Category: Field Notes

Roof Leaks That old satellite dish bolted to your roof probably hasn’t worked in years, but the mounting brackets are still up there doing damage every single day. Every screw and bracket foot is a hole punched through your shingles, and most were sealed with nothing more than a dab of roofing cement decades ago.…

Winter Prep Here’s something most homeowners don’t expect: Georgia winters are actually harder on a roof than a true cold climate’s. Up north, ice forms once and stays put. Here, we swing from the 60s to the 20s and back, sometimes in the same week. Every swing, any moisture already sitting in a cracked caulk…

Solar & Roofing Solar is everywhere in Georgia right now, and I get asked about it a lot. Here’s what a lot of installers won’t lead with: putting panels on a roof that isn’t ready for them can quietly void your shingle manufacturer’s warranty. Most roofing warranties exclude damage from penetrations and attachments added after…

Roof Materials Every fall somebody asks me the same thing: should I just switch to metal instead of putting on more shingles? Fair question. Honest answer: it depends. A quality architectural shingle roof lasts 20-30 years, costs a fraction of standing-seam metal, and is easier and cheaper to repair after a storm — which matters…

Insurance Tips If you’re like most Atlanta-area homeowners, your policy renews sometime around the new year, and this cycle a lot of folks are seeing premiums and deductibles creep up again. Here’s the part nobody mentions: damage that’s already on your roof gets handled under the terms you had when it happened, not whatever kicks…

Gutter Maintenance Pine straw and leaves are coming down fast across metro Atlanta, and the same question keeps coming up on almost every inspection: are gutter guards actually worth it? Depends which kind you get. Cheap plastic screens look good in the ad, but pine needles slide right through the holes, so you’re still climbing…

Home Sale Prep Thinking about listing your house this fall? The roof is one of the first things a home inspector zeroes in on, and it can make or break your closing. Missing or lifted shingles, worn flashing around chimneys and vents, soft or sagging decking, and a roof that’s simply aged out all show…

Maintenance Most people worry about their shingles and forget the little rubber boot wrapped around every pipe sticking out of their roof. Those boots dry out and crack years before the shingles around them do — usually around the 8 to 10 year mark here in Georgia, with our heat and UV doing the real…

Maintenance Those dark streaks running down your shingles aren’t soot or dirt, it’s algae (Gloeocapsa magma), and it’s one of our most common calls this time of year once fall rains bring the humidity back up. It usually shows up first on the north-facing slope, where the sun doesn’t dry things out as fast, and…