Weather a boon to roofers

NORMAL Business is through the roof for local roofing companies.

Roofing companies in Central Illinois have seen an increase in work on roof repairs and replacements due to damage from wind and hail after Nov. 17 storms. Roofs were also worn down by the cold temperatures, ice and snow this winter.

You take all of those extremes and roofs with one foot in the grave are barely hanging on, said Mark Heimann, vice president of Keith R. Miller, a Normal roofing company.

The work has followed the storm damage, he said. Many of the homes in need of repairs are in north Normal and east Bloomington, some of the worst hit areas in November. The day brought storms throughout the Midwest and tornadoes that damaged Washington, Metamora, Morton and other Central Illinois communities.

Last month, Normal issued 180 roofing permits, and a total of 278 residential building permits. In a typical spring month, they issue 75-100 permits.

Heimann said he expects to do about a third more roof repairs this year because of the storm and the harsh winter.

We've picked up quite a bit of work from last winter, added Bob Morrow, owner of Quality Construction & Exteriors in Lincoln. With all the snow we had, it basically pointed out issues people may not of noticed on their roof before.

Morrow expects his business to double this year because of the weather.

Tyler Wolf, owner of Wolf Roofing in Normal, expects to fix about 100 more roofs this year because of the weather. Last year Wolf Roofing repaired and replaced about 350.

A lot of homes in the area that had roof replacements from 1996 to 2003 have organic shingles that were intended to be environmentally friendly and biodegradable, he said. That material, though, has about half the life of other roof materials and seems to easily damage.

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Weather a boon to roofers