Roofers in the Rose District, Broken Arrow
A roof in the Rose District has usually been done before, more than once, and whoever did it left the layers that decide whether this one takes another repair or comes off. You hear which it is, even when the answer's that nothing up there needs touching yet.
How the oldest roofs in town ended up downtown.
The oldest houses in town sit on the blocks around Main Street, and Broken Arrow Roofing Co starts a roof here by working out what's already up there.
The town was surveyed and platted in October 1902 and then stayed small for seventy years, so the houses that came before the boom sit in a ring around downtown instead of spread across the map. About 6 percent of the homes in the ZIP that covers downtown were finished before 1960, and that ZIP reaches well past these blocks, so it's the older half of the city talking and it isn't a reading of your street.
The housing figure is the Census count for the whole ZIP, which reaches far past downtown, so it reads as the older half of Broken Arrow and not as a measurement of these blocks. The 1902 date is the Oklahoma Historical Society's. The Rose District is downtown's commercial and entertainment district, so it has no single build-out year to quote.
the Rose DistrictWhat an older downtown roof turns up at tear-off.
Ask what's on an older downtown house and the answer is layers: the original roof, whatever went over it, and the patches in between. Houses from this era were decked in planks, and planks shrink apart until the gaps matter to how a shingle holds.
- 01Planks under the shingles
- Sheathing here is often boards that shrink apart over the decades, and whether they hold a nail isn't settled until the shingles come off.
- 02Work nobody wrote down
- A house roofed more than once usually left no paperwork. Mismatched courses and tar where a flashing joint belonged are how it shows.
- 03Chimneys and added-on rooms
- Porches, back rooms and chimneys each add a tie-in where two planes meet, and that's where a roof this age lets water in.
- 04Storefronts on the same block
- Along Main Street a low-slope membrane can sit a few feet from a steep shingle roof, so commercial work turns on ponding and seams.
- 05Attics that barely breathe
- Houses built before ridge vents move very little air, and stalled heat works the shingles from underneath. How long a roof lasts here is that story.
You aren't expected to know which. That's what an inspection is for.
Where these blocks sit in Broken Arrow.
Main Street runs the length of it, City Hall is at 220 South First Street, and the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center sits at 701 South Main. What that means on the ground is that houses and small commercial buildings share the same blocks at about the same age, and you won't find that mix out where the city's newer, the way the streets run over in Aspen Creek west of Main.
- MAIN STREET The spine of the district, through downtown Broken Arrow
- CITY HALL 220 South First Street
- ARTS CENTER Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center, 701 South Main Street
- SCHOOLS Broken Arrow Public Schools, with offices on South Main
- COUNTY Tulsa County, and the storm record here is a county record
Broken Arrow's strongest wind reading in the last four years is 81 mph, and the higher figure quoted for that storm was logged elsewhere in Tulsa County.
Roofing work on and around these blocks.
Replacement leads downtown, because a roof that's been layered over and patched for decades runs out of places to patch. Repair still holds where the failure sits in one spot, and your roofer says which one you're looking at before either carries a price.
Roof Replacement
Somebody has told you the roof is done. The tear-off is where that gets settled, because soft decking, tired flashing and starved ventilation all show themselves once the old layers are off.
Roof Repair
Most leaks turn out smaller than they feel from the room underneath. The roofer names the part that gave out, a boot or a run of flashing or a patch of creased tabs, and prices that.
Roof Inspections
How old is the roof, and how much is left in it? Neither answer is available from the yard, and both come back photographed.
Metal Roofing
One panel runs the whole slope, ridge to eave, and the seam joining it to the next stands up above the water rather than sitting in it.
Storm & Hail Damage
Hail can leave a roof shedding water for another season or two before it starts leaking, which is why the read happens after the storm rather than after the ceiling stains.
Gutter Installation & Repair
A gutter has a job in every rain, not only the storms, and the run either carries that water clear of the house or hands it to the fascia board behind it.
Questions about older Rose District roofs.
What owners of the city's oldest houses ask before the first layer comes off.
Q1Is there a rule downtown about what I can put on my roof?
Q2Will the decking need replacing on a house this old?
Q3The back of my house has a flat roof. Is that one job or two?
Q4My house sits close to the sidewalk. Does that change anything?
Q5Does hail treat an older roof differently?
Q6Does a roof cost more downtown than out in the newer parts of town?
Q7Who comes out if I send the form?
Price a Rose District roof
Tell us how old the house is and where the trouble's showing. Your roofer goes up, walks the additions and the chimneys along with the main slopes, and comes back down with a number and what's behind it.