Serving Interlochen, Green Lake & Duck Lake
Interlochen homes sit between two big lakes and under some of the tallest pines in the region. That's a beautiful place to live and a hard place to be a roof, a gutter or a wall of siding. Here's how we look after them.
Wow! What a great experience with Cherry Town Roofing. They recently replaced our roof and were on time, on budget and their attention to detail was incredible. The workers kept us informed as to their progress and kept the work site clean and orderly. When the project was completed they met with us to answer any questions and to be sure we were satisfied with the results. Couldn’t be happier!
Our office is at 104 S Union Street Suite 208 in downtown Traverse City. From there, Interlochen is about 14 miles southwest on US-31, usually a 20 minute drive.
That short drive matters more than it sounds. It's easy for us to get out for an estimate, and when a storm pulls shingles loose or a gutter run comes down, we're not a two-hour trip away. If something needs a second look after the job's done, coming back is an easy drive, not a scheduling headache.
Interlochen takes its name from where it sits: the narrow strip of land between Green Lake and Duck Lake, each close to 2,000 acres. That setting shapes almost every house here. Homes line both shorelines, and they take the wind that comes across open water along with the moisture it carries.
The town started as a lumber stop. Two rail lines met here by 1890, and the Wylie Cooperage made barrels nearby until its mill burned in 1914. When the logging moved on, a stand of old-growth pine between the lakes was saved. The state bought it in 1917, and today it's Interlochen State Park, 187 acres where those red and white pines still stand. In 1928 Joseph Maddy opened a summer music camp next door with 115 students. It grew into Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the year-round Arts Academy followed in 1962.
That history left a mix of homes you don't see everywhere: lake cottages that began as summer places, year-round houses that replaced or expanded them, and newer builds on wooded lots set back in the trees. Green Lake Township grew from 5,784 people in 2010 to 6,703 in 2020, so a lot of that construction is recent, too.
The pines come first. Needles pack gutters fast and hold wet debris against the fascia boards behind them. Shade from tall trees keeps a roof damp long after the rain stops, which is where moss and algae get started. And a limb that comes down in a wind storm can take out shingles and a gutter run in one hit.
The lakes come next. Waterfront homes face wind that lifts shingle edges and drives rain sideways into siding seams and under trim. Add Northern Michigan's freeze-thaw cycle and lake-effect snow, and small gaps turn into soft, rotted soffit and fascia.
Older cottages have their own problem. A place built for summer and later lived in year round often has a thinly insulated, poorly vented attic. Heat escaping into it melts the snow on the roof, the water refreezes at the cold eaves, and the ice dam that forms pushes water back up under the shingles.
So we treat the outside of the house as one system. Ice and water shield goes in at the eaves and valleys, the attic ventilation gets fixed, gutters are seamless and sized for the roof they drain, and rotted fascia and soffit are replaced before anything new goes over them.
Replacement and repair for roofs that live under pines and take the wind off the lakes: ice and water shield at the eaves and valleys, flashing detailed at chimneys and vents, and attic ventilation that keeps the deck cold so ice dams have nothing to start from.
More about roofing →A low-upkeep choice for year-round homes and cottages alike. On a lakefront wall, what matters most is behind the panels: house wrap, flashing at every window and door, and trim that sheds water instead of holding it.
More about vinyl siding →Thicker and more rigid than vinyl, with more of a wood look, which suits the older cottages and the homes set back in the trees. It stands up to moisture and to the knocks a wooded lot hands out.
More about composite siding →Fewer joints means fewer places for pine needles to catch and fewer seams to leak. We size them for the roof they drain and can talk you through guards, cleaning and inspections for a lot full of pines.
More about seamless gutters →Vented soffit is half of how an attic breathes, and it is often the first thing to go soft on a shaded home. Replacing it is usually part of fixing an ice dam problem for good.
More about soffit →Wet needles packed into a gutter sit right against the fascia board behind it. We replace rotted boards before new gutters go up, so the gutters have something solid to hang on.
More about fascia →When a summer place is becoming a year-round home, the outside usually has to catch up: roof, siding, gutters and trim planned together as one job instead of patched one at a time.
More about exterior remodeling →We come out to Interlochen, 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 Interlochen is part of our backyard. Our crew is on US-31 all the time, so we'll keep passing the work we do here long after it's finished. In a community this size, word gets around. That keeps us honest, and it's why we'll tell you when a repair will do instead of selling you a replacement you don't need.
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