Service areas
Roof help across Madison and Dane County
This site covers Madison, WI and the suburbs around it in Dane County. Below is a guide to each area this site covers, with what tends to go wrong on the houses there and what it usually costs to fix. Area codes 608.
Madison area guides
Middleton
Middleton has some of the best-kept houses in Dane County and some of the roofs most likely to ice-dam. From 1960s ranches off Parmenter Street to the steep, cut-up roofs of Middleton Hills, here's what goes wrong on each and what fixing it costs.
Middleton roof guide →Sun Prairie
Sun Prairie has a lot of roofs installed between 2000 and 2015, and most of them are the same builder-grade shingle. When hail crosses Highway 151, whole streets get hit together. Here's what goes wrong on them and what fixing it costs.
Sun Prairie roof guide →How the houses change across the Madison area
Roof trouble around Madison follows the age of the house more closely than the ZIP code. The oldest stock is on and near the isthmus: Tenney-Lapham, Marquette, Vilas and University Heights are full of early-1900s houses with steep pitches, knee walls and attics that were never insulated well. A few miles out, in Westmorland, Nakoma and Eastmorland, the streets turn into postwar ranches with low-pitched roofs and thin, aging insulation. Past those come the 1990s and 2000s subdivisions, Blackhawk and Hawks Landing to the west and Grandview Commons and Reston Heights to the east, where entire streets of architectural shingles went on within a few years of each other and are now wearing out together.
Weather, wind and trees by area
Ice dams turn up all over the county, but the worst of them cluster on the steep isthmus houses, the downtown Middleton ranches and the valley-heavy roofs of Middleton Hills. Spring hail usually arrives from the southwest, and Sun Prairie, Verona and the far east side are the places where it is a reasonable worry on every roof. Wind does the most harm where nothing slows it down: the open ground around Bishops Bay near Lake Mendota and the thinly treed subdivisions east of the city. On the older streets the risk shifts to trees. Silver maples and dead ash drop limbs in summer storms, shaded north slopes grow moss, and seeds and leaves clog gutters until they spill over the fascia.
Which guide to read for your situation
- A stain high on an outside wall in winter: begin with the ice dam removal and prevention guide, then look at the attic above it.
- Dented gutters or AC fins after a spring storm: the hail and wind damage guide covers what to photograph before you call your insurer.
- A builder-grade roof from the 2000s boom nearing twenty years: read the roof replacement guide and get a price before the first leak.
- Buying or selling a house: a roof inspection with a written report puts the same facts in front of buyer and seller.
The two suburbs with their own guides
The Middleton roof repair guide walks through the downtown ranches that are on a second or third roof, the steep gables and low porch roofs of Middleton Hills, the lake wind across Bishops Bay, and why downspouts matter so much near Pheasant Branch. The Sun Prairie roof repair guide covers Smith's Crossing, Providence and Carriage Hills, where light shingles held by four nails are coming due at the same time, and what to do the morning after a storm crosses Highway 151. Fitchburg and Verona have newer houses with fewer roofs due so far. For those towns, and for Waunakee, DeForest, Cottage Grove, Stoughton and the rest of the list above, the general guides apply.
What changes from one city to the next
A roof doesn't notice municipal lines, but the paperwork does. Madison, Middleton, Sun Prairie, Fitchburg, Verona and the villages set their own permit and inspection rules, so whether a re-roof needs a permit, who pulls it and when an inspector visits can differ from one town to the next. Check with the city or village before work begins, and ask the roofer whether the permit is part of the price. Many subdivisions built after 2000 have covenants on shingle color, and Middleton Hills has its own design guidelines, so ask about approval before anything is ordered. Credentials are a state matter: any company can be looked up through the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services.
Other towns and neighborhoods covered
- Fitchburg
- Verona
- Waunakee
- Monona
- McFarland
- Oregon WI
- DeForest
- Stoughton
- …and the neighborhoods in between.
What's the same everywhere in Dane County
The guides on this site — roof repair, roof replacement, ice dam repair & prevention, hail & wind damage repair, roof inspection, commercial roof repair — apply across Madison and every town listed above. Building permits, inspection rules and fees are set by each city, so a job in a suburb can follow slightly different paperwork than one inside Madison limits; the area guides note the known differences.
How estimate requests work
Calls and estimate requests from this site go to an independent local contractor partner who quotes and performs the work. You get a written quote before anything starts, and you are never obligated to hire. If you are outside the areas listed, call anyway and ask — the answer is quick.
Need roof work in Madison?
Call for a free estimate. Mon–Sat 7am–7pm.