Roof Replacement in Durham, CA

Farmhouses, ranch homes and everything beside them

Durham's housing runs from century-old farmhouses on the original orchard parcels to 1970s ranch homes on the acre lots off Durham-Dayton Highway and Lott Road, to newer custom homes built on subdivided orchard ground in the last twenty years.

The old farmhouses have steep pitches, skip-sheathed decks, multiple layers of past roofing and often an addition or two with a roof that never quite matched — those get full tear-off, new plywood and a careful look at the framing. The ranch homes are mostly composition shingle at the end of a second life, often with low-slope sections over a garage or patio where ponding has been a problem.

And nearly every Durham property has outbuildings: a shop, a barn, an equipment shed, a well house. We roof those with metal or composition on the same visit and cover them under the same warranty.

Orchard dust, heat and the valley wind

Durham's roofs live in the same heat as Chico's — long stretches over 100 degrees that age asphalt fast and make a cool-rated shingle both a code requirement and a comfort issue — with two things the city does not have.

The first is dust: almond harvest fills the air every August and September, and it settles on roofs, in gutters and in attic vents, where it holds moisture when the rain comes. The second is wind: with nothing but orchard rows between a Durham home and the north wind, exposed roofs take gusts that lift tabs and ridge caps.

We install shingles to the high-wind spec as standard in Durham, seal starter courses and eaves, and set up gutters and valleys so a season's worth of dust and hulls clears easily. Attic ventilation gets extra attention because a well-vented attic runs cooler and dries out faster after harvest.

Permits and the county process

Durham is unincorporated, so re-roof permits come from Butte County rather than a city hall. The county reviews the underlayment, flashing and, in our climate zone, the cool-roof rating of the product on most steep-slope re-roofs. We pull the permit, schedule the inspection and hand you the final paperwork.

Outbuildings on the same parcel can often be covered on the same permit, which is one more reason to do the property together. Properties toward the Butte Creek side of Durham can be in a mapped fire hazard area; we check the parcel during the estimate and build a Class A assembly if it applies.

How a Durham re-roof runs

We start with a free walk of the roof and attic and a written scope for each building. Most houses take three to four days; a house plus a shop or barn is usually a week. Because Durham lots are big, staging is easy, but we still plan the dumpster and material drop so trucks stay off the orchard ground and the septic field.

Our crews are Butte Roofing employees, one foreman runs the job start to finish, and we sweep the yard with a magnet every evening — important on a property where kids and dogs and tractor tires are all in play.

Every roof leaves with the manufacturer warranty registered in your name and our 5-year workmanship warranty, from a company fifteen minutes away that has been at the same Chico address for decades.