Shingle Roof Replacement in Gainesville, FL, March 2024

What you are looking at

The drone photos show the shape of this roof best. The main roof is a hip, sloping down on every side, and gables break up the front: one over the covered porch with a small arched window in its peak, and another on the wing at the end of the house.

The shingles are architectural, sometimes called dimensional: two layers bonded together, so the surface has depth and a staggered, random pattern. The color shifts with the light. On the shaded planes in the overhead shot they read close to black, and in full sun the close views show a mix of dark and lighter gray granules.

A ridge vent runs along the ridges under a row of cap shingles. It is a low vented strip at the peak that gives warm attic air a way out, and the caps cover it so it blends into the roofline. Three skylights sit in a row near the ridge on one slope, with tinted covers and dark frames, and the new shingles run right up to each frame.

Photos Brehm took on the roof in early February show what was there before: weathered gray shingles with pale worn patches, skylights coated silver and streaked with rust, and silver metal vents. In the March photos the vent stacks and caps are black and sit quietly against the new shingles.

The house is surrounded by trees. Fan palms and trees hung with Spanish moss rise around it, sago palms fill the beds along the front walk, and the screened enclosure is attached at the back. The trees were in fresh spring green when these photos were taken in mid March.

Under this much tree cover, leaves land on the roof all year, and the overhead shot shows them dotting the screened enclosure. Keeping the valleys and the skylight edges clear of leaves is simple upkeep, worth doing before Florida's summer afternoon storms arrive.