Part H · the register

The Overhead Utility Drop Over a Kirkwood Roof Edge

Where the wire from the pole meets your eave decides who moves it, when the crew can start, and what your roof quote has to show.

Many Kirkwood houses take power from an overhead service drop: a line that runs from a utility pole, across the yard or over the street, and ends at a weatherhead or mast on the side of the house, usually near the roof edge. On a re-roof, the crew has to walk the eave, set a ladder, and bring a dumpster or hoist close to the wall. The drop is in the way of all three. Before you sign, you should know who will move the wire, how long that takes, and whether the quote assumes it has already been done.

Town roofing

Kirkwood's older blocks have large shade trees, narrow lots, and houses that sit close to the street, so the service drop often crosses the front of the roof at a low angle. The attachment point is not always where the original plan showed it. Electrical work done when a house was added to or rewired can move the point a few feet, and a drop that clears the ridge can still sit inside the working distance at the eave, which is where the tear-off happens.

The electric utility serving your address owns the wire up to the point where it meets your service, and it controls any work on that wire. Your roofer does not own it and should not cut, lift, tie off, or touch it. When the crew needs more clearance, the usual path is for the homeowner to ask the utility for a temporary lift or disconnect. The utility then schedules the work, and it may charge for it. Ask the roofer, in writing, which of these applies to your house and who will make the request.

What the crew needs from the wire

Three things decide whether the drop is a problem on your roof:

• The height of the attachment point above the eave, measured on the wall and not guessed from the ground.
• How close the drop runs to the ridge and to the outer edge of the roof, because the ladder, the hoist, and any staging must stay clear of it.
• Whether the drop feeds the house directly or runs to a mast that is part of the roof work, since a mast that comes off the roof needs its own plan.

Clearance on a steep slope is not the same as clearance at the eave. A crew can stand well away from a line on the ground and still reach across it on the ladder, or carry a bundle of shingles through it on the way up. Ask the roofer to show where the ladder will sit and how the bundles will go up, not only where the dumpster will be.

Keys documents this on the walk. A photo of the attachment point from the ground and a second from the eave go into the written scope with the measurements, so you have a record of where the wire sits before anything changes. Keys attends as the contractor on the day, and any request to the utility stays with you as the homeowner.

What it costs

A roof bid should not carry a hidden price for moving the utility's wire. If the bid includes a line for a utility lift, a disconnect, or a licensed electrician, that line should name the work and the amount. If it does not, ask whether the number is missing or whether the crew plans to work around the drop without moving it. Those are two different roofs, and they can carry two different prices.

Working around a drop usually means a different ladder position, hand-carrying materials in a different path, or a smaller daily load so the crew is not reaching across the wire at the end of the day. None of those changes is free in crew time, so ask whether the schedule was built with the drop in place or with it moved. A bid that assumes the wire will move but does not say when the utility is booked leaves the start date open.

Safety sets a hard limit here. No one on the crew should set a ladder against a wall under a live drop or lean an aluminum ladder toward a line. If the roofer says the work can be done safely without a lift, ask what the plan is for the ladder and for any mast or conduit that runs near the eave, and get that plan in writing before the first day.

What to ask

• Where the drop attaches to the house, and how far above the eave it sits.
• Where the ladder, hoist, and staging will go, and how close each one comes to the drop.
• Who requests any utility lift or disconnect, and whether that step is written into the schedule with a date.
• Whether the utility work, if any, is inside the quote or a separate line with a named amount.
• What happens to the drop during the tear-off, including where the dumpster sits relative to the wire and the house wall.
• Whether the roofer will hold the start date until the utility has confirmed its work, or whether the crew will start and wait.

If the answers are vague, that is information too. Ask again in writing before you choose a roofer. To talk through the drop at your address before a crew is scheduled, call the Keys Roofing office at (314) 220-2333.