Greater Lansing
Exterior boards & roofline
Rotten fascia and soffit is a symptom. Something wetted that board — a gutter running over, a missing drip edge, a downspout against the wall — and replacing the timber without finding it is a repair you pay for twice, the second time sooner than you expect.
What is actually wrong
Almost everything that gets called a roof leak in this part of Michigan is a roofline leak. Water gets behind a fascia board, under a lifted flashing or through a gutter that has pulled away, runs down inside the wall, and appears somewhere with no obvious relationship to where it started.
That is worth separating out, because the roofline is work this company does and steep-slope coverings are not. Fascia, soffit, siding, trim, flashing and gutters are ours, and so is repair to flat and low-slope membrane roofs, which has its own page. Shingles are a roofer, and you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has arrived.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- Shingles and steep-slope coverings are not taken on. Roofline components are, and so is repair to flat and low-slope membrane roofs, which has its own page here. Sealing a seam is a repair and is not a roof, and it does not carry a roof warranty — that is this company’s own quote wording.
- No work at heights beyond safe ladder and staging access.
- Bats are protected in Michigan and it is unlawful to seal them into a roost; a suspected roost stops the job and gets referred.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Fascia, soffit and trim replacement, including the storm damage that takes a run of it off in one night.
Siding repair and replacement, including cement board.
Gutter and downspout work, which has its own page covering where the water actually goes — including moving a downspout that has been discharging against a foundation for years.
Flashing repair where water is getting in at a junction.
Exterior trim and board painting, with the preparation done properly.
The interior make-good behind it, once the outside is watertight.
This work sits inside Carpentry, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
Height and access. Ground-floor fascia is a ladder; a second-story run over a conservatory is staging, and staging is a line on the quote.
How far the rot has gone. What is visible from the ground is the smallest version of the number.
Material. Wood, PVC and cement board are different prices, different lifespans and different warranties — PVC trim carries two years here rather than one.
Whether the gutters come off and go back, which they usually do to get at a fascia.
Whether the interior damage is in scope. Frequently the outside repair is the smaller half.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Photograph it from the ground with the whole elevation in frame, not just the damaged board. Where a run starts and stops is most of the quote.
- If a board or a gutter is hanging, keep people and cars out from under it and say so when you call.
- Check where your downspouts actually discharge. A downspout emptying against the wall is the cheapest cause of a wet basement to fix and the one most often missed.
- If shingles have come off, that is a roofer first. The fascia and gutter work can follow it.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Where this is being asked for
2 towns have enough behind them for a page of their own.
This work is done everywhere on the coverage list. These are the towns where the enquiry record and the job record both have something specific to say, so they get a page that says it. The rest do not, because a page with nothing true on it is worse than no page.
Exterior boards & roofline in East Lansing
Exterior work — trim, siding, flashing and gutters — is most of what has actually been finished in East Lansing, and this town carries the largest average job value on the site.
Exterior boards & roofline in Okemos
Okemos exterior jobs arrive as lists, not as single items — four or five unrelated things handled in one visit.
Questions people actually ask
Do you do roofs?
Not shingles and not steep slopes — those are a roofer’s trade and are not taken on here. Two things nearby are. The roofline is: fascia, soffit, siding, trim, flashing, gutters and downspouts, which is where most water actually gets in. And repair to flat and low-slope membrane roofs is done and has its own page — EPDM seams, modified bitumen patching, flashings and drains. Where a job turns out to be a shingle problem you are told, and it is not billed as a wasted visit.
There is a stain on my ceiling but the roof looks fine. What now?
That is the usual presentation of a roofline fault. It gets looked at from outside and inside — flashing, gutter line, siding junctions, and where the water is actually tracking — before anything is opened up. The outside gets made watertight first and the interior make-good follows, because doing them in the other order means doing the inside twice.
Book a roofline and exterior boards visit
Photograph the whole elevation rather than the damaged foot of it, because the cause is usually several feet away from the damage. Tell us whether the gutter above it overflows, and whether the staining gets worse in a particular kind of rain. If paint is lifting below the board, include that too. Coming out is free and there is no trip charge.