Roof Repair in Milford, Michigan

The open-roof inspection: why we photograph everything

This is the single most useful thing to understand about roofing in Milford, and it is the reason we like working here.

Both governments require a photo-documented open-roof inspection. The township's own guidance is specific: two ground photos identifying the home — the front with the address showing, and the back — then photographs of the plywood decking condition, of any damage and its repair, of the underlayment installation, of the holes cut for ridge vents, can vents and power fans, and of the nail placement against manufacturer specification. Emailed or printed to the building department. The final inspection is only called after the open-roof inspection is approved.

The village is equally direct. Before final inspection the owner or contractor must submit photos of the deck after shingle removal and of the ice shield and underlayment at stages — typically six to ten pictures. And the village explicitly rejects photographs of the finished roof as insufficient. That is the whole point: once the shingles are on, nobody can see whether the deck was sound, whether the ice shield went far enough, or whether the nails landed on the strip.

We shoot this sequence as a matter of course, on every job, in every town. In Milford it is required, which means the shortcuts other crews take somewhere else are visible here. If you are collecting bids in Milford and one of them has not mentioned the open-roof inspection, that is a question worth asking.

The historic district that does not restrict you

Milford has a National Register historic district and no design review, which is an unusual and pleasant combination — and the opposite of the situation twenty miles north in Holly.

The North Milford Village Historic District was listed on the National Register on April 21, 2000. It covers about 140 acres and 255 of its 312 buildings contribute — 82%, which is a remarkably intact district. It runs three blocks of North Main Street from the Huron River up past Summit, Cabinet Street on the west to Crystal Street on the east, taking in five east-west and six north-south residential streets, two mill ponds on Pettibone Creek and four historic churches. The styles run from commercial Italianate and Art Deco downtown to Greek Revival, Italianate, Victorian Gothic, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Stick, Chateauesque, Dutch Colonial Revival, Bungalow, Craftsman and Cape Cod in the residential blocks.

Here is the part that matters to a homeowner: National Register listing on its own imposes no restriction whatsoever on what a private owner does with their own money. There is no design review, no material approval, no certificate of appropriateness.

And we checked whether a local ordinance adds one, because that is where the teeth would be. It does not. The Village of Milford's code has no historic preservation chapter at all — the chapter index runs from General Provisions through Zoning with nothing in between, and Community Development contains only the Downtown Development Authority and the Building Authority. The village's own boards and commissions list has a Planning Commission, a Parks and Recreation board, a DDA, a Zoning Board of Appeals, a Parking Authority, a Water Board of Appeals, a Construction Board of Appeals, a Beautification Commission, a Parcel Division Board and a Tree Board — and no Historic District Commission.

So your shingle color in Milford is your own business. A South Milford district has been proposed by the historical society but has not been designated. If that changes we will tell you; until it does, we are not going to invent a hurdle that does not exist.

The most heavily wooded township in Oakland County — and it has a tree ordinance

Milford is ringed by more public forest than almost anywhere else in southeast Michigan. Kensington Metropark covers 4,543 acres across Milford and Lyon Townships around Kent Lake, dammed on the Huron River in 1946 and opened as a park in 1947. Proud Lake State Recreation Area adds 3,030 acres to the southeast. Highland State Recreation Area adds 5,900 acres directly north, including the 721-acre Haven Hill Natural Area, designated a National Natural Landmark in 1976 and notable for containing all of southern Michigan's principal forest types in one small area — tamarack swamp, cedar, beech-maple, oak-hickory and mixed hardwood.

That is not just scenery. Working from federal canopy data, Milford Township runs about 34.7% mean tree canopy against roughly 29.0% for Oakland County as a whole, with the village at about 32.9%. Milford Township is roughly a fifth more heavily canopied than the county average, and it shows up in the storm record and on the roofs.

Milford Township also has a real tree ordinance, and homeowners should know how it works before they call somebody about the oak over the garage. Under Chapter 32, Article IX, a protected tree is any tree eight inches in diameter at breast height or greater; a landmark tree is any tree twenty-four inches or greater, plus a species list with lower thresholds — oak, pine, maple, hickory, sycamore, beech and several others at eighteen inches. A tree permit is $100.

But — and this is the part that matters — Section 32-723 exempts routine yard maintenance on property not subject to site plan review, and specifically exempts tree removal on an occupied single-family lot that has a valid certificate of occupancy. It also exempts hazardous trees damaged by accident or non-human cause, ANSI A300-compliant trimming, and actions made necessary by an emergency such as a tornado, windstorm, flood or freeze in order to prevent injury or damage.

In the Village of Milford there is no private-property tree removal permit at all — the village tree chapter covers street trees, the Tree Board, arborist licensing and planting distances, and Section 86-37 only regulates how close to the right-of-way you may plant.

Practical version: on an ordinary occupied Milford Township lot you can take down the limb that is punching your shingles. If you are doing something larger, or your property is under site plan review, call the township at (248) 684-1296 first.