Serving Cadillac, Lake Cadillac & Lake Mitchell
Cadillac gets around 81 inches of snow in an average year, and its roofs, gutters and siding carry that winter from November into spring. Here's how we look after them.
Cherrytown is the hardest working company i have ever seen. We had problem figuring out where the leak was and they onpersevered until it was repaired correctly. Any roof repairs will be excellently taken care of by this company. Very Highly Recommended!
Our office is at 104 S Union Street Suite 208 in downtown Traverse City. From there, Cadillac is about 47 miles south, usually an hour's drive down US-131.
We'd rather be straight with you about that distance than pretend it isn't there. We plan Cadillac jobs as full days, load the truck for the whole job and schedule around the forecast, so the work gets done in as few trips as possible and your roof isn't left open overnight.
Cadillac began in 1871 as Clam Lake, a sawmill village on the smaller of two lakes. In 1873 George A. Mitchell had a canal dug, about a third of a mile long, so logs cut around the big lake could be floated through to the mills on the small one. The Clam Lake Canal is still there. The village became a city in 1877 and took the name of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701.
In 1903 the lakes were renamed too: Little Clam Lake became Lake Cadillac, 1,150 acres entirely inside the city, and Big Clam Lake became Lake Mitchell, 2,580 acres on its west side. Mitchell State Park, 660 acres between them, has been a state park since 1920.
The lumber money built the Victorian houses on Courthouse Hill. Today Cadillac is the seat of Wexford County and, with 10,371 people in the 2020 census, the second-largest city in Northern Michigan after Traverse City. That leaves a wide range of houses in one town: older homes near downtown, cottages and year-round houses on both lakeshores, and newer homes on the edges of town.
Snow is the big one. With around 81 inches in an average year and January nights that average 12°F, snow sits on Cadillac roofs for months. Every sunny afternoon melts some of it, every night refreezes it, and that cycle works water into any gap it can find.
Ice dams follow. When heat leaks from the house into the attic, it melts snow from underneath. The water runs down to the cold eaves, freezes into a ridge of ice and backs up under the shingles. The fix isn't on the roof alone: it's ice and water shield at the eaves and valleys, plus attic ventilation that keeps the deck cold.
Older homes add their own problems. A steep roof with several valleys and chimneys has more flashing to fail, and many have had a second layer of shingles laid over the first, hiding soft decking underneath. On the lakes, wind across open water lifts shingle edges and drives rain under flashing and into siding seams.
So we treat the outside of the house as one system: deck, underlayment, flashing, ventilation and shingles together, with gutters sized and hung so a winter of snow and ice does not pull them down.
Replacement and repair built for a long winter: stripped to the deck, soft decking replaced, ice and water shield at the eaves and valleys, and attic ventilation that keeps ice dams from forming.
More about roofing →A low-upkeep choice for lake homes and newer houses alike. What decides how it holds up is behind the panels: house wrap, window flashing and trim that sheds water.
More about vinyl siding →Thicker and more rigid than vinyl, with more of a wood look, which suits the older homes near downtown and on Courthouse Hill.
More about composite siding →Sized for the roof they drain and fastened securely enough to carry snow and ice, on fascia that is solid enough to hold them.
More about seamless gutters →Everything we do on the outside of a house:
We come out to Cadillac, walk the outside of the house and get into the attic where we can, because that is where ice dams and soft decking start.
You get the scope, the materials and the price in writing before anything starts. If a repair will do, we tell you.
Our own crew, working to the manufacturer spec, scheduled around the weather rather than ahead of a storm.
We magnet-sweep for nails, haul the debris away and go over the finished job with you before we leave.
We're a Traverse City company, and we know Cadillac has contractors of its own. What we offer is a crew trained and certified on the shingles it installs, a written plan before any work starts, and a straight answer about whether something needs replacing or just repairing. If a repair will do, we'll tell you, even when that means a smaller job for us.
Tell us what your roof, siding or gutters are doing and we'll come out and take a look.
Get A Free Estimateor call (231) 377-3620