Roof Replacement in Howell, Michigan

• Full tear-off to the deck — required by code when two layers exist, and simply good practice on a first re-roof
• Every OSB panel inspected; swollen or soft sheathing replaced and photographed before it is covered
• Metal drip edge at every eave and rake, with underlayment lapped correctly over it at the eave and under it at the rake
• Self-adhering ice barrier to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line — two courses on most Howell overhangs
• Synthetic underlayment over the remaining deck
• Box vents and gable vents retired in favor of continuous ridge exhaust and real soffit intake, with baffles at every rafter bay
• New step flashing, counter flashing, valley metal and pipe boots — nothing reused
• Owens Corning Duration shingles with factory starter at eaves and rakes and matching hip-and-ridge

What a first tear-off actually corrects

Drip edge was optional under the code most of these homes were built to; it did not become mandatory at both eaves and rakes in Michigan until the 2012 cycle. So a large share of Howell's 1990s and 2000s roofs have shingles hanging over bare fascia with nothing behind them. Ice barrier, where it was installed at all, was usually a single 36-inch course along the eave, which on a house with a 12-inch overhang does not reach the 24 inches inside the wall line that the current Michigan Residential Code requires. Ventilation was typically a few box vents near the ridge and a gable vent at each end, with no continuous soffit intake and no baffles holding the insulation off the sheathing.

The deck under all of it is almost always 7/16-inch oriented strand board on trusses two feet apart. OSB is a fine roof deck when it stays dry. When it does not — and thirty years of a starved attic, a missing drip edge and a short ice barrier tend to see to that — the panel edges swell first. You can sometimes see it from the street as faint lines telegraphing through the shingles at every four-by-eight seam. We check every panel once the old roof is off and replace what has gone soft.

None of that is an upsell. It is the difference between putting new shingles on a 1999 roof and building a 2026 roof.

The pre-war house near downtown

The streets around the courthouse carry the oldest housing in Livingston County, and an old house has usually been roofed more than once. Michigan code does not allow a re-cover where two or more layers of any roof covering already exist, so on a downtown Howell home the first thing we establish is how many roofs are up there. Two layers means full removal, no exceptions, and disposal weight roughly doubles.

These roofs are also steep. On a pitch of 8:12 or more, the code adds a second requirement to the ice barrier: it must extend at least 36 inches up the slope from the eave in addition to reaching 24 inches inside the wall line. Steep, cut-up roofs with multiple dormers, a real masonry chimney and porch tie-ins are hand-detailed work. They take longer and they should. Anyone quoting a downtown Howell Victorian in a single day has not looked at it.

The 1990s–2000s township colonial

Out in Oceola, Marion and Howell Townships the roof is younger, larger and simpler: big gable and hip planes, a couple of valleys where the garage meets the house, a bonus room over a three-car garage, sometimes a cathedral great room with a skylight or two. This is where the first-tear-off corrections above do most of their work. The planes go fast; the time is in the ventilation retrofit and in getting the ice barrier right at the garage eave, where a bonus room's knee walls put heated space directly behind a cold overhang.

Skylights on these homes are original — twenty to thirty years old — and the seals are at the end of their life along with the shingles. We recommend replacing them during the tear-off rather than reflashing old units, because the roof will be open exactly once.

The lake home on Chemung or Thompson

Lakefront housing around Howell grew a room at a time, and it shows on the roof: several planes at different pitches built in different decades. A replacement is the one moment those can be reconciled. Low-slope porch and addition sections under 2:12 cannot legally take asphalt shingles and get a membrane instead. Sections between 2:12 and 4:12 require double underlayment under the code. Dead valleys where two additions meet get a cricket built in rather than another layer of sealant. And on the water side, where a westerly comes across open water and hits the roof first, we run starter at the rakes and fasten to the manufacturer's high-wind pattern.

What has to be on the roof to earn it

A Platinum Protection warranty is not automatic with Owens Corning shingles. It requires Owens Corning shingles, an Owens Corning or approved synthetic underlayment, Owens Corning hip-and-ridge shingles, and at least two of the following three: Owens Corning self-adhered ice-and-water barrier, Owens Corning starter shingles, and Owens Corning VentSure ventilation installed as a balanced intake-and-exhaust system. New metal flashings and drip edge are required as well. We install all of it as our standard on every Howell replacement — not two of three, all three — which is also what earns the 160 mph enhanced wind coverage.

Duration shingles carry SureNail Technology, a woven reinforcing fabric strip in the nailing zone that gives the fastener something to bite. They are Class A fire rated and Class 3 impact rated; Duration FLEX, an SBS polymer-modified shingle, carries a Class 4 impact rating for owners who want it on an exposed lot.

Colors that work on Howell houses

Most of the township housing here is red or tan brick on the front and vinyl on the sides. Estate Gray, Onyx Black, Driftwood and Brownwood all sit well against red brick without fighting it; Williamsburg Gray and Slatestone Gray work on the lighter brick and stone fronts common in Amber Oaks and Marion Oaks. For the downtown Victorians and the custom homes at Pine Creek Ridge and Oak Pointe, the Duration Designer line — Aged Copper, Storm Cloud, Black Sable — reads closer to slate and wood shake. We bring full-size samples to the estimate visit and we will tell you when a color is going to clash with your trim.