Shingle repair, gutters and reroofs for Cloverdale homes

Cloverdale is one of the long settled neighborhoods of southwest Little Rock, with quick access to I-30, I-430 and I-630. Streets like Cloverdale Drive and Dahlia Drive are lined with one story homes, most with three bedrooms, fenced yards and covered patios, most of them midcentury.

Roofs here are simple, usually a single gable or a low hip with one or two vents and a short valley over the garage or carport. That keeps repairs affordable, and it means most problems are easy to see once we are up on the roof.

Because the houses are smaller, a good roof can last a long time with a little care. Most of what we do in Cloverdale is keep that care up, or replace a roof that went too long without it.

Some streets also hold newer infill houses on lots in additions such as Little West, which brings a few modern roofs into the mix. Those usually need little more than a checkup after big storms.

The most common Cloverdale call comes the morning after a spring thunderstorm: a few shingles in the yard and a bare spot on the roof. Older 3 tab shingles lose their seal strip over time, and once the tabs are no longer stuck down, straight line winds peel them off one row at a time.

Replacing a handful of shingles is a quick job, but the details matter. We slide new shingles under the course above, nail them in the right spot and hand seal the tabs so they hold through the next storm. If many shingles lift easily, we tell you the roof is near the end rather than selling repair after repair.

• Wind loss repair, a few shingles: usually $240 to $560
• Larger section or ridge cap replacement: often $480 to $890
• Pipe boot replacement: typically $175 to $335 each

Many Cloverdale homes have old sectional gutters with leaking joints, sagging runs and downspouts that dump water right at the foundation. In a central Arkansas downpour, water spills over the front edge, splashes against the siding and soaks the fascia behind it.

We repair what can be saved by resealing seams, rehanging with hidden hangers and fixing slope. When a run is too far gone, we replace it with a one piece gutter shaped on site to the length of the house, which removes the joints that leak. Downspout extensions carry water away from the slab or crawlspace.

If fascia behind the gutter has rotted, we replace those boards first. Hanging new gutters on soft wood just moves the problem a year down the road.

Dark streaks running down the north and east slopes of Cloverdale roofs are algae, a common sight across humid central Arkansas. It does not cause leaks on its own, but it holds moisture, makes the house look older than it is and can shorten shingle life where it gets thick.

We clean algae with a low pressure wash and a cleaner made for asphalt shingles, never a pressure washer that strips granules. A typical cleaning runs $340 to $720. If you are reroofing, shingles with algae resistant granules keep the streaks from coming back for many years.

If your Cloverdale roof is past 20 years, has lost shingles in several storms and shows curled or cracked tabs, a full reroof is usually the better value. Repeated repairs on a worn roof cost more over a few years than one replacement.

On homes this size, a reroof is typically a one day job. We tear off to the deck, replace soft boards, install new underlayment, drip edge and pipe boots, then shingle and cap the ridge. Cleanup includes a magnet sweep of the yard and driveway. You get a written price before we start, with each part of the work listed.

Before tearing off, we also look at attic airflow. Many homes here have only a pair of gable vents, and adding ridge vent with open soffits during the reroof helps the new shingles last.