Roof replacement
Roof Replacement in Holly, Michigan
Holly has the oldest housing stock anywhere we work. More than one house in five inside the village was built before 1940, and the streets around Battle Alley and East Maple sit inside two local historic districts where exterior work genuinely has to be reviewed before it happens. Step outside the village and the picture flips: Holly Township's biggest single cohort was built between 2000 and 2009 and is now finishing a first roof, Rose Township is 1990s acreage homes plus a 1970s group on a second covering, and Groveland is 1970s and 1980s. Four governments, four front desks, one mailing address. We replace roofs across all of it with a full tear-off, a complete Owens Corning system and a warranty registered in your name — and on a historic-district house we handle the review paperwork with you.
Serving the Village of Holly, Holly Township, Rose Township and Groveland Township in Oakland County — four building departments, and two binding historic districts inside the village.
Do I need a permit to replace my roof in Holly?
There are two questions in Holly and they have different answers. The first is the ordinary building permit, and it depends which of four governments you are in: the Village of Holly at the Karl Richter Center, Holly Township on Civic Drive, Rose Township on Mason Street, or Groveland Township on Grange Hall Road. None of the four states online whether a like-for-like re-roof needs a building permit, so we call the office for your parcel before the job is booked and put the answer in your written estimate — and Groveland requires contractor registration, which we hold before we work there. The second question only applies inside the village: if your house is in Historic District No. One downtown or District No. Two on East Maple and College Street, village code section 155.08 requires a permit before any work affecting the exterior appearance of a resource, and that goes through the building inspector to the Historic District Commission. That one is not optional, and we plan the job around it.
22.5%
Of Village of Holly homes built before 1940 — 643 houses, the oldest stock we serve
1978
Median year built in the village; 1985 township-wide, 1982 in Rose, 1985 in Groveland
20.3%
Of Holly Township homes built 2000–2009 — 1,065 first-roof houses
1993
Year the village's two historic districts were created by ordinance
Four Hollys, four housing stocks
A 48442 address can put you in the Village of Holly, which covers 2.83 square miles inside Holly Township; Holly Township itself, 34.5 square miles of land including unincorporated Newark to the north and Five Points beside the village; Rose Township to the south, with Rose Center at Milford and Demode Roads and Rose Corners at Hickory Ridge and Rose Center Roads; or Groveland Township to the east, which is where the Holly State Recreation Area actually sits. Each has its own building department, and each has a different kind of roof on the ground.
| Village | Holly Twp | Rose Twp | Groveland Twp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 5,964 | 12,220 | 6,177 | 6,069 |
| Housing units | 2,864 | 5,252 | 2,484 | 2,603 |
| Median year built | 1978 | 1985 | 1982 | 1985 |
| Built before 1940 | 22.5% | 13.7% | 10.4% | 4.6% |
| Built 1940–1969 | 18.7% | 18.8% | 17.1% | 14.1% |
| Built 1970–1979 | 10.4% | 12.6% | 19.4% | 22.2% |
| Built 1980–1989 | 16.3% | 9.8% | 16.4% | 19.1% |
| Built 1990–1999 | 18.3% | 12.9% | 24.8% | 17.4% |
| Built 2000–2009 | 5.2% | 20.3% | 8.0% | 10.6% |
| Owner-occupied | 70.9% | 79.7% | 96.6% | 89.4% |
| Single-family detached | 60.7% | 68.8% | 96.7% | 84.2% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 five-year estimates. Holly Township figures include the village. The village was incorporated in 1865 and the township was organized on March 6, 1838, the last township organized in Oakland County.
The village: the oldest roofs we work on
643 village houses predate 1940 and the village's median build year is 1978, so the village is really two towns stacked on each other — a pre-war core and a 1980s-to-1990s ring that makes up about a third of its housing. The pre-war houses bring steep slopes, plank decks, porch roofs that run below 4:12 and often below 2:12, chimneys that have never been properly counterflashed, and a stack of coverings already at or past Michigan's two-layer limit. They also bring a rule nobody else in our service area has to think about, which is the historic district review below.
