Exterior contractor in Lake Orion, MI
Lake Orion grew around water and it grew unevenly. There are small older cottages near the lake that have been added to two or three times, substantial newer homes on the surrounding land, and a village core of older houses on tight lots.
Very few of these buildings are a single coherent piece of construction, and that is the thread running through almost every job we do here. The work is at the joints.
Houses built in stages
Where an addition meets an original building, several things change at once: wall thickness, sheathing, often roof pitch, and sometimes the foundation it all sits on. If that junction was never properly flashed, it leaks, and it usually leaks somewhere that looks unrelated.
When we inspect a house here the first place we go is every point where one era meets another. That is more useful than looking at the middle of a wall or the middle of a roof slope, where very little actually goes wrong.
What we do in Lake Orion
- Roofing — roofing in Lake Orion · residential roofing · repairs · storm damage
- Siding, soffit and fascia — siding in Lake Orion · vinyl · fiber cement
- Seamless gutters — gutters in Lake Orion · seamless gutters · leaf protection · copper
- Everything else on the outside — drainage, windows, painting, masonry, decks, additions and commercial roofing
Shallow pitches and ice at the eave
A lot of the additions around Lake Orion were built with shallower roof pitches than the original house. Shallow pitch plus a Michigan winter is how ice builds at the eave, and when it dams it pushes water backwards under the shingle and down into the wall below.
The damage shows on the trim and the siding; the cause is on the roof and in the attic. Replacing the wall without addressing pitch, eave detail and ventilation gives you the same stain in two winters.
Working on lakefront and near-lake property
Access to the water-facing elevation is usually the narrowest approach on the property, sometimes down a slope and occasionally reachable only around a seawall or through the house. Ground near water is softer, so staging needs proper bearing.
We settle all of that at the estimate. We also contain debris rather than tidying at the end, because offcuts and fasteners near a shoreline should not end up in the water.
What we look at on a house that has grown
On a building made of several pieces, these are the places we check first:
- Every roof-to-wall junction, particularly where a lower addition roof dies into an upper wall. Step flashing and a kick-out at the bottom, or water goes inside.
- The change of plane between old and new walls, which needs a deliberate detail rather than trim and sealant over a step.
- Where the weather barrier bridges different sheathing, since plank on one side and OSB on the other rarely had anything continuous over the join.
- Deck and porch ledgers, often original, often unflashed, and always a structural connection as well as a water path.
- Ventilation in each roof section separately. An addition frequently has its own attic space that was never vented properly.
Questions from Lake Orion homeowners
My house is three additions stuck together and none of it matches. Can that be fixed?
That is the work we do most often here. One material, one detail and one line across the whole building, with the junctions between the sections properly flashed rather than covered over.
I get stains on the wall under my back addition roof every winter. Why?
Most often ice at the eave, driven by a shallow pitch and how that section is ventilated. New siding will look fine and then stain again. We would want to look at the roof and the attic before quoting the wall.
Can you reach the lake side of my house?
Usually, but how is the question and it belongs in the quote. Narrow approaches, slopes, decks and soft ground all change the staging on a lakefront property.
Is the damp near the lake a problem?
It is a reason to pay attention to ventilation and to the barrier behind the finish on that elevation, rather than a reason to choose different materials. An assembly that can dry is the whole point.
Nearby
- Exterior contractor in Clarkston, MI
- Exterior contractor in Oakland Township, MI
- Exterior contractor in Rochester Hills, MI
The full coverage list is on our service area page.
Free estimate in Lake Orion
On a house that has been added to, the inspection is where the value is. It is free, and so is the written scope that follows.
Request a free estimate or call (586) 533-8343.
