Bellingham Roof Pros: Roof Repair, Replacement & Ventilation
Expert residential and commercial roofing services. Free inspections across Whatcom County and north Skagit, priced plane by plane.
- Registered Washington contractor, bonded and insured through Labor and Industries
- Every plane inspected, measured and photographed with its compass bearing
- Written workmanship warranty on every roof we install
- Free inspections throughout Whatcom County and northern Skagit County
Our Roofing Services in Bellingham, WA
Roof Replacement
A full replacement here starts with a compass rather than a catalog. We record the bearing and pitch of every plane on the house before pricing anything, because in Bellingham the direction a slope faces predicts its condition better than the age on the permit does.
Roof Leak Repair
A leak called in during January and a leak called in during July are usually two different problems in this city. The first question we ask is which plane the stain sits under, because that single answer removes most of the list before anyone climbs a ladder.
Storm Damage Restoration
Storms in Bellingham rarely destroy a sound roof. They finish off the plane that was already spent, and around here that is almost always the one pointing away from the sun.
Hail Damage Roofing
Here is the straight answer most Bellingham homeowners need. You probably do not have hail damage.
Wind Damage Roofing
Bellingham's damaging wind does not come off the water. It comes down the Fraser Valley from the northeast, cold and dry and channeled, and the National Weather Service routinely advises sustained speeds in the twenties and thirties with gusts above fifty when the pattern sets up.
Roof Inspections
Most roof inspections average the house. Ours divide it.
Asphalt Shingle Roofs
Asphalt covers most of Bellingham and it remains the right answer for most houses here. The decision worth arguing about is not the brand.
Metal Roofing
This is the one page where our answer reverses. On a Bellingham plane that spends a hundred days a year in shadow, standing seam steel is genuinely the better product, and we will recommend it there even on a house where asphalt is the right call everywhere else.
Tile Roofing
There is not much tile in Whatcom County, but there is some, mostly concrete profiles that went onto larger Bellingham and Ferndale houses during the late nineties and early two-thousands. Nearly all of that work now is underlayment, not tile, and the tiles themselves are usually fine.
Flat & Low-Slope Roofing
This is where our own argument runs out, and it is worth saying so plainly. A quarter-inch-per-foot roof does not really face a direction.
Roof Coatings & Sealing
We turn down more coating work in Bellingham than we accept, and this page exists to explain why before you spend money on it. On a north-facing plane in this city, a coating is close to the worst product you can buy, and we will not sell you one.
Roof Ventilation
Ventilation gets sold by the house in most of this trade. In Bellingham it has to be balanced eave by eave, because a roof whose two aspects are living in different seasons cannot be served honestly by one average calculation taken across the ridge.
Skylights
We will not put a skylight on a north-facing plane in Bellingham. That is a firm answer rather than a preference, and the winter sun angle makes the case far better than any argument we could construct around it.
Gutters & Downspouts
Bellingham gutters do not usually fail from rainfall volume. They fail on one eave, and it is reliably the eave beneath the plane that has not seen the sun since fall.
Fascia & Soffit
Walk a Bellingham block in February and the rotted fascia is almost always on the same side of every house on it. Not the side facing the weather.
Chimney Flashing
Chimney leaks in Bellingham are overwhelmingly an upslope problem, and the winter sun angle explains why. A stack casts its shadow to the north of itself, which on most roofs means straight up the slope and directly onto the flashing details that already work hardest.
Emergency Tarping
When a limb comes through the deck during a Fraser outflow event, the priority is closing the opening properly rather than merely quickly. A tarp on a Bellingham roof in December is not a two-week measure.
Commercial Roofing
Commercial roofs in Bellingham fail in patches, and the patches are predictable before anyone climbs the ladder. Draw the winter shadow of every parapet, screen wall and mechanical curb onto the roof plan, and you have drawn most of the maintenance budget for the next decade.
