Service area
Fond du Lac sits at the foot of Lake Winnebago, and thirty miles of open water to the north is the single biggest thing working on the buildings here.
Working in Fond du Lac
Wind coming down the length of the lake hits the north-facing side of this city with nothing in the way. That shows up as wind-driven rain forced up under shingle courses, and as paint that fails on the north and west elevations years before the sheltered sides need attention. Anyone who has repainted a house near Lakeside Park knows the lake side goes first.
The housing stock is old, which is mostly a good thing and occasionally an expensive one. The neighborhoods running off Main Street and around the Division Street historic district are full of late-1800s and early-1900s homes: foursquares, gabled Victorians, real wood siding, deep overhangs and steep roof pitches. Prep that original wood siding right and it holds paint for a decade. Skip the prep and it peels in two summers.
Those same houses tend to have modest attic insulation and blocked soffit vents, which is the recipe for ice dams. A large share of what gets called a roof leak in Fond du Lac in February is meltwater backing up behind ice at the eave, and it is not fixed by more sealant.
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Steep, cut-up roofs with dormers and multiple valleys are the norm on Fond du Lac's older homes, and valleys are where a replacement is won or lost. We line them properly and run ice and water shield well up the eaves, which matters more here than almost anywhere because of how reliably ice builds on these overhangs.
More on roof replacementThe repeat call in this city is the eave. Water shows up on a bedroom ceiling in midwinter, the roof looks perfectly sound, and the cause is an ice dam driven by a warm attic. We will check the soffit intake and the insulation line before we sell you shingles you may not need.
More on roof repairStorms track across the lake and arrive here with the fetch behind them. That produces the creased-but-still-attached shingles that look fine from the driveway and let water in for years. After a hail or wind event in Fond du Lac we check every slope, not just the one that faced the weather.
More on storm damage roof repairPlenty of Fond du Lac homes carry roofs old enough that a policy pays actual cash value rather than replacement cost. Knowing which one you have before you file changes whether a claim is worth making, and we will look at the roof and tell you honestly what we think it is.
More on roof insurance claim assistanceDeep overhangs on the older homes here keep weather off the siding, which is worth having. They also rot at the fascia when gutters overflow, and they are where insulation gets pushed out and seals the intake vents. Both problems live at the same three feet of your roof, and we fix them together.
More on fascia & soffit repairOriginal wood lap siding on a hundred-year-old Fond du Lac home is worth keeping, and it rewards proper prep. We wash off the chalk and the mildew that builds on the lake side, scrape everything loose, prime bare wood the day it is exposed, and put on two full finish coats.
More on exterior paintingExpect plaster, not drywall, in most of the older neighborhoods. It cracks along lath lines and separates in hollow-sounding patches, and skimming over a loose section just puts the crack back next year. We re-secure those areas before anything else happens.
More on interior paintingLakeside decks and fences here take sun off the water and a hard freeze-thaw cycle every winter. Weathered boards need cleaning and brightening before stain will penetrate at all, and on older decking a semi-solid or solid stain will outlast a transparent one by years.
More on stainingAlso working in
Free estimate
Roofing, painting, or both. Call either of us or send the details and we'll come out and give you a written number at no charge.