The village is also the most mixed in tenure of anywhere we serve: 29 percent of households rent and about 39 percent of units are attached, multi-family or manufactured, including the Holly Village Mobile Home Park that shows up by name in National Weather Service storm reports. On a duplex, a condo building or a rental, the decision-maker is often an association or an owner who does not live there, so we write the estimate in a form a board can actually act on.
Holly Township outside the village: the first-roof market
The township's largest single cohort is 2000 to 2009 — 20.3 percent, about 1,065 homes, largely the Riverside developments and the condominium villages. Those roofs are between about seventeen and twenty-six years old and were built the way every builder built in that decade: builder-grade architectural shingles on 7/16-inch OSB, gable and box ventilation, one course of ice barrier, and no drip edge at the rakes, which Michigan did not require until 2012. They are the single biggest block of houses in the Holly area now due for a first replacement, and the replacement is where all of those omissions get corrected at once.
Rose and Groveland: acreage and open-field wind
Rose Township is 96.6 percent owner-occupied and 96.7 percent single-family detached — the most uniformly residential township we serve — built mainly in the 1990s (24.8 percent) with a 1970s group (19.4 percent) now on a second roof. Groveland is a 1970s and 1980s township, 41.3 percent of its housing from those two decades. Both are acreage country, which changes the roof: a house standing alone in an open field takes wind on every elevation with no neighbouring rooflines to break it up, so rake starter and the manufacturer's high-wind fastening pattern are the default rather than an upgrade. Rose Township takes its permits through GovWell online from the office at 9080 Mason Street; Groveland runs BS&A Online from 4695 Grange Hall Road.
The village historic districts: District One and District Two
This is the part of a Holly roof that is different from every other town we work in, so it is worth being precise. Village Code Chapter 155 created two local historic districts on September 7, 1993 under Ordinance 239. These are local districts with a commission behind them, not honorary National Register plaques.
District No. One is the downtown district — Saginaw Street, Battle Alley, Washington Street and Broad Street — and includes the C&O Union Depot, the Holly Seventh-day Adventist Church and Holly Township Hall. District No. Two is the residential district, concentrated on East Maple Street and College Street. The code text lists 62 resources in the first district and 46 in the second. Whether your specific address sits inside a boundary is something we confirm with the building inspector rather than eyeball from a map.
Section 155.08 is the operative sentence: a permit shall be obtained before any work affecting the exterior appearance of a resource is performed within a historic district. Applications go to the building inspector and on to the Historic District Commission, a seven-member body that meets at least quarterly. Review uses the Secretary of the Interior's Standards, and the commission may delegate minor classes of work to staff, which is why some applications are handled administratively and others go to a meeting. A denial can be appealed within 60 days to the State Historic Preservation Review Board. A local guide to remodeling in the district notes that roof replacement, new dormers and street-visible solar all trigger review when they can be seen from the street; whether yours is treated as a minor class of work handled by staff is a question for the inspector, and we ask it early.
How we handle the paperwork with you
Practically, a district job runs like this. On the estimate visit we establish whether your address is inside District One or District Two and what is visible from the street. We then contact the building inspector to find out whether the work is delegated to staff or has to go to the commission, and on what timetable. If it goes to the commission, we assemble the application with you: the elevations affected, the existing material, the proposed shingle with a full-size sample and a manufacturer's cut sheet, and photographs of the house as it stands. We attend or supply whatever the commission asks for. Then we schedule the crew to the approval, not ahead of it — because the one genuinely expensive mistake in a historic district is a roof installed before it was reviewed.
On material, the Owens Corning Duration Designer line — Aged Copper, Storm Cloud, Black Sable — is the palette that tends to sit best with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards on a Holly Victorian, because it reads closest to the slate and wood these houses were originally roofed with. We bring the samples to the house and look at them against your siding and trim in daylight before anything goes on an application.
Outside the districts
Most village addresses are not in a district, and most township, Rose and Groveland addresses are nowhere near one. The National Register also lists the Downtown Holly Commercial District, the Holly Hotel on Battle Alley and the 1886 Holly Union Depot, but National Register status by itself is honorary and does not control a homeowner's shingle choice. If your house is outside both local districts, your roof is an ordinary — and much faster — job.
Which office permits yours, and how each one works
None of the four building departments publishes a clear yes or no on whether a like-for-like re-roof needs a building permit. We will not invent one. Here is what each office does publish, and what we do about the gap.