Insurance Claim Help
Most Bellingham roof claims that get denied are denied for the same reason, and you can usually predict it before you file. The damage sits on a shaded plane, the adjuster calls it wear and deterioration, and that is excluded on essentially every homeowners policy sold in this state.
Bellingham Roof Pros is a licensed, insured roofing contractor working Bellingham, Washington and the surrounding county, handling roof replacement, leak repair, storm and wind damage, ventilation, flashing, gutters and commercial low-slope work. We install architectural asphalt, standing seam steel, TPO, EPDM and modified bitumen, and we scope every job one roof plane at a time.
That last part is not a slogan. Bellingham sits at 48.75 degrees north, higher than any other city we work in the lower forty-eight, and at that latitude the winter sun reaches barely eighteen degrees above the horizon at noon. A north-facing plane pitched steeper than about four in twelve receives no direct sunlight at all for months, so it never dries between rains.
The result is that two sides of one roof, same age and same shingle, are not the same roof. One dries after every break in the weather and the other has not dried since October. We record the compass bearing and pitch of every plane before we price anything, because in this city that answer comes before the material, the brand and the warranty.
What Bellingham Customers Say
Two other outfits wanted to tear off the whole thing. These guys measured both sides, showed me the sun numbers, and said the south half had six or seven years left. We did the north plane and the ventilation and spent about half what we were expecting.
Lost about thirty shingles in an outflow blow. They were out the next morning, and the estimate came with a diagram showing which plane each missing shingle came off. Every one was on the northeast side. Hand-sealed the whole aspect when they redid it.
I called about a skylight for a north-facing room and was told plainly not to do it, with the reason. They put in a tube instead for a fraction of the price. I have never had a contractor argue me down before.
Wanted a coating on the low-slope section over the garage. They walked it, said it would peel by the second winter on that exposure, and quoted a membrane instead. Two years on and it is dry, which is more than I can say for the last coating I paid for.
Why Bellingham Chooses Bellingham Roof Pros
- ✓We shoot a compass bearing on every plane of your roof and write it on the diagram, because at 48.75 degrees north the bearing answers more questions than the shingle brand does.
- ✓We will not put a skylight on a north-facing plane in this city, and we will show you the winter sun angle rather than argue about it.
- ✓We do not sell coatings for north-facing roofs here. A film that needs warmth to cure and sunlight to stay dry has nothing to work with on that side of a Bellingham building.
- ✓Steel over a shaded plane goes down on furring with a drained airspace beneath it, never flat to the deck, because a cold panel condenses on its underside long before it ever leaks.
- ✓Intake and exhaust get counted eave by eave rather than averaged over the house, since a ridge shared between a sunlit plane and a dark one draws its makeup air down the wrong side.
- ✓Our proposals state the calendar window in which each plane actually receives direct sun, so you can see for yourself why we scheduled your north side for April.
About Bellingham Roof Pros in Bellingham, WA
Bellingham Roof Pros works Bellingham, Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine, Birch Bay and the northern Skagit valley, doing residential reroofing, leak diagnosis, storm repair, ventilation corrections, flashing and commercial low-slope work. Everything we do is organized around one local fact: at this latitude the direction a roof plane faces determines its life more than the shingle on it does.
That belief came out of tear-offs rather than a book. Open up enough Whatcom County roofs and you stop being surprised by soft sheathing on one eave and dry plywood twenty feet away on the other, and you start writing estimates that admit it. Our proposals carry a bearing, a pitch and a separate deck allowance for every plane on the house.
Look elsewhere if what you want is a coating on a north-facing roof, a skylight on a north plane, or a hail claim on a Whatcom County house that has never seen hail. We turn all three down regularly and we will explain why at no charge, but if that is what you came for, another company will happily take the work and you should call them instead.
How It Works
- 1
Bearings Before Prices
We shoot the compass bearing and measure the pitch of every plane on your house first, then work out how many days a year each one actually receives direct sun. It takes ten minutes and it decides most of what follows.
