Roof Work Along Highway 52 in Effingham
Effingham is not a town with city limits so much as a stretch of US 52 south of Florence, a community of country homes, churches, small farms and the houses that line the highway and the roads off it. There is no city hall here; it is unincorporated Florence County. The homes range from brick ranches on an acre or two to newer houses with architectural shingles, manufactured homes and the older frame houses with farm buildings out back.
Out along the highway, the roofs take more wind than they would in town, and the tree lines that separate fields and yards drop plenty onto them. Here is what we tend to find, and how we decide what to do about it.
What goes wrong on Effingham roofs
Wind comes first. With fields on one or more sides, a summer thunderstorm hits a house in Effingham without anything to break it up, and the straight-line gusts go after the edges of a roof: the rakes, the eaves and the ridge. We regularly find a run of shingles lifted or creased along one side of a house while the other side is untouched. Once the seal strip lets go, those shingles flap in every breeze afterward and keep loosening the nails.
Trees are close behind. The pines along property lines and highway frontage lose limbs in every major storm, and when tropical systems come through, as they did with Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018, the damage out here was mostly trees on houses, sheds and fences, followed by days of rain into whatever had been opened up. Then there is age: many of the ranch homes along the corridor are on roofs that have simply run their course, with brittle shingles, bare spots where the granules have gone and soft decking at the eaves.
Patch it or start over
We give you a straight answer on this. A roof with a few wind-lifted shingles and sound decking needs a repair, and that is what we will recommend. A roof where the shingles crack when they are bent, granules fill the gutters and we find soft wood in several places is a candidate for tearing off and starting fresh, and patching it again mostly delays the inevitable.
After a storm, the question gets tangled up with insurance. If a tree or a wind event did the damage, the photos and written scope we put together are the starting point for a claim, and our guide to storm repairs covers what happens between the tarp and the finished roof. Either way, you decide; we just make sure you are deciding with the facts in front of you.
How a visit goes
Because Effingham addresses can be spread out, we line up visits along the 52 corridor when we can, which keeps wait times short. When we arrive, we walk the house, look at the gutters and the ground for granules and pieces of shingle, then go up and go over the roof section by section. If there is attic access, we check the underside for stains and soft wood. Everything gets photographed.
Afterward we show you the photos and explain what we saw, whether that is a few lifted shingles and a cracked vent boot or a roof that is finished. Coward to the east and Pamplico further on are on our list too, so a neighbor there can use the same form.
Start with the form
Send us your name and phone number, plus the address if you would like. Describe the problem in the message box in your own words: a leak in the den, shingles torn off along one side, a limb through the porch roof or a roof that is just getting old. We call back to set a time to come out.