Serving Clare & the Gateway to the North
Clare calls itself the Gateway to the North, the place where US-10 and US-127 meet. It's a railroad town with a historic downtown and plenty of older homes. Here's how we look after them.
Awesome company!!! They do great work at fair prices. Very nice and polite workers. They go the extra mile!!
Our office is at 104 S Union Street Suite 208 in downtown Traverse City. From there, Clare is about 93 miles southeast, usually an hour and three quarters down US-131 and across on M-115.
We'll be honest: that's a long way, and it means we're not the crew to call for a same-day emergency tarp. What it does mean is that every Clare job is planned as a full day. We bring everything the job needs on the first trip, schedule around the forecast, and get the work done in as few visits as possible.
Clare was founded in 1870, when the Pere Marquette Railroad came through. It grew up around the line and was incorporated as a city in 1891. Most of the city is in Clare County, with a small piece reaching into Isabella County.
Its nicknames say what it is: the "Gateway to the North" and "The Crossroads of Michigan". US-10 and US-127 meet here, and M-115 runs through town.
The Clare Downtown Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the old Clare City Bakery, which dates to 1896, has been Cops & Doughnuts since 2009. Clare had 3,254 people in the 2020 census, and around its downtown is a mix of older homes, newer houses and farm country.
Age comes first. Older homes near a historic downtown have usually been re-roofed more than once, sometimes with a new layer laid over the old, hiding soft decking underneath. Their trim, soffit and fascia have been painted and patched for decades, and the boards behind the gutters are often the first to go soft.
Weather comes next. Out in open country, wind gets under shingle edges and ridge caps and drives rain sideways into siding seams. Winter adds snow load and a freeze-thaw cycle that works water into small gaps, and where heat leaks into a cold attic, it melts snow from underneath and builds ice dams at the eaves.
Newer homes have a different risk: a roof is only as good as the details it was built with, and those are worth a look before they turn into a leak.
So we treat the outside of the house as one system: strip to the deck on a replacement, ice and water shield at the eaves and valleys, ventilation that keeps the deck cold, and new gutters on solid fascia.
Repair and replacement for older and newer homes alike: stripped to the deck, soft decking replaced, edges fastened for the wind, and ice and water shield where winter needs it.
More about roofing →A low-upkeep choice with proper house wrap, window flashing and trim behind it, so wind-driven rain stays out of the wall.
More about vinyl siding →No joints along the run to leak and sized for the roof they drain, so water ends up away from the foundation.
More about seamless gutters →A gutter is only as solid as the board it hangs on. We replace rotted fascia before new gutters go up, which is usually the first job on an older house.
More about fascia →Everything we do on the outside of a house:
We come out to Clare, 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 know Clare has contractors of its own, and for an emergency they're closer. What we offer for a planned roof, siding or gutter job is a crew trained and certified on what it installs, a written plan before any work starts, and a straight answer about whether something needs replacing or just repairing.
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