A New Roof for Your Fairfax Home

Almost certainly not. The City of Fairfax publishes 117 permit types and roofing is not among them, and its permit FAQ points to Building Code Section 108, which is the state exemption for like-for-like roof covering. The real question in Fairfax is the Historic Overlay District, not the permit. If your roof is visible from the street inside that district, you need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Board of Architectural Review, and that’s separate from and additional to any building permit.

Not one we can find, and we looked hard. A $90 roof replacement fee for the City of Fairfax circulates on third-party permit-aggregator sites. It doesn’t appear anywhere on the city’s own website or in its fee schedule, and there’s no roofing permit type to attach it to. If a contractor is line-iteming a Fairfax City roof permit fee on your estimate, ask them which permit type it is for. We’d want the answer too.

Because they were built at the same time. The city’s median build year is 1967 and 54% of its housing went up in the 1950s and 1960s. Mosby Woods alone is 537 homes built in one phase between 1960 and 1966. When a subdivision goes up in a single window, the roofs age as a cohort and they reach the end together, which is why a street can go from fine to five for-sale-sign-sized tarps in a couple of seasons. It also means your neighbor’s roof is genuinely useful information about yours.

The price comes down to five things: the number of squares of roof area, the pitch, how many stories the house is, the condition of the decking underneath, and how many layers of old shingle have to come off. Two houses on the same street can differ by thousands on decking and tear-off alone, which is why we won't quote a roof over the phone. Every estimate is free and on-site, and it comes back the same day with both packages priced so you can see exactly what you're choosing between.

Most roof replacements run 3 to 5 days from tear-off to final walkthrough, and one-day installs are available on qualifying homes. The install itself is often a single day on an average home; the rest of the window is material delivery, weather, and any approval your HOA or historic district needs first. You get the schedule before the crew arrives, not after.

If the damage is localized and the roof still has service life left, repair is the right call and we'll tell you so. Replacement makes sense when the shingles are at the end of their life, when there's damage across multiple slopes, or when you've already patched the same roof more than once. We inspect the attic and the decking before making that call, because what a roof looks like from the driveway isn't the whole story.

It depends on why the roof failed. Insurance covers sudden damage from wind, hail, or a storm. It doesn't cover a roof that simply wore out. We document the damage for your carrier, handle partial approvals, and regularly overturn denied claims. If a claim isn't the right path, we'll say so, because a denied claim on your record doesn't help you.

We show you before we replace it. Decking condition is invisible until the old roof is off, which makes it the most common reason a final number moves off the estimate. We agree the per-sheet price for decking replacement up front, and you get photographs of anything we pull.

Because a roof with bad ventilation dies early. Trapped heat and moisture cook shingles from underneath, shorten the life of the roof, and can void the material warranty. Ventilation is part of the roof system, not an upsell. We inspect the attic and assess ventilation on every job, and we'll tell you if what's up there is undersized for the roof going on top of it.

We don't do it as a default and we generally advise against it. A layover hides the decking, adds weight, traps heat, and shortens the life of the new shingles, and most manufacturers won't warranty the result. Tearing off costs more up front, and it's the only way to see and fix what's underneath.

Felt is tar paper. It tears when a crew walks on it and it holds water once it gets wet, which is a problem on the one layer that is supposed to shed water if a shingle ever lifts. Synthetic underlayment is a woven sheet that does not tear underfoot and does not absorb. Both packages we install use synthetic across the entire deck.

Starter is a sealed strip along every eave and rake, which is exactly where wind gets its grip on a roof. It also does something most homeowners never hear about: on the Platinum package the starter is made by TAMKO to bond to the Titan XT shingle, and that single component is what takes the wind warranty from 130 mph to 160. A competitor quoting the same shingle with generic starter isn't selling the same roof and can't register the same warranty.

Nobody knows for certain until the old roof comes off, and any contractor who tells you otherwise on the driveway is guessing. What we usually find is one of four things. Half-inch to five-eighths CDX plywood is what we want, and it's ready for a new system as-is. OSB is acceptable while it's dry. Three-eighths plywood and older plank decking typically need to be addressed before shingles go on, because nails don't hold reliably in either one.

It's a limited warranty with conditions, not a performance guarantee. TAMKO's WindGuard 160 mph coverage applies to the Titan XT shingle installed with TAMKO starter and TAMKO hip and ridge. The shingle on its own does not qualify. TAMKO also states plainly that its limited warranty does not cover hurricanes, whatever the product does in a storm, so nobody should be selling you one on that basis.

It doesn't have to be, but the highest warranty tier requires it. TAMKO's DiamondShield program requires four TAMKO accessories: starter, underlayment, ice and water shield, and hip and ridge. Install a TAMKO shingle with generic components and the roof is not eligible for that coverage at any price. That is an eligibility rule TAMKO wrote, not an upsell we invented.

Class 3 is an impact rating from UL 2218 laboratory testing, and the Titan XT shingle on our Platinum package carries it. Whether it lowers your premium is a question for your agent. Some carriers discount impact-rated roofing and many do not, and it varies by state and by policy, so it is worth asking rather than assuming either way.