Roofing Contractor in Bath, ME

We work on the Federal, Greek Revival and Victorian housing of the historic district, the mill-era homes behind it, and the simpler postwar roofs toward West Bath and Woolwich.

The older the house, the more roof planes it has usually acquired, and the more the quality of the detailing matters relative to the shingle on top.

Proper valley construction involves full membrane up the valley before anything else, then either a woven or an open metal valley chosen to suit the pitches meeting there and the debris the site produces.

Both methods are recognized in roofing industry practice, and open metal valleys shed leaves and ice better while costing more. On a wooded lot or a roof with a tight pitch change, they are usually worth the difference.

We work on roofs across the whole of Bath, from the dense historic streets near the waterfront through the mill-era neighborhoods and out to the edges of town.

Tight downtown lots make staging and safe material handling a genuine part of the planning, particularly on a three-floor house with a neighbor ten feet away.

Bath roofing should happen between late spring and October, and wind-driven rain off the tidal river closes working days here that would be fine further inland.

We book the complicated roofs first, because a cut-up Bath roof takes longer than its square footage suggests and needs a proper run of weather.

This housing stock is hard on roofs because of complexity first. More planes means more valleys, more flashing and more places where the quality of the work decides the outcome.

Wind is the second. Exposure off the river drives rain sideways into details that handle vertical water without difficulty.

Age is the third. Roof framing on these houses has moved over two centuries, so planes are rarely true and a valley often has to be built rather than simply laid.

Ask how they intend to build your valleys and why. If the answer is that they will weave the shingles and there is no mention of membrane underneath, keep looking.

Then ask them to count your valleys and penetrations in the quote. A price given from the sidewalk on a house like this is a price that will move.

A Bath roof costs what its complexity says it costs. A cut-up roof with six valleys, three chimneys and a porch tie-in takes far longer than a plain roof of the same area.

We quote from the details rather than from a square-foot rate, which takes longer to prepare and produces a figure that survives the job.