Older homes on rolling ground
Hillsdale is a college town, and the older neighborhoods have the roofs that go with one — two-story homes with steep pitches, dormers, valleys, chimneys, and porches added later at a shallower slope. That is not simple geometry, and it is where most of the leaks I trace on older houses live: the valley, the sidewall, the chimney. The field of the roof is rarely the problem.
Those houses suit a concealed-fastener system well. An interlocking metal shingle keeps the look of an older street and removes the exposed nail heads that failed last time. Standing seam takes the low-slope porch roof a shingle should not be on. Either way, the flashing is the job and the quote should say so.
Winter and wind
Hillsdale sits on higher, rolling ground and takes wind and a real winter. Freeze and thaw is what wears a roof out here — snow melts against the warm deck, refreezes at the cold eave, and backs water up. Metal gives that water no fastener head or shingle edge to work under. It does not fix a warm attic, and ventilation comes up on older houses constantly, especially where an attic was finished without the intake being reworked. If a contractor never asks about your soffit intake, they are quoting a product, not a roof.
Farm country
Outside town it is farms, and the barn has screw-down panel on it already. That is the right roof for a barn. The washers under those screws are a wear item due attention around year ten to twelve. On the house you plan to keep, I steer people to concealed fasteners, and we do not install exposed fastener below 4/12 anywhere.
Who should not be calling us
If you are selling in the next few years, the horizon is too short. If your roof has one bad detail and life left in it, that is a repair — we do not take repair calls, so call a repair contractor and keep the roof you have. If you want shingles again, we are the wrong call.
Where we are coming from
Hillsdale is about an hour and twenty minutes from our Fort Wayne office. We are licensed and in good standing in Michigan; our business identification number is 802491909. Michigan is not home, and a local contractor is a legitimate thing to want. What we bring is metal only, manufacturer-certified installers, and a warranty that transfers if you sell.
“We also serve surrounding towns and rural communities throughout Northeast Indiana, Northwest Ohio, and Southern Michigan within roughly a 90-minute drive of our Fort Wayne and Noblesville offices.”
