Roofing for historic brick homes in the Governor's Mansion District

The Governor's Mansion Historic District was first listed on the National Register in 1978, covering about 65 acres around the Mansion grounds between 13th, Center, Gaines and 18th Streets. A 1988 expansion added more than 220 acres and 473 contributing buildings, reaching out toward Louisiana Street, Roosevelt Road and 23rd Street.

The Mansion itself, a Georgian Colonial Revival home on a full city block, opened in 1950. The houses around it are much older. Most were built between 1880 and 1940, and the district includes a broad range of work by Little Rock architect Charles L. Thompson.

Craftsman is the most common style here, with more than 90 mostly two story brick homes of modest scale. Queen Anne Victorians, Colonial Revival homes and several historic churches fill in the rest.

Brick Craftsman homes in this district tend to have broad hip or gable roofs with deep eaves, dormers on the front slope and a brick chimney or two. Height is the first challenge: a two story brick wall puts the eave well above a standard ladder setup, so we stage the job with taller ladders and roof brackets.

The second challenge is where roof meets masonry. Chimneys, parapets on some homes and brick dormer cheeks all need step and counter flashing cut into the mortar. Decades of tar over old flashing is common, and it rarely holds.

Many of these homes also have small flat or low slope roofs over back porches, sleeping porches and kitchen additions. Those sections are often covered with roll roofing that has cracked and lifted. We replace them with modified bitumen or a single ply membrane and flash them into the brick properly.

• Counter flashing reset into mortar joints, not glued to the face
• Chimney crowns checked for cracks that let water into the brick
• Porch roofs inspected where they tie into the second story wall
• Dormer cheek walls sealed and flashed from the bottom up

Parts of this area fall within the state's Capitol Zoning District, which includes a Governor's Mansion Area. There, exterior alterations generally need a certificate of appropriateness. Routine maintenance and some like for like repairs may be handled by staff, while a change in roofing material or appearance usually goes to the commission.

We confirm whether your address is inside those boundaries before we price a change. If review applies, we help you assemble the product details, color samples and photos the commission asks for, and we schedule work after approval.

Outside those boundaries, the district's National Register listing does not restrict roofing choices. Even so, many owners ask us for materials that look right on a 1910s brick house, and we are glad to help with that.

The district's Queen Anne homes, like the brick Hornibrook House, have steep roofs with towers, cross gables and decorative ridges. A few homes still carry slate, and several have standing seam metal over porches and bays.

Slate and metal repairs here follow the same careful approach as anywhere in the Quapaw Quarter: matching stone, copper fasteners, soldered seams where possible. On homes reroofed in asphalt decades ago, we can suggest dimensional shingles in colors that read close to slate from the street.

Hidden conditions are common. We regularly find board decking, old wood shingle layers and patched rafters once the surface comes off, and we photograph each one so you see what we see.

Big hardwoods shade much of the district, and spring storms bring them down onto roofs and porches. Older framing was built with real dimension lumber, which helps, but a heavy limb can still crack a rafter or tear through board decking.

We tarp storm openings quickly, photograph damage before cleanup and repair the framing before new roofing goes on. Clearing gutters and valleys each fall keeps these roofs from holding water through the winter freeze and thaw cycles.

Attics in these older homes are usually tall and roomy, which makes them easier to inspect than a modern truss attic. We look at the underside of the deck, the rafters and the chimney chase during every visit, since water stains there show us how long a leak has been active.