Cluster townhouse and cedar shake roofing in Reston (20190)

Almost every Reston address answers to the community association, and many also belong to a cluster association that sets its own color and material list. Before we order anything, you'll need written approval for the shingle or shake, its color and sometimes the ridge and vent products. Swapping cedar for asphalt, or changing color, is the type of change design review boards look at closely.

We prepare the package with you: product data sheets, a sample board, photos of the current roof and a short scope. Some clusters pre-approve one or two products, which can shorten the wait considerably. Once approval comes back, we pull the permit from the county permit office and schedule the work.

If your cluster is planning to reroof all its units together, we can price the whole row and stage the work building by building, which cuts mobilization costs for every owner.

Reston townhouse clusters often share a continuous roof, and each owner is responsible for their own section. When one owner replaces and the neighbor doesn't, the joint between the two roofs becomes the weak point. We tie the new roof into the old one with a full-width ice barrier strip across the line and step the shingles so water can't track back under them.

Firewall parapets between some units add another detail. Where a brick or block wall rises through the roof, the flashing along it wears out and leaks into both homes. The condo and multifamily roofing page covers how we coordinate when more than one owner is involved.

Cedar shake went on many early Reston houses and townhouses, especially around Lake Anne and the clusters tucked among the trees near Hunters Woods and Lake Thoreau. Under a heavy canopy, shakes stay wet, grow moss and split along the grain. Once enough of them crack, water reaches the felt interlay and then the deck.

We replace split and cupped shakes one by one, matching thickness and exposure, and clean moss without pressure washing, which strips the wood. When a shake roof is worn across every slope, we price new cedar shake or an association-approved alternative so you can compare before going to the board.

Many Reston contemporaries have shed roofs at low pitches, clerestory windows set into a roof wall and flat sections over garages or entries. Those details collect water in ways a standard gable never does. Shingles on slopes below 4/12 need an extra underlayment layer, and the sill below a clerestory needs careful flashing and a cricket to divert water.

On the flat sections, we install a membrane rather than shingles. A flat roof repair on a garage or entry roof is often the fix for a leak that keeps returning despite new shingles on the rest of the house.

Skylights set into low-slope contemporary roofs are another frequent source of drips in Reston. Older domed acrylic units crack and yellow, and their curb flashing often relies on mastic that dried out long ago. We replace the curb flashing with a proper kit, or swap the unit for a new one when the dome or frame has failed.