We are a Fitchburg roofing company seven miles from our shop — the closest market we serve. The recurring problem here is not the main roof. It is the porch, the addition or the dormer that was built later at a shallower pitch, and the line where that meets the original roof.
A lot of Fitchburg housing has been added onto, and additions are almost never built at the same pitch as the original. That creates roofs that need two systems and one very careful transition.
The rule most people do not know
Asphalt shingles are not rated for slopes below roughly 3:12, and below 2:12 they should not be used at all. A shingled porch roof at 2:12 will leak no matter how well it is installed, because water moves too slowly and wind drives it back under the courses. If a contractor quotes shingles for your porch, that is the whole answer you need about them.
Where two systems meet
A membrane roof on a low-slope addition has to be flashed and terminated into the steep asphalt above it. That transition is the single most common leak point on a Fitchburg house, and it is the part that gets rushed because it is the fiddliest hour of the job.
Shallow throughout
A lot of Fitchburg’s 1970s stock sits at a shallower pitch than newer construction. Shallow roofs shed slower, hold snow longer and are less forgiving of a mediocre install than a steep roof that dumps water off before it can find a gap.
Standard steep field
The newer parts of Fitchburg build to typical suburban pitches with conventional asphalt. Straightforward roofs — until someone adds a sunroom or a covered patio, at which point you are back to two systems on one house.
Residential and commercial, across Madison, Dane County, & Southern Wisconsin.
Full tear-off to the deck. On a mixed-system house we price the low-slope sections properly rather than shingling them and hoping.
EPDM, TPO and modified bitumen for porches, additions, sunrooms and dormers. The right material for the pitch.
Where a low-slope roof terminates into the steep field. The most common Fitchburg leak and often a repair rather than a replacement.
Leaks, failed pipe boots, missing shingles and flashing at the chimney.
Documented free inspection for your insurer, including the low-slope sections adjusters routinely skip.
Seven miles. We are closer to Fitchburg than to most of Madison.
Low-slope sections price by area rather than as part of the shingle square count, which is why a house with a large sunroom costs more than its total square footage suggests. Any quote that prices the whole roof as shingles has not accounted for the low-slope areas.
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Almost certainly because it should never have been shingled. Asphalt is not rated below roughly 3:12, and on a low-slope porch water moves slowly enough that wind drives it back under the courses. No quality of installation fixes a material that is wrong for the pitch. It needs a membrane system — EPDM, TPO or modified bitumen.
It is the line where a low-slope roof terminates into the steep roof above it, and on a Fitchburg house it is where leaks originate more often than anywhere else. The membrane has to run up under the shingles and be flashed properly. It is the fiddliest hour of the whole job, which is exactly why it gets rushed.
Fitchburg, even if your mailing address says Madison. Fitchburg shares the 53711, 53713 and 53575 ZIP codes, so plenty of residents get Madison mail. The permit follows the municipal boundary, not the postal one. We pull it either way as part of the job, but it is worth knowing whose rules apply to your property.
Not if the pitch is below about 3:12, and most sunroom roofs are. Matching appearance is not worth a roof that will leak. There are membrane options in darker colours that read reasonably from the ground, and on a low-slope roof you rarely see it from the yard anyway.
Faster than anywhere else we work. Fitchburg is seven miles from our shop on S. Stoughton Road — closer than much of Madison. Emergency tarping is same-day and usually within a couple of hours.
Wisconsin allows two layers and we generally will not do it. You cannot inspect the decking through a layover, the second layer runs hotter and fails early, and on a shallow-pitch roof the added thickness makes flashing and tie-in detail harder to execute properly.
Get your free, no-obligation inspection today.
