Roofing in Royal Oak, MI
Royal Oak is a dense inner-ring suburb with older housing, narrow lots and steeper roof pitches than the postwar subdivisions to the north. A lot of the stock here is 1920s to 1940s bungalows and small colonials, which means the roofs are small but the details are numerous and the access is tight.
3G Home Exteriors is family-owned and has worked out of Fraser since 2011. Royal Oak is inside the Oakland County area our crews cover every week.
Our roofing work
Completed jobs from across Macomb and Oakland counties. At the inspection we can show you work on comparable older housing.
What an older Royal Oak roof involves
A pre-war house is not just an old version of a new one. The construction is genuinely different and it affects every part of the job.
- Steeper pitch — these roofs are pitched for appearance and for snow shedding. They cannot be walked, so everything is staged and everything takes longer.
- Board decking with gaps — original 1×6 sheathing rather than sheet. It is usually sound, but it changes fastening and it sometimes needs overlaying.
- Multiple small planes — dormers, porch roofs and additions built over decades, each with its own flashing detail
- Chimneys that are still in use or still standing — masonry chimneys are the most common leak point on this housing, and the flashing around them is usually the oldest thing on the roof
Repair or replace in Royal Oak
These roofs are small, which makes a repair genuinely worthwhile more often than on a large modern house. A failed porch roof or one bad chimney flashing is a real repair and we will quote it as one. What moves the house into replacement is the main planes going together, usually visible as cupping across a whole slope.
For a single leak, our roof repair page explains how we trace it back to the source.
Working on a lot with no room
Royal Oak lots are narrow and the houses are close. That is the practical challenge here: there is often no side access wide enough for equipment, nowhere obvious for a container, and a neighbour four metres away on both sides. We plan that at the estimate rather than improvising on the morning.
After a storm we inspect and photograph everything and give you an itemised scope for your adjuster. More is on our storm damage page.
The roof is part of the water path
With houses this close together there is very little ground to release water into, and what there is usually slopes towards somebody.
- Gutter installation in Royal Oak — our dedicated page for gutter work here
- Seamless gutters — formed on site, which suits a street with nowhere to store material
- Exterior drainage — extensions and buried lines where the lot line is close
- Siding and trim — older trim details that the roof edge is protecting
Roofing questions from Royal Oak homeowners
Yes, and any quote that does not account for it is either wrong or planning to cut corners. A pitch that needs staging and harnesses is slower to work and needs more equipment. The square footage might be small but the labour is not.My roof is too steep to walk on. Does that cost more?
Usually not. Sound board sheathing does not need to come off. Where boards have gone soft, normally around a chimney or at the eaves, those get replaced. Occasionally a roof needs overlaying with sheet material, and if so we tell you at the estimate rather than once it is open.Is my old board decking a problem?
Often yes. Chimney flashing is the most common leak we find on this housing and it is a repair in its own right. Whether it is worth doing on its own depends on how much life is left in the surrounding shingles, and we will tell you honestly.Water comes in near the chimney. Can that be fixed without a new roof?
We work it out at the estimate. Usually the drive, sometimes the street with the city notified. On the tightest sites we use a smaller container and swap it out, which costs a little more in haulage and avoids blocking the street for days.Where do you put the container on a narrow lot?
Serving Royal Oak and nearby
Our shop is at 31097 Fraser Dr in Fraser, and Royal Oak is on the regular run rather than a trip we schedule around.
The full list is on our service area page.
Book a roof inspection in Royal Oak
Every estimate starts on site and ends with a written, itemised scope. There is no charge for the visit.
Request a free inspection or call (586) 533-8343.
