Huntersville, NC · since 2011
Tom Kessler walks your roof, photographs twelve things, and writes a line-item proposal from what he finds. Replacement, repair, storm and hail work across north Mecklenburg and the Lake Norman towns.
No. 14 · Birkdale, Huntersville · Replacement · one day · dried in by 4:10 · Sample photo
Drip Edge Roofing Co. is a small residential roofing company in Huntersville. Tom Kessler, the owner, walks each roof before a proposal is written, and the same crew does the tear-off, the flashing and the clean-up.
Most of the work is on subdivision houses built between the 1990s and the 2010s, now reaching the end of their first shingle roof, plus the repairs and storm claims in between.
This is the walk, in order: one photograph per item, a status on every line and a note in plain English. The statuses below are from a sample report on a 2003 house in Cornelius.
Cap is original and seated, no lifted tabs. Ridge vent is continuous but doing nothing without intake below it.
Bare spots on the south slope, granules turning up in the gutter trough, fourteen nail pops, two with the head through the mat.
Both rubber collars split at the pipe. This is the leak over the hall bath. Skylight curb is intact. An abandoned dish mount is lag-bolted through the field, unsealed.
Reused at the dormer sidewall. Sealed, not woven. It will be a leak.
Counter flashing is let into the mortar and still tight. There is no cricket, and debris and water are sitting on the uphill side.
Closed-cut, clean, no exposed nails in the valley center.
Missing on the rear eave, so water runs behind the gutter. Short at the left rake, fascia stained underneath.
Cut three-tab used as starter, common for this build era. Ice and water membrane visible at the eave where a shingle lifted.
Two soft sheets near the rear valley. Flagged for the proposal as a per-sheet line, not a lump sum.
Soffit vents painted shut along the front elevation. No intake at all. Dark staining on the north sheathing, dry to the touch.
Seamless aluminum, sound, pitched away from the left downspout. Right downspout dumps against the foundation with no extension.
Rot in the rear fascia behind the missing drip edge. Soft for about six feet.
Sample report. Good means it has life left, Watch means photograph it again next year, Fix now means water is already getting past it.
The homeowner called about a ceiling stain in an upstairs closet, which turned out to be twelve years of water sitting behind a chimney that was too wide to go without a cricket. We built one, replaced the six sheets that had gone soft under the rear valley, and photographed all of it before the new underlayment went down. Sample project.
The proposal was written for a single layer because that is what the eave edge showed. When the second layer turned up we stopped, photographed it, and wrote the change before touching another square rather than presenting it at the end. The HOA submittal took a week. Sample project.
A 2001 infill house on the original builder roof. Tear-off found reused step flashing at the garage wall and a chimney with no cricket, both photographed before the underlayment went down. One layer, decking sound, one day. Sample project.
Most replacements on houses up here take one or two days. This is the order the crew works in, whatever the roof.
The workmanship warranty is written on your proposal with its term, alongside the manufacturer's warranty on the shingle line you choose.
No figure goes on a website, and we don't run a calculator, because both are a guess until somebody has stood on the deck. After the walk you get a line-item proposal in writing. The lines that move it: squares, pitch, how many layers come off, sheets of decking replaced, flashing and chimney work, the shingle line you choose, the permit, and disposal.
If you'd rather pay it over time, ask Tom on the walk. Where financing is offered the terms are written on the proposal beside the line items, so you compare the same two numbers we do. Nothing about it changes the price of the roof.
“He found the leak in twenty minutes and it was a split pipe boot, not the new roof the last two companies told me I needed. He fixed it that afternoon and told me the roof had six or seven years left. I called him back four years later for the replacement, which I suppose was the point. Sample review.”
Homeowner, Cornelius
“Tom walked the whole roof before he wrote anything down, and the proposal spelled out exactly what the tear-off and decking work would cost.”
Homeowner, Huntersville · roof replacement · Sample“Went through a hail claim with them and Tom met the adjuster on the roof himself. The supplement they filed caught flashing damage the first scope missed.”
Homeowner, Davidson · storm and hail · Sample“Gutters were pulling away from the fascia and they traced it back to missing drip edge from the original build.”
Homeowner, Concord · gutters · SampleReviews on this sample site are placeholders. A live site shows the real Google count here and links straight to the profile. More sample reviews
The shop is on S. Old Statesville Rd in Huntersville, and the crew works Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Mooresville, Concord, Harrisburg. Most jobs are ten to thirty minutes from the shop.
Outside those towns, call anyway and we will tell you honestly whether the drive makes sense. Every town, with what the roofs there tend to need.
We don't publish a figure, because a roof price written before anybody climbs up is either a guess or bait. After the walk you get a line-item proposal: squares, pitch, tear-off layers, decking replacement, flashing and chimney work, the shingle line you picked, permit and disposal. Every line is a real quantity you can check. The how pricing works page goes through each driver.
It depends on whether the field of the roof is finished or one detail failed. Granules filling the gutters, curled tabs across whole slopes and nail pops everywhere mean the shingles are at the end of their life. A stain in one ceiling usually means a pipe boot, a valley or step flashing, and that is a repair. Tom will tell you which, in writing, including when the answer costs us the bigger job.
We document the damage with dated photographs and a measured diagram, help you file, and we can be on the roof when the adjuster walks it, so the scope is written off the same evidence. If the scope misses something we file a supplement with documentation attached. What we will not do is offer to waive, absorb or rebate your deductible, because that is illegal in North Carolina. See storm damage.
Most subdivision roofs up here are one day, sometimes two if the pitch is steep, there are several dormers, or a second layer turns up. Either way the deck is covered with underlayment before the crew leaves each day.
Yes, and most neighborhoods up here have one. We pull the sample boards for the approved colors, photograph the street so you can see what the neighbors actually did, and prepare whatever the architectural committee wants to see. Budget about a week for the submittal. It is easier to do this before the shingles are ordered than after.
Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm. Saturday 8am to 2pm. Active leaks answered after hours.
