Roofing in Waco

Four markets, one storm track

Waco has been building houses for a very long time and it shows on the roofs. The older neighborhoods have pre war houses with board sheathing, complicated rooflines, deep eaves and layers of previous work stacked up. Around the university there is a large rental population where roofs get maintained to the minimum. The southern and western suburbs are post war and straightforward. And there is new build going up continuously, which brings its own problems of workmanship rather than wear.

A quote for one of those tells you almost nothing about a quote for another, and comparing prices with a neighbor whose house is thirty years newer than yours is a way to feel cheated about a perfectly fair number.

What the older houses hide

Board sheathing is the recurring theme downtown and in the older neighborhoods. Boards laid with gaps between them were how roofs were decked for decades, and they work fine, but modern fasteners and some modern underlayments assume a continuous surface. Sometimes the right answer is to sheet over the boards, which is a real cost and needs to be on the quote rather than discovered.

Old roofs also accumulate. Two or even three layers is common, and each one adds tear off time and disposal weight. That is why a quote that does not say how many layers it assumes is not really a quote.

And the rooflines are more complicated. Deep eaves, multiple gables, dormers, porch roofs that tie in at awkward angles. Every one of those junctions is a place that can leak and a place that takes time to do properly.

Rentals and deferred maintenance

A large share of housing near campus is rented, and roofs on rentals tend to be maintained reactively. That is understandable, and it has a predictable result. A vent boot that would have been replaced for very little money gets patched, the patch fails, and by the time it is addressed the decking below it has gone.

If you own rental property here, the highest return roof spending is not the roof. It is somebody looking at the boots, the valleys and the flashing every few years and replacing small parts before they take the deck with them.

Choosing somebody with no license to check

Because Texas has no roofing license, none of the usual verification is available. What you can do instead is look for a street address in McLennan County, ask for references from work done here more than two years ago rather than last month, and ask directly whether the crew that shows up works for the company or is subcontracted.

After a big hail event the number of roofing trucks in this city rises sharply and most of them leave again. That matters less for the roof going on than for who answers the phone about it in three years.

If hail is what brought you here, start with working out whether it is real before anybody signs anything.