Village of Holly
Building and community development operate from the Karl Richter Center, 300 East Street, at (248) 634-9571, with village offices also at 504½ East Maple, Monday through Thursday 7:30 to 5:30. The village's permit forms state that work shall not be started until the application for a permit has been filed, and that a permit lapses if work has not begun within 180 days. The village's building permit page is a form download rather than a policy statement, so the re-roof question goes to the phone. The Village of Holly may require contractor registration before a permit is issued; we handle that with the building department before your job is scheduled.
Holly Township
The township offices are at 102 Civic Drive, (248) 634-9331, open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 8:30 to 4:30 and Wednesday 8:30 to 6:00 — the late Wednesday is genuinely useful if you work days. The township has a building department and a Construction Board of Appeals, takes applications by email to its deputy clerk, and publishes its ordinances on Municode. The building official's name and any re-roof rule are not published, so again, we call.
Rose and Groveland Townships
Rose Township's Building, Zoning and Code Enforcement office is at 9080 Mason Street in the township hall, with Steve McGee listed as department head, at (248) 634-7551, Monday through Thursday 8:30 to 4:30; permits run through GovWell online, and older township forms name an outside contract inspection firm. Its building application lists new work, alterations, additions and demolition, with no separate checkbox for a re-roof. Groveland Township's building department is at 4695 Grange Hall Road, (248) 634-4152, with permits through BS&A Online and a published contractor registration requirement. In all four jurisdictions the underlying rules are the same: the Michigan Residential Code, 2015 edition, which is still LARA's current residential code — ice barrier from the eave to 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, no re-cover over two or more layers or over a water-soaked deck, drip edge at eaves and rakes, and double underlayment between 2:12 and 4:12.
Holly's storm record, including the tornado that came through the village
Holly has taken more real wind damage in the last decade than any other town on this site, and unlike most of our service area it has a confirmed tornado track through the village itself. Here is the record as NOAA's Storm Events Database holds it.
| Date | Location | Event | What was recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 10, 2024 | Village of Holly | EF0 tornado, 1.23 miles, 70 mph | Began southwest of Holly, ran northeast into the village and dissipated near Martha and Washington Streets; loss of roofing material on several facilities, with siding and fascia loss along Tenny, Legrande, Sherman, Saginaw, Church, Martha and Washington Streets |
| May 15, 2025 | Holly | 61 mph and 56 mph thunderstorm wind (estimated) | A swath of uprooted and downed trees from downtown Holly to the Holly Village Mobile Home Park |
| August 27, 2024 | Holly | 57 mph thunderstorm wind (estimated) | More than a dozen trees blown down between Holly and the Oakland–Genesee county line |
| July 11, 2022 | Lake Fenton to Holly | EF0 tornado, 7.5 miles | Peak damage on Addis Road in Holly: about a dozen trees, vinyl siding and a pergola; a barn lost some metal roofing |
| July 7, 2021 | Holly (Groveland Township) | 54 mph thunderstorm wind | Trees and lines down in Groveland Township |
| June 21, 2020 | Holly | 54 mph thunderstorm wind (estimated) | Numerous large trees down on the north side of Holly, one on a pickup |
| August 11, 2021 | Holly | 50 mph thunderstorm wind | Limbs of 10 to 12 inches down; the same line hit Linden and Hartland |
| October 3, 2021 | Davisburg (Jossman Acres) | EF0 tornado, 0.76 miles, about 65 mph | Limbs, small trees and minor siding damage on two homes |
| February 18, 2026 | Rose Center | 1.00 inch hail | The nearest one-inch hail to Holly in the decade; 0.75 inch at Rose Center in July 2018 |
| April 4, 2026 | Holly | Flood | Village state of emergency after 1 to 4 inches of rain on saturated ground |
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, bulk files through September 10, 2026, and National Weather Service Detroit event pages. Wind speeds shown as estimated are NWS estimates. No hail was logged inside the Village of Holly between 2016 and 2026.
Two things stand out in that record. The 70 mph peak belongs to the November 2024 tornado, which took roofing material off buildings inside the village. And the September 2–3, 2026 storm did reach Holly: the National Weather Service event page logs multiple large trees down at 10:53 and 10:58 a.m. on September 3, part of a regional event with close to 300,000 outages.
