Split-Levels, Slopes And The Seams Between Them

Why The Valleys Fail Before The Field Does

On a plain gable ranch, water runs off in a straight line and the shingles wear evenly. A split-level does not work that way. The upper roof dumps its entire surface into a valley or onto a lower slope, so a stripe of that lower roof handles several times the water everything around it sees. Twenty years in, the field shingles still look decent and the valley is bare. Add the short vertical walls where the levels step, and you get step flashing and counterflashing details that were done right or done fast, with no middle ground.

Palatine’s housing came in waves. There are older frame houses and small postwar homes near the original town center and the Metra tracks, then heavy subdivision building through the 1960s and 70s pushing out toward Dundee Road, Quentin Road and the Rand Road corridor, then 1980s and 90s construction filling the outer edges along with townhome and condo clusters. Most of what we replace here is that 60s and 70s wave, on its second or third roof, with flashing details that have been redone by three different crews and agree with each other about nothing.

The grade adds one more wrinkle. Where lots slope, gutters and downspouts either move water away from the house or hand it straight to the low side of the foundation. We have opened up Palatine roofs that were fine and found the actual complaint was a downspout discharging six feet uphill of a basement wall. We follow the whole water path on every inspection because replacing shingles above a bad drainage plan solves nothing you can feel.

What We Get Called For In Palatine

• Shingle roof replacement on split-levels and 70s two-stories, torn off to the deck with every valley rebuilt rather than patched over.
• Shingle roof repair where one slope or one valley is failing on a roof that otherwise still has life.
• Wind damage repair after the summer cells that come across from the northwest and pick at exposed upper planes.
• Gutter installation and repair sized to the roof area, with discharge that respects which way the lot falls.
• Flat roof repair on the low-slope porch roofs, dormer tops and rear additions split-levels tend to collect.

Townhome and association work comes up often here too. Palatine has a lot of attached housing, and boards need somebody who can scope a whole row, stage it without shutting down the parking, and put it in writing. Our multi-family roofing crews handle that regularly.

Ice At The Step, Every February

The winter call we take most from Palatine is a stain appearing where an upper wall meets a lower roof. Snow slides down off the tall plane, piles up in the crotch where it cannot go any further, then melts and refreezes there through every thaw. If the step flashing behind that wall was lapped short or the housewrap was cut wrong when siding went on, the water walks in behind it. The shingles are not the problem, and a new roof laid over the same detail will fail the same way in the same spot.

Fixing it means opening the wall junction, setting the flashing in proper laps, and getting ice and water membrane far enough up the lower slope to cover where the snow actually sits. We also check attic ventilation while we are up there, since a warm attic under a steep upper plane speeds the whole melt-and-refreeze cycle along. If you had a stain last February and nothing this year, do not assume it healed. It just did not snow the same way.

Storms And The Trucks That Follow Them

Hail and straight-line wind reach this part of Cook County most summers, and the door-knockers arrive right behind them. Some of those crews do fine work. Others write a contract on a hood, subcontract it out, and are gone before anyone asks about a warranty. If a storm hits your block, get the roof looked at within two weeks whether or not anything is dripping, keep the photos even if you never file, and let somebody with a local address see the roof before you sign a page.

We inspect at no cost and document damage the way adjusters actually want it. If what we find does not clear your deductible, we say so and hand you the photos anyway, which is worth having when the roof comes up in a sale three years later. See how claims run on the insurance claims page. Emergency patching does not wait on the schedule; if water is coming in, that goes out on its own clock.

Being Plain About The Distance

Our shop sits in Alsip, south side, a real drive from Palatine. We handle that by booking northwest Cook in grouped stretches so crews are already up here with material and a dumpster staged. A planned replacement may wait a few days for the next run to fill. You are not charged for the mileage, and leaks skip the queue.

Angelo Ristich took this company over from his father Frank and runs it second generation, supervising jobs himself instead of handing you to a salesman. A+ with the BBB, HomeAdvisor Elite Service award, licensed and insured in Illinois. Most prices start on the phone off satellite measurements, so you get a real number before a ladder comes off the truck, and we can walk you through financing when a roof lands in a bad month. Recent jobs are in the gallery.