Roofing in Ashland
Ashland sits on the stretch of Highway 63 between Columbia and Jefferson City, and for the last twenty five years it has been one of the faster growing places in mid Missouri. That single fact shapes almost everything about roofing here.
The roofs are all the same age. Subdivision building happens in bursts, and Ashland has had several. Whole streets went up inside a two or three year window with the same builder, the same specification and frequently the same shingle. Asphalt does not care about the calendar, but it is fairly consistent, so those roofs arrive at the end of their lives together. If you are looking at neighbours replacing roofs and wondering whether you have missed something, the answer may simply be that your house and theirs were finished the same summer.
This has two practical consequences. The first is capacity. When a hail event lands on top of a neighbourhood that was already due, local roofing companies run out of crew, and lead times stretch from weeks to months. Ringing early, before the roof actually fails, is worth real money here. The second is that builder grade specification matters. A lot of that fast growth housing was roofed with basic three tab shingle, minimum nailing and whatever ventilation the plan called for. Replacing like for like repeats the problem. Stepping up to architectural shingle with a proper nailing pattern and corrected ventilation is usually a modest increase on the quote and a substantial increase in how long you go before doing this again.
Exposure is higher than it looks. Ashland’s subdivisions sit in fairly open country with farm ground between them, and the tree cover is young because the houses are young. A twenty year old subdivision has twenty year old trees, which do very little to slow wind. Wind lifting shingles along a rake edge is a common call here, and it is more common on the newer, more exposed streets than in the older core of the town.
Permits. Inside the city limits Ashland runs its own building permits through its building official. Outside them the property falls to Boone County. This is a small point that becomes an annoying one if a company assumes Columbia rules apply, so it is worth asking directly.
Drainage and gutters. Newer subdivision lots are graded tightly, and a gutter that overflows in a storm puts water straight against a foundation that has little margin. Roofers here are often asked to look at gutter sizing and downspout runs at the same time as the covering, and it is a reasonable thing to combine.
One independent mid Missouri roofing company receives requests made through this site. The cost page covers ranges, and storm and hail damage covers the insurance case.
Questions people ask
- Everyone on my street is getting a new roof. Is that a sign of storm damage?
Sometimes, and sometimes it is simply arithmetic. Ashland built in waves, so the roofs age in waves. A street laid out in 2003 reaches the end of a typical asphalt life together whether or not a storm helped it along. Worth an inspection either way, because the two causes lead to quite different conversations with an insurer.
- Does the city or the county issue my permit?
Inside the Ashland city limits, the city handles building permits through its own building official. Properties on the rural roads outside the limits go through Boone County instead. Ask your roofing company which office they are filing with, because an outfit that works mainly in Columbia may not have done either.