Fraser, Michigan · Macomb, Oakland & St. Clair counties
Roof replacement and inspection for Michigan homes, built around the two things that actually end a roof here: water finding a way in at the eaves every winter, and an attic that never had the ventilation to stop it. We look at the whole system before we quote shingles.
★★★★★ 4.5 / 5.0 · 224 Google reviews
Family-owned and operated in Michigan since 2011
Based at 31097 Fraser Dr, Fraser, MI 48026
Serving Macomb, Oakland and St. Clair counties
Free on-site inspection and a written, itemized scope before work begins
In a warmer state a roof usually dies of sun. Here it dies of water that had somewhere to go and then froze. Warm air escaping the living space heats the underside of the deck, snow on the field of the roof melts, the water runs down to the cold overhang past the heated wall below, and it refreezes there. That ridge of ice grows, backs water up under the shingles, and the shingles were never designed to hold standing water. By the time a ceiling stain shows up inside, that has usually been happening for two or three winters.
The Great Lakes region averages about 42 freeze-thaw cycles a year, according to long-term climate records kept by the University of Michigan’s GLISA program. Every one of those cycles works water into any gap that already exists — around a chimney, at a valley, under a lifted shingle tab. It is a slow, patient kind of damage, and it is why a Michigan roof needs to be judged on its flashing, its eaves and its ventilation rather than on how the shingles look from the driveway.
Nearly every house in Metro Detroit wears asphalt shingles, and for most homeowners that remains the right answer. The question worth asking is not usually which material but which tier of asphalt, and whether the roof’s shape justifies stepping up to something else.
Also sold as dimensional or laminate shingles. Two layers of material laminated together, which is what gives them both their shadow line and their wind performance. This is what goes on the large majority of the roofs we replace.
Worth understanding, because it is where most quotes get compared badly: a shingle’s laboratory wind class and the manufacturer’s actual wind warranty are two different numbers. GAF’s Royal Sovereign 3-tab, for instance, carries a high lab class but is warranted to 60 mph, while GAF’s laminate shingles installed under their WindProven system carry no wind speed limit at all. Two quotes can both say “wind rated” and mean very different things. Ask which shingle line, and ask what the wind warranty says.
A single flat layer. They still have a place on outbuildings and rentals where the budget is the whole decision, but on a house you plan to keep, the gap in expected service life and wind warranty is wider than the gap in price.
Metal sheds snow rather than holding it, has no tabs for ice to lift, and lasts a long time — the Metal Construction Association’s studies of Galvalume standing seam put service life in excess of 60 years, against roughly 20 for asphalt in the NAHB’s life-expectancy tables. The cost is the honest catch. In the East North Central region, the 2025 Cost vs. Value report puts a mid-range asphalt roof replacement at about $29,000 and a standing seam metal roof at about $47,000 — call it 1.6 times the price. It makes sense on a steep, simple roof you intend to own for decades, on a low-slope section that keeps failing, or where the roof is a design feature. On a complex cut-up ro
Most Michigan houses are not flat-roofed, but plenty have a flat or low-slope section: a porch, a dormer, a garage, an addition that was tied in later. Shingles do not belong there, and a surprising number of leaks we are called out for are shingles installed on a slope too shallow to shed. These sections take a membrane instead, and where a house has both, the detail where the membrane meets the shingle field is the part that determines whether it leaks.
Cedar looks superb and asks for maintenance that most owners underestimate in a freeze-thaw climate. Synthetic slate and composite products solve the weight and cost problems of real slate and suit a specific kind of house. Both are occasional rather than typical here, and both are worth discussing on their merits if the architecture calls for them.
| Material | Where it fits | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|
| Architectural asphalt | Most homes, most roof shapes | Baseline |
| 3-tab asphalt | Outbuildings, budget-led jobs | Below baseline |
| Standing seam metal | Simple steep roofs, long ownership, problem low-slope areas | Roughly 1.6× asphalt |
| EPDM / TPO / modified bitumen | Flat and low-slope sections only | Priced by section, not by house |
| Cedar shake, synthetic slate | Architecture-led choices | Premium |
This is the single most misunderstood thing about roofs in this state, and it costs homeowners money every winter. Gutter guards do not prevent ice dams. Heat cables do not prevent ice dams — they melt a channel through one. An ice-and-water barrier does not prevent an ice dam either; it stops the dam from leaking into your house, which is not the same thing.
The US Department of Energy’s building-science work is unambiguous about the order of operations, and it runs opposite to the order most people try. Air sealing the attic floor comes first — it is the single most important step, because it stops warm indoor air from reaching the underside of the roof at all. Insulation comes second. Ventilation comes third, moving whatever heat still gets up there out before it can melt the snow above it.
Ventilation gets stated wrong constantly, including by contractors. The code baseline is one square foot of net free ventilating area for every 150 square feet of attic floor. The more commonly quoted 1/300 figure is the exception, permitted only when the conditions for it are met. Half should be intake, low at the soffit, and half exhaust, high at the ridge — and if the two cannot be balanced, err toward more intake. A ridge vent with blocked soffits does not ventilate an attic; it pulls conditioned air out of the house.
We check this on every roof estimate because replacing shingles over an attic that cooks them shortens the life of the roof you just paid for. If the fix is insulation and air sealing rather than a new roof, we will tell you that.
