Service area

Roofing in Southwest Minneapolis

Southwest Minneapolis is the part of the city where the roof is most likely to be steep, cut up with dormers and valleys, and sitting on top of a house built before anyone thought about attic air sealing.

Rocking chairs on the front porch of an older clapboard house in autumn

Call (651) 381-5283 Ask about your roof

The houses around the lakes

Linden Hills grew up along the streetcar line to Lake Harriet, and the blocks west and south of the lake are thick with 1920s Tudors and bungalows. Tudor roofs are steep, with front-facing gables, catslide slopes over the entry and sometimes three or four valleys on a modest house. They shed rain beautifully. They also hold snow in every valley and against every dormer cheek, and the valleys are where Southwest roofs tend to wear out first.

Story-and-a-half upstairs, ice at the eave

A lot of houses here were finished upstairs at some point, turning a half-storey attic into bedrooms with sloped ceilings. That puts heated rooms directly under the roof deck with only a few inches of space for insulation. The eave below stays cold. That is the textbook arrangement for ice dams, and it is why the Southwest houses with the worst dams are often the most nicely finished ones. When the roof comes off, ask the company to look at the knee-wall spaces and the rafter bays while the deck is open. It is the one moment when that work is easy.

Duplexes and the Wedge

Closer to Uptown, Lowry Hill East and the streets around it carry a lot of older duplexes and triplexes. The city's permit rules for re-roofing cover one- and two-family dwellings the same way, but the practical job is different: tenants on two floors to notify, cars to move from a narrow street or alley, and often a low-slope rear addition tied into the main roof. That transition is a common leak point and worth asking about specifically.

Old roofs, new rules

Many Southwest roofs are already on their second or third covering. City rules allow one layer of shingles over one existing layer, never a third, and never over old wood shakes, which still turn up under the shingles on houses this age. Assume a tear-off. On the way back up, the ice barrier has to run from the eave to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall, which on a deep Tudor overhang can mean several feet of membrane up the slope.

Planning a roof in Southwest? Book a look before the fall rush and ask the company to check the attic and knee walls as part of it.

Call (651) 381-5283 Book a roof look

ZIP codes covered 55405 · 55408 · 55409 · 55410 · 55419

Southwest Minneapolis questions

Is a permit needed for a reroof in Linden Hills?

Yes. Linden Hills is in Minneapolis, and the city requires a permit for all re-roofing except repairs using less than one bundle of shingles.

Can a Tudor roof be done with ordinary shingles?

Most are already asphalt shingles and are replaced the same way. A few original slate or clay roofs remain in the area; those need a specialist.

Services here

Also serving Minneapolis , Northeast Minneapolis, Edina, St. Louis Park, Richfield.

Get a quote in Southwest Minneapolis

Say what you are seeing: a stain, ice at the eaves, shingles in the yard. A local roofing company will reply and arrange a look, usually within a few days, sooner for an active leak. Answered Mon–Sat · leave a message after hours and you get a call back Or call (651) 381-5283 if it is leaking now; a person picks up faster than a form gets read.