Questions Cleveland homeowners ask us

The roofer says my chimney flashing failed. The mason I called says the brick is fine. Who is right?

Quite possibly both, and that sentence is this company's founding story. Brick and flashing are two halves of one junction. Sound mortar with dead flashing leaks. Sound flashing against crumbling brick leaks too. Our founder spent fourteen years on the masonry side of that argument, being called to sound chimneys while the failed metal beside them went unmentioned. The estimate visit here reads both halves of the junction and names which one failed, and where the brick itself is the failure, we will say the word mason out loud, because that part is genuinely not roofing work.

What is an ice dam, and why does my house get one every winter?

An ice dam is meltwater refrozen at the cold edge of your roof. Heat leaking out of the attic melts the middle of the snow load; the water runs down until it reaches the unheated overhang, freezes there, and builds a ridge. The next melt pools behind that ridge and can back up under the shingles above it. Houses dam in patterns: shallow pitches, north-facing eaves that never see sun, attics with thin insulation or blocked vents. A house that dams every winter is telling you something about its attic as much as its roof, and the repair conversation should cover both, or you will meet the same dam next January wearing a new date.

Can an ice dam be removed the same day I call?

Sometimes work can start quickly, and sometimes a roof under a heavy load cannot be worked safely or usefully that day at all. Anyone who promises winter speed before seeing your roof, your load, and your eave is selling, not reading. Call Call for same-day help Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm, describe what the ceiling is doing, and you will hear plainly what can be done, what has to wait for a thaw, and what to do inside the house in the meantime. That honesty is the service, in January especially.

A previous roofer fixed my chimney leak with sealant and it held for two years. Was that a repair?

It was a postponement that held for two years, which is exactly what sealant is. Caulk over a failed flashing joint bridges the gap until sun and freeze cycles work it loose, and then the leak returns to a junction that is now two years older. Our signature line exists because the founder watched this cycle from the ladder for over a decade: caulk never fixed a flashing, it only dated the next leak. A flashing repair that replaces the metal costs more than a tube. It also ends the cycle instead of scheduling its next round.

How much snow load is too much for my roof?

There is no honest single number anyone can give you from a website, because load depends on your roof's pitch, span, age, and what the snow is made of: lake effect snow can fall light and then take on water weight in a thaw, and a drifted valley carries far more than the flat average suggests. The practical signs are the ones to watch: doors suddenly sticking, new cracks in ceiling drywall, creaking under a quiet house, and sag you can see along a ridge. Any of those means call promptly and describe them. The estimate visit reads load questions house by house, which is the only way they can honestly be read.

My house has a slate roof. Do you work on slate?

Our repair work around slate is the junction work: flashing, valleys, and vents where they meet the slate field, read and rebuilt in metal without disturbing sound slate. Full slate replacement and large slate field repairs are a specialist's trade of their own, and we will say so at the visit and point you that way rather than learn the material on your house. Cleveland's older streets in the Heights, Hudson, and Lakewood hold slate worth that honesty.

After a hailstorm, how do I know if my roof was actually damaged?

From the ground, mostly you do not, and the founder's mason years taught the same lesson about chimneys: the honest evidence lives on the roof, not in the view from the driveway. Bruised shingles, split mats, and dented soft metals at vents and flashing have to be read up close, against the roof's age and product, separating what the storm did from what the seasons were already doing. A homeowner can ask which records of storm damage insurers usually find useful before making that call; whether a claim pays anything is the insurer's decision, and no roofer can promise it.

Do you charge for the estimate?

No. The estimate is free, hassle-free, and no-obligation. If the reading says your junction is sound and your roof has years left, that is the answer you get, and it costs the same nothing.

[More questions? Call Call for same-day help or send the estimate form.](/estimate)