Roofing in Theodore

First in line

Theodore sits south and west of the city on low ground between the bay and the river systems. Weather coming up from the Gulf gets here before it gets to downtown Mobile, and a storm that has lost some of its edge by the time it reaches the northern suburbs has lost none of it here.

That has a practical effect on timing rather than on materials. When something is coming, this is not the place to have a roof half torn off with a tarp over it. Contractors who work this area plan around that, and it is reasonable to ask how a job would be secured if the forecast turned.

Wet ground, wet air

The ground here holds water, and so does the air above it. Relative humidity that stays high around the clock for months on end is hard on everything in an attic, and it is hard on anything metal anywhere on the roof.

What that shows up as is corrosion at the small parts long before the roof covering itself is finished. Nail heads that bleed rust stains down the shingles. Vent collars that split. Drip edge that pits along its folded lip. A flashing kit at a chimney that looks fine from the ground and is paper thin when you touch it.

None of that is a reason to replace a roof early. It is a reason to specify better metal when the roof does go on, and to have somebody look at the small parts every few years instead of waiting for a ceiling stain.

The outbuilding problem

There are more workshops, barns, boat sheds and detached garages per house here than in the city, and most of them are exposed fastener metal. That is a completely different roof from the one on the house and it fails in a completely different way.

An exposed fastener panel is held down by screws with a rubber washer under the head. The washer is the seal, the sun hardens it, and after fifteen or twenty years it has shrunk and gone brittle. Water then sits at every screw hole and works on the panel from the hole outward. The panel itself may have decades left in it while the roof is leaking everywhere.

The fix is to rescrew it, usually with slightly larger diameter screws and new washers, and it is an afternoon rather than a rebuild. Almost nobody does it until the building is already stained inside.

What to ask for here

Better metal on anything exposed. A clear plan for securing the job if weather turns. And an honest look in the attic, because in this humidity the deck can be suffering while the shingles above it still look presentable.

If a storm has already been through, the evidence steps on the storm page matter more than anything else you do in the first week.