Roofing

Roofing on a remodel is usually a junction problem: a new addition or patio cover meeting an existing roof, where the flashing detail decides whether the connection lasts.

In this climate the failures concentrate at the eaves, the valleys and the roof-to-wall transitions, and the mechanism is usually ice rather than rain. Snow melts over a warm attic, runs down to the cold overhang, refreezes into a dam and backs water up under the covering — which is why an ice-dam leak is normally an insulation and ventilation problem showing up as a roofing symptom, and why replacing the covering without addressing the attic buys a season. Snow load, ice-barrier membrane at the eaves and correct kickout flashing where a roof meets a wall are the details that decide whether a roof lasts here, and they are designed rather than improvised.

Tying a new roof into an old one starts with an honest assessment of the old one. Adding a decade-long addition onto underlayment that is already at end of life is a false economy the design stage exists to catch — sometimes the right scope includes renewing the adjacent roof plane while the trade is mobilised, and that is a decision to make deliberately, with the numbers visible.

Low-slope sections are their own discipline, and most houses here have one somewhere — over a porch, a dormer, an attached garage or an addition that met the main roof awkwardly. Two things make them harder in this climate than the ponding everyone expects. Snow does not slide off a shallow pitch, so it sits and loads; and the transition where a low slope meets a steeper roof above it is where meltwater arrives fastest and freezes first. Drainage has to be designed rather than assumed — slope, outlets, overflow — and the flat-looking roof is the one where the drawing matters most.

This work is performed by licensed roofing contractors. Monarch designs the tie-in conditions, coordinates the trade, and sequences roofing so the structure is dried-in before the interior scopes that depend on it.

Monarch coordinates the full project scope, with specialty work performed by appropriately licensed trades where required.