Service areas
Roof help across Durham and Durham County
This site covers Durham, NC and the suburbs around it in Durham County. Below is a guide to each area this site covers, with what tends to go wrong on the houses there and what it usually costs to fix. Area codes 919, 984.
Durham area guides
Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill has more big trees over more expensive roofs than almost anywhere else in the Triangle. From 1950s ranches under the oaks in Coker Hills to the steep architectural roofs in Southern Village and Meadowmont, here's what those roofs need and what the work typically costs.
Chapel Hill roof guide →Cary
Cary has more 1985–2015 subdivision roofs than almost anywhere else in the Triangle, many installed within a decade of each other and many now due. Here's what those roofs need now, what the work typically costs, and how to choose who does it.
Cary roof guide →How roofs differ across the Durham area
The houses around Durham were built in waves, and each wave wears out in its own way. Inside the old city, the mill houses and bungalows of East Durham, Old West Durham, Trinity Park and Watts-Hillandale went up between the 1920s and the 1950s. Their roofs tend to hide two or three layers of shingles over plank decking, with low-slope porch sections and chimneys whose flashing has been patched more times than it was ever properly done. Out in the county, Woodcroft, Parkwood, Hope Valley Farms and Treyburn filled in from the 1990s on, with steep roofs broken up by valleys and dormers. Many of those first architectural roofs are now reaching the end of their service life.
The climate is the same across the whole region. Long humid summers bake attics from below and feed the dark algae streaks that show up on shaded north slopes. Tall loblolly pines with shallow roots in red clay are the main storm risk: after a soaking remnant, it takes surprisingly little wind to bring a limb or a whole tree onto a house. Hail is rare here, and fallen trees do far more harm.
What changes from one town to the next
Chapel Hill and Carrboro sit under the heaviest canopy. Long ranches from the 1950s–70s in Coker Hills and Lake Forest have shallow-pitched roofs that struggle in wind-driven rain, and the shade lets moss build up. Newer two-stories in Southern Village and Meadowmont mostly leak at valleys and dormers. Carrboro adds older mill houses near Main Street. The Chapel Hill roof guide covers those houses in detail, along with the historic districts and HOA review.
Cary and Morrisville are mostly subdivision roofs installed within a few years of each other. Older Cary neighborhoods such as Lochmere and MacGregor Downs are on their second roof, and that roof is aging out now. In Preston and Cary Park, hip roofs with many planes leak at step flashing, and many attics have a ridge vent but soffit vents buried under insulation. Morrisville townhomes raise a separate question: whether the owner or the HOA is responsible for a shared roof. Apex resembles western Cary. Read the Cary roof guide for those.
Hillsborough looks like a small version of the whole area: mill houses in West Hillsborough, 1990s subdivisions, and farmhouses heading north. Bahama, north of the city, has more farmhouses and barns, where exposed-fastener metal is common.
Which guide to read for your situation
- A drip or a ceiling stain on one spot: start with finding and fixing roof leaks.
- A roof that is worn on every slope, or a pre-1955 house with layers: read about full roof replacement and the typical prices on the roofing cost page.
- A limb on the roof or wind damage after a storm: go to storm damage steps.
- Farmhouses, outbuildings or a roof you want to last decades: see the metal roofing guide.
Permits, HOAs and paperwork
Permit and inspection requirements are set locally, so they are not the same in every town. Before a re-roof, check with the city or county office that covers your address — the City of Durham or Durham County, the Town of Chapel Hill or Orange County, the Town of Cary, or the Town of Morrisville — and ask the roofer who pulls the permit and whether it is in the price. In HOA neighborhoods, get the shingle color approved before anything is ordered.
Other towns and neighborhoods covered
- Hillsborough
- Morrisville
- Carrboro
- Apex
- Research Triangle Park
- Bahama
- …and the neighborhoods in between.
What's the same everywhere in Durham County
The guides on this site — roof repair, roof replacement, storm damage, roof inspection, metal roofing, commercial roof repair — apply across Durham and every town listed above. Building permits, inspection rules and fees are set by each city, so a job in a suburb can follow slightly different paperwork than one inside Durham limits; the area guides note the known differences.
How estimate requests work
Calls and estimate requests from this site go to an independent local contractor partner who quotes and performs the work. You get a written quote before anything starts, and you are never obligated to hire. If you are outside the areas listed, call anyway and ask — the answer is quick.
Need roof work in Durham?
Call for a free estimate. Mon–Sat 7am–7pm.