For the roof itself, Owens Corning Duration shingles carry a 130 mph wind resistance limited warranty as standard and a 160 mph enhanced warranty when the full component set is installed with starter shingles at both the eaves and the rakes — comfortably above a 70 mph EF0. We fasten to the manufacturer's high-wind pattern rather than the four-nail code minimum on exposed elevations, which in Holly means essentially every acreage house in Rose and Groveland and every west-facing slope in the village. And because the sealant strip on a new shingle is heat-activated, bonding in about a day in summer heat and taking up to twelve weeks on a shaded north slope in winter, a Holly roof finished by mid-October is sealed before the November wind season that produced the 2024 tornado.
Water, and why Holly roofs have to shed it properly
Holly is surrounded by state land and water. The Holly State Recreation Area covers 7,817 acres in Groveland Township with Heron, McGinnis, Valley and Wildwood Lakes and the Heron Lake beach; Seven Lakes State Park sits in Holly Township. Residential lake frontage carries Holly addresses at Bush and Simonson Lakes on the village and township edge, Bevins Lake behind Bevins Lake Estates, Tipsico Lake in Rose Township off Tipsico Lake Road, and the lake frontage behind Rosmar Shores, Riviera Shores, Deer Lake and Woodland Bay. The Shiawassee River rises near Holly, and Water Works Park has a canoe and kayak launch on the Shiawassee River Heritage Water Trail.
The flooding of April 4, 2026 is the local event that changed how we talk about water here. One to four inches of rain fell on already saturated ground, the village declared a local state of emergency, the wastewater plant's pumps were damaged, hundreds of homes were affected, water reached floorboards in some neighbourhoods, and North Holly Road north of Quick Road near Holly Middle School was closed for days. The hardest-hit area in southeast Michigan that day was in and around Holly.
A roof cannot stop a flood. What a roof replacement can do is stop contributing to one. That means gutters sized and hung to the actual roof area rather than whatever was there, downspouts discharging well away from the foundation instead of into a splash block two feet from a basement wall, kickout flashing where a roof edge meets a wall so runoff goes into the gutter rather than down the siding, and low-slope porch and sunroom roofs properly membraned rather than shingled at a pitch shingles cannot handle. On an older village house, those four things together are often the difference between a wet basement and a dry one in a spring like that.
Shade, moss and lake cottages
The cottages at Bush, Simonson, Bevins and Tipsico have the usual lake-house history: a seasonal building that grew a room at a time, so there are low-slope additions meeting steep main roofs, dead valleys that hold leaves, and multiple coverings stacked up over decades. Heavy shade keeps the north slopes damp and grows moss and algae. Owens Corning hip and ridge carries 25-year algae resistance with the system warranty, dead valleys get a cricket, sections under 2:12 get a membrane, and what is between 2:12 and 4:12 gets the double underlayment the code requires.
The Owens Corning system we register in Holly
On Top Roofing is an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor — the top tier of the Owens Corning contractor network in the company's own words, and the only tier that can register its best system warranty. Every Holly replacement is registered under a Platinum Protection Roofing Limited Warranty: limited lifetime coverage on materials with a 50-year non-prorated period, limited lifetime workmanship non-prorated for the first 25 years, 130 mph wind resistance standard and 160 mph enhanced, and 25-year algae resistance with Owens Corning hip and ridge. It transfers once to a buyer within 60 days of a sale.
The warranty requires the entire system: Duration shingles with SureNail Technology, Owens Corning or approved synthetic underlayment, Owens Corning hip and ridge, Owens Corning self-adhered ice and water barrier, starter at the eaves and rakes, and VentSure balanced ventilation — plus new flashings and new drip edge at every edge. We install all of it as standard in the village, in Holly Township, in Rose and in Groveland. Our credentials behind that work: Owens Corning Platinum Preferred, BBB A+ accredited, HAAG Certified inspectors.
Ventilation on a pre-war village house
Balanced ventilation is harder, and more valuable, on a house from the 1890s than on a 2005 colonial. Many village houses have no soffit to speak of, knee-wall attics, or a finished third floor where there is no attic at all. The honest answer is that the ventilation strategy gets designed per house — continuous ridge with retrofitted intake where there is a vented soffit to work with, edge or drip-edge intake where there is not, and on a truly unvented assembly, a different approach entirely with the ice barrier carried further up the slope than the minimum. We tell you which one your house needs at the estimate, and why.
