FAQS

Nope, we are more than happy to come by while you are away from your home.

Yup, but for some roof shapes (such as hip shaped roofs) ridge vents are not the best choice for proper ventilation.  We also use hip vents, wind turbines, power fans, and gravity vents depending on the shape of your roof and attic space. 

We use different forms of roof ventilation including Ridge Vent, Hip Vents, Wind Turbines and Gravity Vents, and Power Fans depending on the shape of your roof and attic space. Your estimate will include proper ventillation to ensure your roof system is in optimal working condition.

Flashing is installed overs joints, edges, and any other gaps or potential leak points in a roof. Typical flashing in the 757 is made of aluminum, someties copper if you are feeling really fancy. We use flashing around chimneys or any roof to wall intersection and around roof penetrations. 

Occasionally, you will find flashing in valleys, but it's not always necessary.

Drip edge is the metal flashing that protects the edges of your roof, both the eaves and the gable ends. It helps control the flow of water away from the fascia and protects the underlying roofing components. 

Drip edge overhangs the sides of the roof and has a small metal flange that is bent away from the fascia.

Think of this as the "middle man" between your shingles and your gutter.

Of course! Stublen Roofing provides a 10 year workmanship warranty on all total roof replacements. This is on top of the manufacturers own amazing warrantys, including Certainteed's SureStart™ PLUS Extended Warranty, which is only available to roof systems sold by 5-Star Select Shinglemasters.

If you roof has been leaking for a while, you may have some rotted wood. It's very common, however, we often don't know until the old shingles are removed. We always make necessary repairs to the roof sheathing and/or structural components before instaling the new roof system. Please read this part of your contract carefully! 

We are usually around 2-4  weeks out, however, this fluctuates depending on the season, weather, and current work load.

Don't worry, it will be worth the wait!

We aren't high-pressure sales people. We want you to feel comfortable with us because you understand the products, the process, and all items in your estimate. We realize a full roof replacement is a significant expense, and we think you should always go with your gut. 

Our family's name is on this business and our reputation in our hometown community depends on every single one of our customer's satisfaction.  We spend minimal capital on advertising to keep our prices for our customers low and pay our dedicated and trusted employees as much as we can. As a result, we depend mostly on word of mouth from happy customers. We wouldn't be serving the Greater Hampton Roads area for as long as we have if the community couldn't vouch for our family and we hope that is enough to tip the scale in our direction.

In order to move forward and get you the schedule we will need formal approval from you in the form of a signed contract.  We offer our customers the option to digitally sign using Docusign. This allows us to ensure that the final signed contract is directly in our database.

After this, we will help you to select a shingle color that fits your home and your aesthetic. We will also require a partial deposit to get you on our schedule. 

When it's time, our office staff will coordinate with you the day before we start to make sure you and your property are ready for your project.

If you are you are unable to docusign:

• sign digitally and email to home@stublenroofing.com,
• scan and email the proposal to home@stublenroofing.com,
• fax it to 757-966-9501,
• mail or bring it to our office,
• send a raven,
• or, we can come pick it up!

Nope!

Our contract states -

The Buyer is hereby advised to properly prepare for the project by:

a. removing breakable items from walls & shelves;

b. moving or covering furniture under skylights;

c. covering clothing, automobiles, & other valuables in the attic & garage as dust could make its way into those areas;

d. cutting off power to all attic fans;

e. removing all breakable items from around the outside of the structure;

f. parking all vehicles away from the structure, garage & driveway;

g. keeping children & pets safely away from the work area; &

h. preparing for job-related noise.

Most residential roof replacements will take 1-3 days depending on the size and complexity of the roof. 

We work from sun up to sun down, so jobs sometimes take a little bit longer in the colder months.

We use a combination of tarps, plywood and disposal equippment to protect your property (such as our Equipter, check it out here). 

The answer is yes, you can lay new shingles over old ones. But we never will.

Contrary to what might seem like an obvious benefit, having multiple layers of shingles does not necessarily make a roof more waterproof, and it often creates its own problems. 

While it's clearly easier and cheaper to leave the old shingles in place, but there's some special prep work involved with a re-roof (removing vents, ridge caps and misshapen shingles, among other things) and you still have to replace or add new flashing, which sometimes can be tricky over old roofing. In the end, you're really just delaying an inevitable cost: when it's time to replace the roof again and you have no choice but to start anew (two layers is the maximum allowed in most areas), AND you'll have to pay extra for the two-layer tearoff and disposal.

Here are some additional reasons:

1. Shingles are designed for flat surfaces. They don't do a good job of bridging over gaps, dips or humps, including the stepped texture created by overlapping shingles. Re-roofers have tricks to lay new roof shingles over old so that the same step-ups between courses are maintained, but if any old shingles are cupped, curled, or otherwise misshapen, those defects will "telegraph" through to the new layer. Many roofers recommend using laminated, or dimensional, shingles for re-roofs because they're thicker than standard shingles and often have a staggered edge profile (for looks) that helps hide any dips or high spots in the old roofing.

