Exterior contractor in Royal Oak, MI
Royal Oak is old housing by Metro Detroit standards. Much of it is pre-war: bungalows, small colonials and Tudors on narrow lots, built with plank sheathing and real wood trim, and altered by several owners since.
Working on a house like that is a different trade from working on a subdivision colonial. The elevations are small but detailed, the original proportions are worth keeping, and what is under the current surface is genuinely unknown until it comes off.
Small house, detailed house
A Royal Oak bungalow has less wall and roof area than a house in Shelby Township, and it can still take longer. The time goes into the porch, the dormers, the chimney, the frieze under the eave, and the point where a porch or garage roof dies into the main wall.
Those are the parts that make the house look like itself. Flattening them under coil and a wide panel is quick, cheap and very hard to undo, and we would rather spend a few minutes at the estimate talking about them than hand you a house that looks like anywhere.
What we do in Royal Oak
- Roofing — roofing in Royal Oak · residential roofing · repairs · storm damage
- Siding, soffit and fascia — siding in Royal Oak · vinyl · fiber cement
- Seamless gutters — gutters in Royal Oak · seamless gutters · leaf protection · copper
- Everything else on the outside — drainage, windows, painting, masonry, decks, additions and commercial roofing
Expect layers
On a house of this age we expect to work through more than one generation of material: 1970s aluminium or 1990s vinyl over the original wood, often with something in between, over plank sheathing with no weather barrier behind any of it.
Where a house was built before the 1980s, some cladding materials need testing before they are disturbed. If we find something that looks like it, we stop, we say so, and testing comes before any scope is agreed. We do not guess and we do not tear into it.
How a job runs on a narrow lot
Royal Oak lots are narrow and the houses are often a storey and a half or two storeys, which means staging rather than ladders on the side elevations and a conversation with the neighbours before the first morning.
The driveway becomes the work area. Material, the brake and usually the dumpster. We clean daily rather than at the end, because on a street built this close together that is simply part of doing the job properly.
The details we look at on a pre-war house
These are the places where a Royal Oak house is either kept or quietly ruined:
- The front porch. Columns, ceiling, knee wall, and a roof that dies into the main wall. The most visible part of the house and the fiddliest to detail correctly.
- Where the porch or garage roof meets the wall. This needs step flashing and a kick-out at the bottom. On houses of this age it is frequently missing.
- Dormers. Small walls with a great deal of edge: corners, trim and a roof-to-wall detail on each one.
- The frieze and soffit under the eave, which set the proportion of the whole elevation and are worth reproducing rather than flattening.
- Chimney flashing and the masonry around it, usually both old and usually needing attention together.
Questions from Royal Oak homeowners
Can you keep my original wood trim?
Often, and on these houses we would rather. Sound trim can be repaired and painted instead of wrapped, which keeps the proportions the house was designed with. Where it has rotted we replace it in kind rather than in coil.
My house has an older shingle-type siding under the vinyl. What happens?
Some materials used before the 1980s need testing before they are disturbed. If we find something that looks like it we stop and tell you, and testing comes before anything else is agreed.
My roof is steep. Does that change the price?
Yes. A steep pitch needs different access and takes longer, and on Royal Oak bungalows it is common. It is a real cost rather than a surcharge, and it is in the estimate from the start.
The wall facing my neighbour is three feet away. Can it be done?
Yes, with staging rather than ladders and with the neighbour knowing we are coming. It is also, usually, the wall in the worst condition, because nobody has looked at it closely in years.
Nearby
- Exterior contractor in Birmingham, MI
- Exterior contractor in Troy, MI
- Exterior contractor in Bloomfield, MI
The full coverage list is on our service area page.
Free estimate in Royal Oak
On an older house the inspection is worth more than the quote. Both are free, and we will tell you what we think is worth keeping.
Request a free estimate or call (586) 533-8343.
