeowner who has a roof that needs work, or will soon, and wants to know what to check on the house before a crew is on the ladder. It does not rank contractors and it does not cover what an insurance company will pay. Missouri law bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim, and from saying anything about paying, waiving or covering a deductible. The insurer conversation stays with you. What Keys does is document the damage, put a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands, and attend as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer.

The brick ranch with a low hip roof

A hip roof has four slopes that meet at the hips and the ridge, and on a ranch the pitch is usually low. Low pitch slows the water down, which sounds like a benefit until you consider that wind-driven rain can push under the shingle edge and that snow sits on a low slope longer than it sits on a steep one. On a Kirkwood winter with a few thaws, that means more time for melt water to find its way back up under the eave.

Start with the ridge. A ridge vent that has been sealed with caulk over the years is a common reason a ranch leaks in the same spot after every storm. Next, look at the low-slope sections over a porch, a bay or a carport. Those areas often need a different surface than the main slopes, and the proposal should say so instead of listing one shingle for the whole roof. Finally, look at the attic side if you can get up there. Thin insulation lets warm air reach the roof deck, and that warm air feeds ice damming at the eave in January and February.

The steep gable cottage

Older steep gable cottages have more valleys, more dormers and more places where two surfaces meet. A valley is where two slopes come together in a V, and it carries more water than any other part of the roof. A valley built with the wrong metal, or with shingles trimmed too close to the center, is a leak waiting for the next heavy rain. Ask the roofer how the valley will be built and what material sits under the shingles there.

Look at the chimney too. On a steep roof the chimney is often set on one slope, and the flashing where it passes through the roof is a seam that has to be redone when the shingles come off. If the mortar cap is cracked, water can run down inside the flue wall and show up as a stain in a room far from the chimney. Keep a record of any ceiling stains and note which room each one is in.

Steep roofs also raise a practical question about access. The proposal should name where the crew will enter the property and how they will reach the upper slopes safely. That answer tells you whether the roofer has actually walked the job.

The split-level and the roof that steps down

A split-level often has a main roof over the upper level and a lower roof over the garage, a den or a side wing. Where the lower roof meets the wall of the upper level, the two surfaces join in a line that is easy to overlook. Water runs down the upper wall, reaches that junction, and has to be carried over the lower roof by a step flashing and a counter-flashing tucked into the mortar joint or siding. If either piece is missing or set flat, the water runs behind it.

That junction is where the photo record earns its keep. Before the counter-flashing goes on, the crew should photograph the step flashing so you can see what is actually there. Ask for those photos before the work is finished, not afterward. Keys documents that kind of detail as part of the written scope, so the photos and measurements go into your hands, and the proposal names the wall junction rather than hiding it under a single line for flashing.

What you can check from the street

You do not need a ladder to start. Stand on the sidewalk across the street and count the roof planes. Note where the planes meet, whether any ridge line dips, and where the vents and the chimney sit. Take a photo of each side with the phone held level, and write down which way the roof faces. Kirkwood lots vary in width and depth, and the side that faces the afternoon sun often shows its age first.

Those photos and your count of planes are the first numbers to compare when the quotes come in. A roof with five planes and a roof with three cannot be priced the same way, and a proposal that gives one total without a plane count is not showing you its work.

Shingles on these houses

Keys installs Atlas and Malarkey shingles only. On a brick ranch, a cottage or a split-level, the shingle is the visible layer, but it is only as good as the flashing, the vents and the underlayment beneath it. The proposal should name the product line and the wind rating printed on the wrapper, and it should say what goes under the shingle at the eaves, the valleys and the walls.

Missouri has no matching statute and no matching regulation for roofs. If a partial replacement on a split-level will not match the older section, whether the insurer owes a matched repair turns on the policy wording. Read the policy before you assume either answer, and keep photos of the existing roof for any conversation about it.

Questions to put to the roofer

• Which planes are you replacing, and which are you inspecting only?
• Where does the step flashing at each wall junction get replaced, and will you photograph it before the counter-flashing goes on?
• How will each valley be built, and what goes under the shingles there?
• What will you do with the chimney flashing and the mortar cap?
• Where will the crew enter the property, and how will they reach the upper slope?

A written answer to each of those questions will show you whether the proposal was written for your house or for a generic roof. If you want a Keys crew to walk your roof with you before you decide, call the office at (314) 220-2333.