2. Shingles add weight. Chances are, your roof structure was designed for a dead load of one layer of shingles, plus extra for snow and a safety margin. Installing new roof shingles over old effectively doubles the weight of the roofing, so you have to make sure your roof structure can handle the extra load. That's also why building codes commonly limit re-roofing to no more than two layers. On some houses, the extra weight of multiple layer causes the roof sheathing (decking) to sag between the rafters or trusses.

3. Can't replace underlayment or roof sheathing. Underlayment that's laid between the roof sheathing and the shingles is there for a very good reason - because water has a way of getting under shingles, no matter how many layers of roofing you have. If the underlayment is old and deteriorated, it won't protect your roof deck from water that gets past the shingles. In snowy climates, most new roofs these days get an ice-and-water shield applied to the sheathing along the eave to protect against ice dams. Adding this membrane isn't an option with a re-roof, and the extra layer of shingles offers little protection against ice dams.

5. Nail overs will void your new shingle's warranty.

6. Some Hampton Roads city codes state you can only have one layer of shingles on your roof.

We will ensure your roof is water tight and will complete the job as soon as the weather clears up. There will be no damage to the underlayment already laid down if it gets wet.

Yes, there will be a Project Manager on site during jobsite during construction and to do a final inspectoin when it is complete.

Should be! But keep us in the know if you have any upcoming events or guests coming to your home, just to be safe!

Don't panic! Sometimes new roofs will leak with wind driven rain before the shingles have time to seal. More often, the "new" leak is actually an old chimney masonry leak that went undetected prior to the new roof installation, and now the water has nowhere else to go!

Let us know if this happens though; we will want to come out and do a water test to make 100% certain there are not any issues.

Our office is open from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm Monday through Friday. 

Our office is located in the __ office park at 

4011 Seaboard Court

Portsmouth, VA 23701

Bill and Matt have worked in the roofing industry for 28 years combined and founded Stublen Roofing in 2011. Paula and Crissy have been there from the jump!

Considering everyone in Hampton Roads is either current or retired military, we pledge to keep our pricing fair and affordable for our entire community.

We do!  We are proud to offer financing through Hearth. With Hearth, our customers can find personal, convenient, and flexible monthly payment options and recieve funding within 1-3 days!  Learn more here.

We sure are! And we have an A+ rating! See our BBB profile here.

Beyond being Certified Class A  Commercial Building Contractors  (CIC) and Home Improvement Contractors (HIC) we are 

• Preferred Contractors with Owens Corning, 
• 5-Star Select Shinglemasters with Certainteed
• A+ Better Business Bureau
• and more

We have tons of reviews on Facebook and Google. 

If you would like additional references, please find them here. 

Our community is everything to us and we love giving back. Stublen Roofing is an annual supporter of the Portsmouth Service League's First Citizen event, Tidewater  Youth Services' Santa Clause Shuffle, CHKD's Touch a Truck (where we sponsor the fire truck!)  Edmarc Hospice for Children, and more.  Although we support our employees childrens sports teams, we typically do not give to organizations without a 501(c)(3). 

If you have sponsorship inquiry's, please email our Marketing Coordinator, Crissy Stublen, at crissy@stublenroofing.com. 

The black streaks running down roofs across Hampton Roads are often attributed to dirt or mold, but are actually a hardy algae called Gloeocapsa Magma. As the blue-green algae accumulate, they develop a dark, hardened outer coating to protect itself from the sun's rays which results in the black stains you see. 

This algae requires a moisture-rich environment, (which is basically all of South East Virginia). The first stains usually appear on the north-facing sides of a roof, which receives less light, and in areas with heavy tree coverage. 

While studies show that algae growth is not harmful to the building exterior, trying to remove it yourself can be! You will inevitably remove surface granules from your shingles, affecting the integrity of the shingle and voiding any manufacturer's warranty. 

If you are getting dark stains on your roof, it's probably old enough to be replaced.

Now, new shingles from CertainTeed and Owens Corning are treated with copper or zinc to inhibit algae growth.

We believe CertainTeed and Owens Corning make the best shingles in the business. 

If you are looking for something EXTRA special, we love the DaVinci composite slate and cedar shake!

Older roofing shingles and wood shakes typically have a 15- to 30-year lifespan depending on the shingles’ quality, the location and tree cover of your home and how well the roof was installed originally. 

Though the CertainTeed and Owens Corning shingles we use today have lifetime warranties, they didn’t a decade ago. We tell our customers that 12 years is a good rule of thumb to go by. At that point, check for these warning signs:

• Curling shingles
• Loss of the asphalt granulation (looks like bald spots)
• Evidence of leaking on your ceilings
• Cracked or discolored interior drywall (painted or wallpapered)
• Decaying shingles
• Missing shingles
• Visible cracks
• Wind damage
• Broken or damaged shingles
• Rusted or missing flashing

If a residential roof is over 20 years old, we recommend you call us out for a look. Sometimes damage isn’t visible to the untrained eye on the ground, and catching it early can avoid expensive interior repairs in the future.

We know! Don't be overwhelmed, we created this handy glossary for you here. Feel free to call reach out to us at any time with questions.