Wind damage and roof repair across Lonoke County, Cabot to Carlisle

The north end of Lonoke County, around Cabot, Ward and Austin, rises into rolling hills at the edge of the Ozarks and has filled with subdivisions over the last few decades. The middle of the county, around the town of Lonoke, sits on the Grand Prairie, flat native grassland that has been rice country for more than a century.

Down south toward Carlisle and the Delta edge, homes are farther apart, fields run right up to the yard and shops and grain bins often share the property. The roofs on those three kinds of ground do not wear the same way, so we inspect them differently.

Austin and Ward have grown alongside Cabot, and new homes there often go up on former pasture with few mature trees around them. That is good news for gutters and bad news in a windstorm. The house is the tallest thing on the lot, and the roof takes every gust.

Out on the prairie there is nothing to slow a storm down. Straight-line winds ahead of spring storms come across open fields at full speed and hit the first rake edge they find. Shingles along gable ends and ridges lift, break their seal and fold back, and once that seal is gone the next storm takes them off.

We see the same thing on newer homes in Ward and Austin that back onto open land. A roof can look fine from the street and still have a row of unsealed shingles along the back rake. We check by hand along every edge and photograph any tabs that lift.

• Creased or folded shingles along rakes and ridges
• Missing ridge caps on long straight ridgelines
• Loose drip edge and flashing at gable ends
• Metal panels with backed-out screws on shops and barns
• Torn or flapping underlayment showing through gaps

Cabot grew from about 8,300 people in 1990 to more than 26,000 by 2020, so most of its roofs are from the 1990s onward. Many of the earliest of those roofs are on their second shingle layer or due for one now. The March 31, 2023 tornado weakened on the southeast side of Cabot, and homes in that area saw a wave of repairs afterward.

Ward and Austin follow a similar pattern on a smaller scale, with newer subdivisions mixed in with older homes on country roads. Hail, wind and the original builder grade shingles reaching their limit drive most of our calls there.

Air base families make up a share of homeowners in the north end of the county, and many of them move on a schedule. When a house is about to be sold or rented out, we inspect the roof, fix what needs fixing and give you photos you can hand to a buyer, landlord or property manager.

In the town of Lonoke and down toward Carlisle, the housing is older and more spread out. Farmhouses here often have metal roofs over the house and the outbuildings, sometimes with shingle additions tacked on later. The joint where an addition meets the original roof is a common leak point.

Humid summers on the prairie also bake roofs hard. Low-slope porch roofs and carports on these homes pond water after heavy rain, and older rolled roofing cracks along the seams. We repair those sections or replace them with a proper low-slope membrane.

Ventilation is often weak on these older farmhouses. A hot, closed attic under a dark roof shortens shingle life and can push moisture into the decking on cool mornings. We look at intake and exhaust on every inspection and tell you whether adding ridge or soffit vents would help.

Walk around the house and look for shingles in the yard, bare patches along the edges and anything hanging from the gutters. If water is coming in, put a bucket under it and call (501) 387-1152 right away. We answer at any hour and can tarp exposed decking so the next rain does not make it worse.

Once the weather clears, we come back and inspect every slope. You get photos of what we found and a written price for the repair before any work starts.