Elkins Roofing After the Baseball Hail
July 2018 dropped the worst hail in Washington County right here. Baseball-size stones, roofs destroyed across the Elkins–Durham corridor. We replaced a lot of them. We are still replacing some of them.
July 2018: The Worst Hail in the County Fell Here
A supercell moved through the Elkins and Durham area in July 2018 and produced hailstones larger than baseballs. This was not a metro-wide event that happened to clip a small town. The worst damage in Washington County fell on Elkins specifically. The storm carved a narrow path, and this town sat in the center of it.
Hail that size does not just dent shingles. It fractures them. It punches through the mat, cracks the granule surface, and exposes the asphalt layer underneath. On older roofs, it splits wood shakes and dislodges flashing. On metal roofs, it leaves craters deep enough to hold water. Every hit is a future leak.
We have been in business since 1998, over 25 years. Our Garfield office on Highway 62 is about twenty minutes from Elkins. After that July storm, we were on roofs here within days, documenting damage and filing insurance claims. Some homeowners did not realize their roof was compromised until leaks showed up months later. If your roof took hits in 2018 and you have not had it replaced, the damage has been getting worse every season since. Call (479) 398-6262 and we will come look at it.
Roofing Antebellum Homes
Elkins has roots that go back before the Civil War. The Boone family settled here around 1830, and the Maguire family established a community called Maguiretown. Early settlement was scattered across the hollows and ridgelines above the White River tributaries. Numerous antebellum homes still stand in and around town.
Reroofing a genuinely old structure is a different job than reroofing a house built in 1995. The framing is hand-cut, not engineered trusses. The decking is often rough-sawn lumber, not oriented strand board. Rafters may be undersized by modern code standards, and the roof geometry follows the carpenter's eye rather than a truss manufacturer's blueprint. You cannot just tear off the old shingles and nail new ones to whatever is underneath.
We inspect the decking board by board on these older homes. Where the wood is punky or split, we replace it. Where the rafter spacing is irregular, we shim and sister as needed so the new shingle courses lay flat. The one-lane bridge on Mount Olive Road, the one featured in the 1982 miniseries The Blue and the Gray, sits in a part of town where many of these older structures still have their original roof framing. Getting materials to some of these sites takes planning. We account for that.
Two White River Tributaries and What Water Does
Two tributaries of the White River run through Elkins. That means humidity, fog in the hollows, and ground moisture that does not quit. Moss and algae grow on north-facing roof slopes in this environment faster than anywhere else in the NWA metro. A green-stained roof is not just ugly, the root structures of moss hold moisture against the shingle surface and accelerate granule loss.
The tributary drainages also create terrain problems. Homes built on slopes above the creek channels get runoff from higher ground during heavy rain. If the gutters and downspouts are not sized correctly, water sheets off the roof and pools against the foundation. We look at the full water path, roof to gutter to downspout to grade, on every inspection.
Elkins started as a railroad town. Hugh F. McDanield, a railroad-tie contractor, surveyed a line from Fayetteville to St. Paul in 1886 and brought the Frisco Railroad through. A post office opened under the name Hood in 1885 and was renamed Elkins four years later. By 1900 the town had a hotel, four general stores, a cooper, a blacksmith, a physician, and a carpenter. The railroad-era commercial buildings near the tracks have flat or low-slope roofs that require different materials and drainage strategies than residential pitched roofs. We handle both.
Elkins Areas We Serve
Downtown Elkins
The original town center along the old Frisco Railroad corridor. Hugh McDanield's 1886 rail line from Fayetteville to St. Paul put Elkins on the map, and the buildings that grew up around the depot and the general stores still define the core. Roofs here are a mix of early twentieth-century commercial flat roofs and residential homes from the 1910s through 1940s. Many sit close together on narrow lots, which means scaffolding and material staging take extra coordination. We work in tight spaces regularly, it is standard for us, not a reason to charge more.
Mountain View
Higher-elevation homes north and east of the town center, looking out over the creek valleys. These properties get more wind exposure than anything in the sheltered bottomland. Ridge caps and hip caps take the worst of it, they are the first components to lift in a strong gust, and once one lifts, water gets underneath. We use high-wind starter strips and six-nail fastening patterns on exposed ridgeline homes. The views up here are worth the drive. The wind is the price you pay for them.
Valley Road
The low-lying stretch along the tributary channels south and west of downtown. Humidity stays high here year-round. Morning fog settles into these hollows and does not burn off until midday. That sustained moisture is hard on roofs. Algae-resistant shingles make a real difference in this microclimate, the copper granules in the shingle surface inhibit algae growth and keep the roof from developing black streaks within a few years. We recommend them for every Valley Road job and install them as our default product in this area.
Scenic Hills
The newer residential development on the ridges between Elkins and the Durham community to the east. These homes are mostly 1990s and 2000s construction, architectural shingles on plywood decking, engineered trusses, standard-pitch roofs. Many of them took direct hits from the July 2018 supercell. The hail track ran right through this area. If your roof was replaced after the storm, it should be in good shape. If it was patched or left alone, six years of Arkansas weather have been working on every crack and divot since then. A free inspection will tell you where you stand.
Free Inspection in Elkins
Call (479) 398-6262 or schedule online. We will drive out from Garfield, get on your roof, photograph everything, and give you a written assessment. If the roof is sound, we will say so. If it needs work, we will explain exactly what and why, with photos. Every roof we install carries a transferable lifetime workmanship warranty, it stays with the house if you sell.
Get Your Free Roof Inspection
We look at your roof for free, tell you what we find, and let you decide. No pressure, no obligation.