23465 Republic Avenue

Atlas Pinnacle Pristine Black Shadow — 23465 Republic Avenue, Oak Park

Republic Avenue sits just off Greenfield Road in Oak Park, a few blocks south of 9 Mile. This is a classic postwar neighborhood with a lot of homes that were roofed once, maybe twice, and are now well past due. That was exactly the situation here. The roof on this house was somewhere between 20 and 25 years old, and it showed. Algae and moss had taken hold across the shingles, there was visible shingle loss in spots, blistering throughout, and nail pops scattered across the surface. When you see that combination, the roof isn't just aging, it's failing. A repair isn't the right call at that point. Full replacement is.

Roofing Army handled this as a complete tear-off and replacement on a 1,252 square foot roof. The pitch varied across the structure, with sections running from a low 3/12 up to a steep 10/12 and beyond, which adds complexity to the job. Steeper pitches require hand-nailing and slower, more deliberate work. Everything came off down to the decking, and the surface was inspected before anything new went on. The decking was in acceptable condition, so no OSB replacement was needed. From there, the rebuild started from scratch.

At the eaves, we laid two courses of WeatherMaster ice and water shield before anything else went down. That membrane runs tight to the edge and gives you a fully adhered barrier in the zone most vulnerable to ice damming, which is a real concern in Southeast Michigan winters. Ice and water also went around penetrations and any wall intersections. Above that, Summit 60 synthetic underlayment runs up the rest of the roof to the ridge. It's a heavier, more durable product than felt and handles foot traffic and weather exposure during the install without tearing up. New premium drip edge went on all the way around, 20 pieces total, giving the edges a clean termination and keeping water directed off the fascia.

One of the bigger issues on this house was ventilation, or the lack of it. There were no soffit vents, which means the attic had no real intake path for fresh air. That kind of imbalance accelerates shingle deterioration from the underside and causes heat and moisture to build up in the attic. To fix it, we installed 14 pieces of SmartVent intake vent along the eaves. SmartVent gets installed at the roof's edge under the first course of shingles, so it functions as an intake without requiring soffit penetrations. Paired with that, we installed ridge vent at the peak, using both OmniRidge Pro and TruRidge All-Weather ridge vent, with 27 linear feet hand-nailed across the ridge. That combination creates a proper intake-to-exhaust airflow path through the attic.

The chimney also got attention. We replaced the chimney flashing entirely and built a new chimney saddle behind it. A saddle is a small peaked structure that diverts water around the back of the chimney instead of letting it pool there. On older homes, the saddle is often missing or rotted out, and that's a common source of leaks that gets overlooked. New step flashing and wall flashing were installed wherever the roof meets vertical surfaces. Aluminum trim coil was used to finish the exposed metal work cleanly.

For shingles, this Oak Park roof replacement was done with Atlas Pinnacle Pristine in Black Shadow. The Pinnacle Pristine is a solid architectural shingle with a built-in algae resistance, which matters on a house that already had algae problems. Black Shadow is a deep, neutral tone that reads well on the brick and siding common in this part of Michigan. Pro-Cut starter shingles went in at the eaves and rakes, and Pro-Cut hip and ridge shingles finished the hips and any exposed angles. The total project came out to a well-executed, complete replacement with the ventilation situation corrected properly so the new roof has a real shot at lasting.