How to Read a Roofing Estimate: What a Real Quote Actually Contains Most homeowners compare roofing quotes the only way they can — by looking at the total. That is understandable and it is also how people end up choosing the most expensive roof on the street, because the cheapest quote usually became the most […]

Skylights and Sun Tunnels on Columbia Homes: Repair, Replace, or Leave Alone Columbia’s original architects liked daylight. Contemporary and split-level designs across the villages were built with skylights as a standard feature rather than an upgrade, often several per house. Which means a great many Columbia homes are carrying skylights that are decades old, sitting […]

Living Under the Canopy: What Columbia’s Trees Do to Roofs and Gutters Columbia was deliberately built into its woodland rather than cleared flat first, and mature trees are a large part of why people want to live here. They are also the reason roofs in Columbia need more attention than roofs in an open subdivision […]

Replacing Original Cedar Shake on a Columbia Home A lot of Columbia’s earliest homes went up with cedar shake, and it suited the design language — natural material, weathering to grey, sitting quietly under the tree canopy. Those roofs are now decades old, and most are on their second or third covering. If your home […]

Low-Slope Roofs on Columbia Townhomes: Why They Leak and What Belongs There Columbia’s architecture leaned modern from the beginning. Long horizontal lines, shed roofs, deep overhangs, and roof planes that run much shallower than the steep gables you see in older Maryland neighborhoods. It still looks good fifty years on. It also creates a specific […]

Roof Replacement in Columbia, MD: Getting Village Approval Before You Start Columbia is not a conventional suburb. It was planned from the ground up, built out village by village, and the covenants that came with that plan are still in force. For most homeowners that means one extra step before a roof replacement: architectural approval. […]