Colors for Holly houses
On the pre-1940 houses of East Maple and College Street, the Duration Designer line — Aged Copper, Storm Cloud, Black Sable — reads closest to slate and is the line we would take to the Historic District Commission. The 1970s and 1980s ranches and colonials in the township and Groveland sit well under Estate Gray, Slatestone Gray or Onyx Black. The 2000s Riverside-area colonials take Driftwood, Teak or Brownwood. On exposed Rose and Groveland acreage, Duration FLEX — the SBS polymer-modified shingle with a UL 2218 Class 4 impact rating — is worth considering. Full-size samples come to the house.
Working around Holly's calendar
Downtown Holly effectively closes to construction traffic for six weekends at the end of the year. The Holly Dickens Festival, running since 1973 and in its 53rd year in 2026, lights the tree and runs its parade on November 27, 2026, then takes over Battle Alley and Saginaw Street on the weekends of November 28–29, December 5–6 and December 12–13. The Michigan Renaissance Festival brings its own traffic to the Holly and Groveland area on late-summer weekends, and the village runs an Independence Day celebration. If your house is downtown or on a street feeding it, we schedule tear-offs outside those dates and confirm container placement before delivery.
The rest of the local map is worth knowing for access: North and East Holly Road, Grange Hall Road, Milford Road, Fish Lake Road, Dixie Highway, Quick Road, Rose Center Road, Hickory Ridge Road, Tipsico Lake Road, Addis Road, the I-75 exits at Grange Hall and Holly, and Mt. Holly three miles northeast. Holly Area Schools enrols about 3,137 students across Holly, Groveland, Rose, Springfield and White Lake Townships, with Holly Elementary on East Maple right inside the residential historic district — one more reason a job on Maple gets scheduled around school traffic.
Holly neighborhoods where we replace roofs
From our yard at 5896 Sterling Dr in Howell, Holly is about 29 miles and 41 minutes away, either up US-23 to Fenton and across on Holly Road and Grange Hall Road, or east on M-59 and north up Milford Road. We replace roofs across the village, Holly Township, Rose Township and Groveland Township — the pre-war houses on East Maple and College inside the historic district, the 2000s Riverside developments and condominium villages, the acreage homes of Rose and Groveland, and the lake cottages on Bush, Simonson, Bevins and Tipsico.
- Downtown Holly
- Battle Alley
- Saginaw Street
- East Maple Street
- College Street
- Broad Street
- Washington Street
- Church Street
- Martha Street
- Sherman Street
- Tenny Street
- Legrande Street
- Five Points
- Newark
- Rose Center
- Rose Corners
- Riverside North
- The Preserve of Riverside
- The Villas of Riverside
- The Woodlands of Riverside
- Stonebridge of Holly
- Orchard Valley Village
- Holly Pines
- North Ridge
- Woodland Meadows
- Woodfield Landing
- Woodfield South
- Millpointe of Holly
- Deer Lake Village
- Minnock Estates
- Highland Acres
- Hickory Hills Farms
- Elk Ridge Preserve
- Ridge Run
- Bevins Lake Estates
- Holly Shores
- Holly Bush Shores
- Riviera Shores
- Rosmar Shores
- Tipsico Beach
- Crescent Park
- Holly Manor
- Holly Heights
- Holly View
- Maplefield
- Appleridge
- Bonnie Highlands
- Cambridge Acres
- The Hills of Kings Pointe
- Village of Wendell
- Groveland Meadows
- Groveland Valley Estates
- Woodlands of Groveland
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a permit to replace my roof in Holly?
My house is on East Maple. Does the Historic District Commission have to approve my new roof?
What goes into a historic district application for a roof?
The Holly Hotel and the Union Depot are on the National Register. Does that affect nearby houses?
My house is a 2005 build out in the township. Is it really due?
A tornado went through the village in 2024. Should I be worried about my roof?
Is Holly a hail town?
Our street flooded in April. Can the roof work help with that?
Can you work downtown during the Dickens Festival?
What warranty comes with a Holly roof replacement?
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