Roof Rejuvenation in Middletown, VA

Open ground, hard sun and roofs that dry out early.

Middletown is small, old and surrounded by farm ground and protected battlefield land along Cedar Creek. There is very little between a roof here and the sky. No street tree canopy to speak of on the edges of town, no ridge throwing afternoon shade, just open valley and a south facing plane taking everything the summer has from morning through to evening.

That exposure is the whole story. Ultraviolet load and surface heat are what drive the maltene oils out of an asphalt shingle, and an unsheltered Middletown roof takes more of both than a roof three miles up the valley under trees. The result is early stiffening, curling at the edges and granule loss on the sun facing planes years before an owner expects it.

What we run into on Middletown roofs

Housing here skews older than the subdivisions to the north, which changes the assessment rather than the answer. Most of these homes have been reroofed at some point, so what we judge is the age of the asphalt currently up there. Down in the Cedar Creek bottom the shaded north runs hold damp instead and age through freeze and thaw, so one house can lose oil two ways at once.

• Open farm exposure with almost no shelter from summer sun
• Older housing where the age of the current shingle is what we assess
• Cedar Creek bottom damp working on the shaded north runs