We walk the roof and go into the attic. Decking condition, flashing, valleys, ventilation, and where water has actually been travelling — not just the shingle surface.
An itemized plan: tear-off, underlayment, ice barrier, flashing, ventilation, disposal, and how additional decking is priced if we find rot once the old roof is off. You approve it before anything is ordered.
We pull the permit with your municipality and stage materials so the roof is opened and closed in as few days as the weather allows.
Down to the deck. Compromised decking is replaced, ice barrier runs 24 inches past the interior wall line, flashing is renewed rather than reused, and ventilation is corrected as part of the job.
Roof replacement is the right conversation if you recognise your house in any of these. If you recognise it in only one, a repair may still be the better call, and we will say so.
Once repairs are annual, you are paying for a roof in instalments without getting a new one.
Especially with staining on the ceiling near an exterior wall, which is the classic ice dam signature.
Granules in the gutters and a bare, shiny look to the mat mean the shingle is at the end of its service, not the start of a repair.
Sponginess means water has been sitting in the sheathing. Shingles laid over compromised decking will not hold fasteners.
Michigan limits a roof to two layers before a full tear-off is required, and deterioration triggers tear-off even at one layer.
An inspection report that flags the roof is easier to answer with a written scope and a completed job than with a negotiation.
Roof, flashing, ventilation, gutters and the wall below are one water path. Quoting one piece of it and ignoring the rest is how the same leak comes back.
Half of what determines a roof’s life in Michigan is on the underside of the deck, and it takes ten minutes to look.
The people who scoped the job are the people on the roof. You are not handed to a subcontractor after you sign.
Including how decking replacement is priced if we find rot — the surprise that turns a fixed quote into an argument.
We are based in Fraser and work in the same towns year after year. Storm-chasing outfits arrive after weather and leave before the warranty matters.
Gutters, siding and trim, soffit and fascia. A roof job that uncovers rotted fascia does not need a second contractor and a second wait.
A roof is a twenty-year relationship with whoever installed it, so it is worth knowing who picks up the phone in year three. Ours has been the same family-run company at the same Fraser address since 2011, which means a question about a flashing detail or a vent goes to the crew that put it there rather than to a service line reconstructing a file. Local and family-run is not a slogan here; it is the reason that call gets a useful answer.
Call us directly and we’ll talk through what you’re seeing. Financing is available for qualified projects — see financing options.
Based at 31097 Fraser Dr in Fraser, we cover most of Metro Detroit within a comfortable drive — which matters when a roof is open and the forecast changes. Don’t see your city? Ask us, coverage depends on distance and project scope.
Age and pattern. One damaged area on an otherwise sound roof under fifteen years old is a repair. Granule loss across the whole field, curling tabs, soft decking, or the third leak in three years point to replacement. We will tell you which one you are looking at, including when the answer is the cheaper one — see roof repair if it turns out to be a targeted fix.
It can, and there is a real trade-off worth knowing. Asphalt shingles seal by warming, and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety found that winter-installed shingles took up to twelve weeks to seal fully, with north-facing test panels performing well below their rated wind speed until they did. We roof through the cold season when a house needs it, and when a job can reasonably wait for warmer weather, we say so.
An ice barrier at the eaves that extends from the lowest edge of the roof to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, formed either from two cemented layers of underlayment or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet. It is one of the details worth checking on any quote, because it is invisible once the shingles are on.
Nobody knows what the decking looks like until the old roof is off, which is why our written scope states the per-sheet price for replacement before work starts. You are told what we found and what it costs before it goes down, not on the final invoice.
Sometimes, and usually you should not. Michigan allows two layers before a full tear-off is required, and deterioration triggers tear-off even at one layer. Layering also hides exactly what an inspection needs to see: the condition of the decking underneath. A tear-off costs more and is the only way to know what you are building on.
Two separate things, and conflating them is the most common way homeowners get caught out. The manufacturer’s warranty covers the shingle itself, and its terms depend on the product line and whether the system was installed to that manufacturer’s specification. The workmanship warranty covers the installation and comes from the contractor. Ask any roofer you are considering for both in writing, and read what the wind warranty actually says rather than what the brochure implies.
Yes. Roof replacement is permitted work in Metro Detroit municipalities and we handle the permit as part of the job rather than leaving it to the homeowner.
Often, yes. Code sets ventilation at one square foot of net free area per 150 square feet of attic floor, split between low intake and high exhaust. Plenty of houses have ridge vents pulling against blocked soffits, which ventilates nothing and drives the ice dam cycle. If your attic is the reason the last roof failed early, replacing shingles alone repeats the outcome.
Yes. Michigan does not issue a standalone roofing licence — roofing is a trade classification carried on a Residential Maintenance & Alteration Contractor licence issued by the state licensing department. Ask any contractor for their licence and a certificate of insurance before work starts. We are licensed and insured, and we hand both over without being chased.
Macomb and Oakland counties are set at a 25 psf ground snow load in the state code tables. It matters most on additions, porches and low-slope sections, where framing and snow accumulation are easier to get wrong than on a straightforward gable.
A free inspection, an honest answer about repair or replacement, and a written scope you can compare against anyone else’s. Related work: roof repair, storm damage, commercial roofing.