Roof Issues

So, I mentioned in passing in the course of a long post that it looked pretty clear that our house never had a metal roof - it looks like asphalt shingle in the 1946 aerial photo in the Hargrett Collection.

That same week, the following appeared in the local free paper the Flagpole's City Dope section:

Tin Tin Tin: The ACC Historic Preservation Commission's denial of a variance request for a metal replacement roof on a home in the Cobbham Historic District (brought by contractor Matt Alston, the husband of Flagpole co-publisher Alicia Nickles) was recently upheld on appeal by the ACC Commission. After the hearing, ACC commissioners were frustrated by the process, which didn't allow them to consider the substance of the request, but only whether preservation guidelines had been properly applied. Commissioner David Lynn spoke up about it at last week's voting session, asking ACC Attorney Bill Berryman to provide clarification on the commission's role in such proceedings. Lynn and other commissioners saw no reason why a home in the historic district shouldn't have a metal roof—many already do—but were "hamstrung by the process itself," Lynn says. "We're not judges; we're commissioners… we're good at solving problems," he says. If, in considering an appeal, commissioners are only being asked to ensure that "the process is upheld," and not to solve the problem, Lynn suggests, "send it to Superior Court." (author: Dave Marr)

Yeah, we also live in the Cobbham Historic District and are also considering asking for a variance to put on a metal roof. Not so encouraging, is it?

We're meeting with the contractor we'd like to work with on our roofing project tonight. He originally gave us an estimate on a Galvalume (metal) roof, but I think we need to explore asphalt shingle. Michael notes that there are Energy Star rated asphalt roofs available, and apparently there are some options for underlayers in a shingle roof that help radiate the heat off the roof. And there's the "white roof" option as well.