Roofers in Huntington Woods, MIRoof replacement & repair estimates in Huntington Woods, Michigan

In Huntington Woods' Hill historic district, a roof can need a Historic District Commission permit before any work starts. Roofers Royal Oak takes roof repair and replacement requests from Huntington Woods, southwest of Royal Oak, and passes each one to a roofing contractor covering ZIP 48070. Say whether the job is a leak, storm damage or a worn-out roof, and whether the house is in the Hill district.

This is a city of owner-occupied, single-family houses with a code that reaches past the roof itself: a historic district commission for part of the city, firm limits on when work can happen and how many gas machines can run, and rules for working near trees.

Huntington Woods housing and roof age

Census Bureau survey figures for 2020–2024 put Huntington Woods at 2,442 homes, with a median build year of 1952. The 1950s are the city's largest decade, with 1,149 homes (47.1%), followed by the 1940s with 651 (26.7%), and 349 are older still. By our arithmetic, 2,432 of the 2,442 homes (99.6%) are single detached houses, and owners live in 2,264 of the 2,356 occupied ones (96.1%). The survey's margins are wide for a city this size, so read the percentages as close estimates.

A roof on a 1950s house is likely to have been redone at least once, and a roof under big trees has extra work to do. Shade keeps shingles damp for longer, and leaves pack into valleys and gutters, holding water against the roof edge. Ask the roofer to check the gutters and valleys under the heaviest branches, and any limbs close to the shingles.

The Hill historic district and roof work

Chapter 6 of the city code creates two local historic districts. The Hill Historic District, set up by Ordinance 490 on October 19, 2004, covers lots 104–139, 226–265, 487–499 and 648–675 of the Huntington Woods Subdivision, along with "the city park bounded by York, Borgman and Huntington" and "the city park bounded by Nadine, Pembroke and Salem". By our arithmetic from those ranges, that's 36 + 40 + 13 + 28 = 117 lots. The Rackham Historic District, set up in 2006, is a single parcel of "120.7092 acres" between Scotia Road and I-696. Because the code defines the Hill district by lot number, the lot number in your property records is the thing to check.

Sec. 6-282 is the rule that matters for a roof: "A permit shall be obtained before any work affecting the exterior appearance of a resource is performed within a historic district". It goes on: "A permit shall not be issued and proposed work shall not proceed until the historic district commission has acted on the application by issuing a certificate of appropriateness or a notice to proceed". In practice, the Historic District Commission (HDC) comes first, and the building permit follows.

The form is titled "APPLICATION FOR PERMIT TO PERFORM WORK ON A RESOURCE WITHIN THE HILL AND/OR RACKHAM HISTORIC DISTRICTS". What it asks for:

• Roof work on the form: its tick-boxes include "roofs", "chimneys", "gutters & downspouts" and "skylights, solar systems & roof accessories".
• The fee: "The Application Fee for Historic District Permit is $300".
• Copies and lead time: "ten (10) copies of the proposed plan", filed "at least 15 days prior to the date of the Historic District commission meeting". Count back from the meeting date, not from the day you'd like the roof to start.

Is a matching re-roof "ordinary maintenance"?

Sec. 6-286 carves out an exception: "Nothing in this division shall be construed to prevent ordinary maintenance or repair of a resource within a historic district". The code doesn't define ordinary maintenance, and it doesn't say whether replacing a worn roof with matching shingles counts. That leaves the answer with the city, not the roofer or the homeowner.

If the house is in the Hill district, ask the city before the job is booked whether your roof needs an HDC application, and keep the answer in writing.

Building permits, bonds and materials

For every house, historic district or not, Sec. 6-21(a) says: "Permits shall be required and issued in accordance with the state construction code." Sec. 6-22 requires a cash "building bond" with each permit application, in an amount "specified by resolution of the city commission". Check the fee and the bond with the building department before the job is priced. The code quoted on this page is the online version, current through its February 2022 supplement.

Timing deliveries matters too. The city's blight rules in Sec. 14-88(2) ban "The storage upon any property of building materials unless there is in force a valid building permit", and the list of materials names shingles. Bundles stacked in the driveway ahead of the permit would fall foul of that rule, so set delivery for after the permit is issued. To see whether a roofer holds a state license, use the State of Michigan license lookup.

No Sunday work, and two machines at a time

Sec. 14-59(5) bars building, alteration and repair work "at any time on Sundays, and on other days, except between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.", unless the city manager issues a permit.

Sec. 14-62(7) exempts construction noise within those hours "subject to the limitation that no more than two gas-powered machines shall be operated or in use at one time on any single residential property." A gas generator and a gas compressor running together already reach that limit, so ask the roofer what equipment they plan to run on site.

Working around Huntington Woods trees

Article VII of the code, which covers trees on public streets, parkways and parks, has three rules a roofing job runs into. Sec. 14-171: "no material shall be fastened to or hung on any tree". Sec. 14-174: "all building material or other debris shall be kept at least four feet from any tree". And Sec. 14-176 requires owners of private trees that overhang a street to keep "a clear space of eight feet above the surface of the street", which is worth checking before a delivery truck or roll-off arrives.

Big limbs come down in storms around the city. On June 5, 2024, a trained spotter reported an "Estimated 10 inch tree limb snapped." to the National Weather Service's Detroit office, at a point the service logged as "1 N Huntington Woods". After a storm, look from the ground for branches lodged on the roof, bent gutters and torn shingles.

Roof repair and roof replacement in Huntington Woods

• Roof replacement: tear-off to the decking, new underlayment, ice and water shield, flashing, ventilation and shingles.
• Roof repair: missing or storm-damaged shingles, flashing at chimneys and walls, and cracked pipe boots.
• Roof leak repair: tracing where the water gets in, which is rarely right above the stain.
• Garage roofs: detached garage roofs, and what a garage re-roof involves.
• Ice dams: why they form at the eaves and what fixes them for good.

What a roof costs in Huntington Woods

Every roof is priced after a roofer has looked at it, because size, pitch, layers to remove and decking repairs make the difference. We publish sourced Royal Oak price ranges, with what makes one roof cost more than another, in the roof replacement cost guide and the roof repair cost guide. They're published guides, not quotes for a Huntington Woods roof.

Nearby cities

Requests from Huntington Woods ZIP code 48070 go to a licensed roofing contractor who serves the area. Nearby cities with their own pages:

• Roofers in Berkley, MI
• Roofers in Oak Park, MI
• Roofers in Pleasant Ridge, MI
• Every city we serve

Common questions