Roof inspections are usually fairly uneventful. This one became memorable when the home’s sprinkler system came on while I was examining the roof.
It was a hot, dry summer day without rain anywhere in sight. From the roof, I watched the sprinklers cover just about every practical route back to my truck. I could stay put and wait or climb down and walk through the water. Eventually, I accepted that I was getting wet.
Fortunately, the homeowner remembered Bert Roofing for something more important. We had installed the existing roof approximately 20 years earlier and had returned for a few small repairs and maintenance items during the intervening years. When hail damage led to another roof replacemen, she called us again.
The home is on Echo Bluff Drive in the Prestonwood area of North Dallas, ZIP code 75248. It is just off Hillcrest Road between Arapaho Road and Campbell Road, near the former location of Prestonwood Baptist Church.
The Previous Elk Roof
The existing roof was an Elk laminated shingle system installed by Bert Roofing roughly two decades earlier. At the time, Elk was our shingle of choice, and Bert Roofing was an Elk Preferred Contractor. Elk made a good-quality architectural shingle and was a major name in residential roofing.
GAF acquired Elk in 2007 and eventually absorbed the Elk name into the larger GAF brand. Some of that manufacturing history remains visible today. GAF continues to operate roofing manufacturing facilities in Ennis, Texas, including a plant that produces asphalt shingles.
Our relationship with the manufacturer continued through that transition. Today, Bert Roofing is a GAF Certified Contractor, and we replaced the old Elk roof with a new GAF Timberline HDZ roofing system.
After approximately 20 years of service, the original Elk roof had sustained hail damage. Damage was visible on both the shingles and metal roof accessories, and the roof was replaced as part of an insurance claim.
Installing the New GAF Timberline HDZ Roof
The house has a broad, primarily one-story roof with several different sections and a substantial number of roof penetrations. The completed roof required approximately 45 squares of shingles.
We removed the existing Elk roof and installed GAF Timberline HDZ shingles in Weathered Wood. The new roofing system included:
- GAF FeltBuster synthetic underlayment
- GAF Pro-Start starter shingles
- GAF Z-Ridge hip and ridge shingles
- New lead plumbing jacks
- Four replacement turbine vents
- New chimney flashing
- New almond-colored metal drip edge
The Weathered Wood shingles maintained the traditional appearance of the home while providing a modest update from the previous Driftwood-colored roof. It is a practical color for this part of North Dallas, where established brick homes and mature trees are common.
The chimney flashing was replaced rather than relying on metal from the previous installation. The plumbing penetrations and all four turbine vents were also replaced as part of the new system. These details may not receive as much attention as the field shingles, but they are frequent sources of future leaks when they are reused or handled improperly.
A Customer Relationship That Spanned Two Roofs
There was nothing unusually complicated about this roof replacement, and that is part of what makes it worth documenting. Not every roofing project needs a major structural problem or unusual installation detail to tell a worthwhile story.
In this case, the meaningful part was returning to replace a roof we had installed approximately 20 years earlier. The homeowner remembered who had performed the original work, called us for maintenance when it was needed and came back to Bert Roofing when the house needed another complete roof.
The new GAF Timberline HDZ roof in Weathered Wood should serve the home well for many years. I will also remember this North Dallas project as the inspection where I managed to get soaked without a cloud in the sky.