- 2
Probes On The Shaded Side
Pin moisture readings go through the deck from the attic, concentrated on the planes with the smallest sun budget. We would rather find soft sheathing on a meter now than with a foot through it later.
- 3
A Scope Written Plane By Plane
You get an estimate organized by aspect, with separate deck allowances, separate specifications and separate remaining-life estimates. Nothing on it is an average of two sides that are living in different climates.
- 4
Installed To The Sun Calendar
Shaded planes get scheduled into their sun window where possible, and hand-sealed course by course where it is not. We tell you which of those two you are getting before we start.
Commercial Roofing in Bellingham and Across Whatcom County
We survey, repair, recover and replace low-slope roofs on Bellingham offices, warehouses, retail buildings and apartment blocks, and on Burlington and Mount Vernon commercial property. Our surveys start in the shaded strips behind parapets and mechanical curbs, because at a winter sun angle under eighteen degrees that is where the wet insulation, the ponding and the seam failures reliably are.
- ✓Eighty mil TPO, EPDM sheet and two-ply modified bitumen assemblies
- ✓Tapered polyisocyanurate laid out to drain the shaded strips first
- ✓Core cuts taken and handed to you before any recover is quoted
- ✓Crickets framed behind every mechanical curb wide enough to dam water
- ✓Overflow scuppers set where the winter shadow actually falls
- ✓Twice-yearly surveys with photographs keyed to a roof plan
- ✓Line-item budgets separating this year's work from next year's
- ✓Night and weekend work on occupied retail and apartment buildings
Service Areas
Bellingham Roof Pros serves Bellingham, WA and surrounding communities including:
Recent Projects Across the Nooksack lowland and north Skagit County
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is one side of my roof so much worse than the other?
Because at 48.75 degrees north the two sides are not getting the same year. On the winter solstice the sun in Bellingham peaks near 17.8 degrees, so a north plane at a typical 6 in 12 pitch takes no direct sunlight from about the first of November to the second week of February.
That side stays wet for roughly a hundred days while the south plane dries after every break in the rain, and five or six years of life difference is the normal result.
Can you install an asphalt roof in Bellingham in December?
We can, and on a sunlit plane it is fine. On a shaded plane it needs hand-sealing, because the factory adhesive strip bonds by absorbing heat and that side has none to give it until February. If the roof is not actively leaking we would rather book you into March. If it is, we will install it properly in December and seal every tab by hand rather than tell you to wait.
Is moss the reason my north slope is failing?
Moss is a symptom of the same thing that is actually causing the failure. It grows where a surface stays damp, and that plane stays damp because it has no direct sun for months. Killing the moss does not give the plane a sun budget, so if that is the only work being proposed you are treating the evidence. Look at ventilation, drainage and the drying capacity of the assembly instead.
Is a skylight a bad idea in Bellingham?
On a south or west plane, no, and a low winter sun actually throws light deep into the room. On a north plane, yes. It gets no direct sun during exactly the months you wanted more light, and it runs cold enough to collect condensation that homeowners then report as a leak.
If you want light on the north side, a tubular daylight device collects from the whole sky dome and does not depend on a beam that is not arriving.
How long does a roof actually last in Whatcom County?
It depends which half of it you mean. On a well-ventilated Bellingham house, decent architectural asphalt usually manages twenty to twenty-five years on the sunlit planes and noticeably less on the shaded ones. Anyone quoting you a single number for the whole roof has not looked at it carefully. We give a remaining-life estimate per plane instead.
Do you work in Skagit County?
Yes, across the northern half of it. Mount Vernon, Anacortes, Sedro-Woolley, Burlington, La Conner, Big Lake, Clear Lake, Alger, Bay View and Concrete are all regular territory for us, along with everywhere in Whatcom County from Point Roberts to Maple Falls. Inspections are free anywhere in that ring.