Roof repair and new roofs across Pulaski County, from Roland to Scott

Downtown and the Quapaw Quarter hold some of the oldest houses in Arkansas, with steep gables, plank decking and brick chimneys that tend to leak at the flashing. West Little Rock along Chenal Parkway is a different world: newer, larger homes with hip roofs, stacked valleys and a dozen roof planes on a single house. North of the river, Park Hill and Lakewood mix 1920s bungalows with postwar ranches.

Jacksonville and Sherwood lean toward brick ranch homes and newer subdivisions with simple gable roofs. Out east, Scott opens into flat farm country along the Arkansas River, where a house often shares the lot with a metal shop or pole barn. Roland, on the northwest edge near Pinnacle Mountain State Park and Lake Maumelle, sits on wooded lots where falling limbs and leaf buildup do more harm than anything else.

On March 31, 2023, an EF3 tornado touched down west of the I-430 and I-630 interchange and tracked more than 34 miles through west Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood and Jacksonville. Thousands of structures were damaged, and a lot of roofs across the county were replaced in a hurry that spring and summer.

Some of those jobs were done well and some were rushed. When we inspect a roof that went on after the storm, we look at the details that get skipped when crews are racing from house to house.

• Nails driven high or crooked so tabs lift in the next wind
• Missing starter strip along the eaves and rakes
• Old step flashing reused against brick and siding walls
• Pipe boots left in place from the original roof
• Gutters rehung without fixing the soft fascia behind them

Spring storm season runs roughly March through June here, and the same systems that bring hail can push straight-line winds well ahead of the storm itself. A west Little Rock hip roof and a flat Scott farmhouse roof fail in different ways: one loses granules in the valleys, the other loses shingles off a long open rake edge.

Summer does its own slow damage. South and west facing slopes take the full afternoon sun, and shingles in the 15 to 20 year range start to curl and shed granules there first. Under the big oaks in Hillcrest and the Heights, north slopes stay damp and grow dark algae streaks that hold moisture against the shingle.

Our call log for the county is fairly predictable once you know the housing. Older midtown homes bring chimney and valley leaks, newer west side homes bring hail and wind claims, and the east and north sides bring a lot of low-slope porch and carport problems.

Ventilation is the quiet problem behind a lot of these calls. Many older ranch homes in the county have a few box vents and painted-over soffits, so attics run hot all summer and shingles age early on the sun side. We check intake and exhaust on every inspection and tell you plainly if the attic is cooking the roof.

• Chimney and skylight leaks in older midtown and Quapaw Quarter homes
• Lifted tabs and blown ridge caps after spring wind
• Hail bruising on west Little Rock roofs with many valleys
• Ponding and split seams on flat porch and carport roofs
• Rotted fascia behind gutters packed with pine needles
• Overnight tarping when a limb comes through the decking

Call (501) 387-1152 at any hour and tell us your town, your roof type and what you are seeing. We answer 24/7, and for active leaks we get a crew out to dry it in first.

On the inspection we photograph every problem and show you the pictures before anything else happens. You get a written price before work starts. When the job is done, the crew cleans the yard and beds and runs a magnet sweep for nails across the driveway and lawn.

If an insurance claim is part of it, we can meet your adjuster on the roof and walk through the damage we photographed. We do not tell you what your policy covers, but we make sure what is up there gets measured and documented correctly.