Hear from Our Customers
When a roof is properly replaced or repaired, you stop reacting and start having peace of mind. No more watching the ceiling after a storm, no more wondering if that dark streak on the back slope is something serious. You just know your home is covered — literally and practically.
For homes along Hourglass Road, that matters more than it might in a newer subdivision. Most of the housing stock out here was built in the 1970s and 1980s, which means a lot of these roofs are at or past the end of their useful life. An asphalt shingle roof in Delaware — with 45 inches of annual rainfall, freeze-thaw winters, and nor’easters that roll through with nothing to slow them down — doesn’t always make it to 30 years. Getting a clear, honest assessment of where yours stands is the first real step.
The other thing that changes is your exposure to the next storm. Hourglass Road properties sit in open agricultural land. There’s no tree canopy buffer, no neighboring roofline breaking the wind. A well-installed roof with proper underlayment, sealed flashing, and the right materials for Delaware’s climate handles that differently than one that’s been patched and re-patched for a decade.
We’re a family-owned roofing and exteriors contractor based in Delaware, serving Kent and Sussex counties for over 22 years. That’s two decades of working through Delaware’s actual weather — the nor’easters, the humid summers, the freeze-thaw cycles that crack shingles and stress flashing on older homes throughout western Kent County.
Hourglass doesn’t show up on most contractors’ marketing maps. It’s a rural road community off Route 8 near Hartly, and homes out here tend to get overlooked by larger operations that focus on Dover and Smyrna. We cover the whole county, which means Hourglass Road is in our service area the same as anywhere else. No deprioritizing smaller communities in favor of bigger suburban jobs.
We’re licensed through the Delaware Division of Professional Regulation, carry full General Liability and Workers’ Compensation insurance, and hold a consistent 5.0-star rating across 63-plus Google and Facebook reviews. BBB accredited. We don’t subcontract — the team that shows up is the team that does the work.
It starts with a free inspection. A member of our team comes out to Hourglass Road, gets on the roof, and gives you a documented, honest assessment of what’s actually up there. Not a sales pitch — a real look at the condition of your shingles, flashing, underlayment, and decking. For homes built in the 1970s and 1980s, that inspection often turns up things that weren’t visible from the driveway: algae colonization on north-facing slopes, deteriorated step flashing around chimneys, or decking that’s been holding moisture for longer than it should.
If work is needed, you get a written estimate with a clear scope. No vague line items, no materials left unspecified. If the damage is storm-related, we work directly with your insurance provider to document the claim and communicate with the adjuster — you don’t have to figure that process out alone. Roofing work in unincorporated Kent County falls under Kent County Department of Planning Services permitting requirements, and we handle that as part of the job.
On installation day, our crew arrives, completes the work, and cleans the site. On large rural lots like the ones along Hourglass Road — long driveways, open yards, sometimes outbuildings nearby — that cleanup is taken seriously. Nails in a gravel driveway or debris near a barn isn’t acceptable. When the job is done, it’s done clean.
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We handle the full range of residential roofing — replacement, installation, repair, inspection, and maintenance — along with emergency roof repair available around the clock. That last one matters out here. When a storm tears shingles off a rural property at night, you’re miles from a hardware store and can’t tarp a damaged roof alone. Having a contractor who answers after hours and can secure the roof before water gets in is a practical necessity, not a luxury.
Beyond roofing, we cover siding, gutters, windows, and skylights. For rural properties on Hourglass Road that often include garages, sheds, or other outbuildings, having one contractor who can assess and address multiple structures saves time and eliminates the coordination problem of managing four different contractors.
Material selection is handled with Delaware’s specific climate in mind. The combination of farm-country humidity from the surrounding agricultural operations — including the farms that operate directly on Hourglass Road — and Delaware’s baseline moisture levels accelerates algae growth on older roofs. Algae-resistant shingles are a meaningful recommendation here, not an upsell. Proper ventilation and underlayment choices that reduce moisture retention at the roof level are part of the conversation, not an afterthought. We offer financing, which matters in a USDA Rural Development loan-eligible community where a full roof replacement is a significant household decision.
The honest answer is that you often can’t tell from the ground — especially on homes built in the 1970s and 1980s, which make up a large part of the housing stock along Hourglass Road. What looks like a surface-level shingle issue from the driveway can turn out to be deteriorated underlayment, soft decking from years of moisture intrusion, or flashing that’s been failing slowly around a chimney or skylight.
A professional inspection gets you a real answer. We offer free roof inspections, which means you can get a documented assessment of your roof’s actual condition without any financial commitment upfront. Our inspector looks at shingle granule loss, flashing integrity, ventilation, and the decking itself — not just the surface. If repair is genuinely sufficient, that’s what we recommend. If replacement makes more sense given the age and condition, you’ll understand exactly why before any decision is made.
For most residential properties in western Kent County, architectural asphalt shingles are the most practical choice — they’re durable, widely available, and when properly installed with the right underlayment, they handle Delaware’s freeze-thaw cycles and heavy rainfall reasonably well. The specific recommendation for properties in agricultural areas like the Hourglass Road corridor is algae-resistant shingles. The dark streaking you see on older roofs in this area is Gloeocapsa magma — a type of algae that thrives in humid environments and holds moisture against the shingles, accelerating granule loss and shortening roof life.
Beyond shingles, the underlayment and ventilation system matter just as much as the surface material. A roof that traps heat and moisture in the attic will degrade faster regardless of what shingles are on top. We factor in the full roofing system — not just the visible layer — when making material recommendations for homes in this area.
It depends on the policy and the cause of the damage, but storm damage from wind, hail, and falling debris is covered under most standard homeowner’s insurance policies. The complication is usually in the documentation and claims process — adjusters don’t always catch everything, and a homeowner navigating the process alone may end up with a settlement that doesn’t fully cover the scope of the work needed.
We work directly with homeowners’ insurance providers to document storm damage and communicate with adjusters. This is particularly relevant for rural properties in western Kent County, where exposed large-lot homes like those along Hourglass Road take the full force of nor’easters and summer storm systems with nothing to break the wind. If you’ve had recent storm damage and aren’t sure whether to file a claim, a free inspection is the right first step — it gives you documentation either way.
For a standard single-family home, the physical installation is typically completed in one day. That includes tear-off of the old roofing material, inspection of the decking, installation of underlayment and new shingles, and cleanup of the worksite. Larger or more complex roofs — those with multiple penetrations, steep pitches, or significant decking damage — may take two days.
The timeline from first contact to installation day depends on scheduling and, if insurance is involved, the claims process. In Kent County, roofing work on residential properties in unincorporated areas like Hourglass requires permits through the Kent County Department of Planning Services, and that’s factored into the project timeline. We manage the permitting process as part of the job — you don’t have to coordinate that separately. For emergency situations where a storm has caused active damage, the priority is securing the roof immediately, with full replacement scheduled as soon as the job can be properly resourced.
After any significant storm in western Kent County, out-of-town contractors show up on rural roads offering quick repairs and pushing homeowners to sign contracts before they’ve had a chance to verify anything. These storm chasers are a documented problem across Delaware, and rural communities like Hourglass are specifically vulnerable because there isn’t the same density of neighbor-to-neighbor contractor recommendations that exists in tighter suburban neighborhoods.
The practical checklist: ask for proof of Delaware contractor licensing, ask for a certificate of General Liability and Workers’ Compensation insurance, and get a written estimate with the full scope of work and materials specified before signing anything. A legitimate contractor won’t pressure you to sign on the spot. We’re licensed through the Delaware Division of Professional Regulation, carry full insurance, and have operated in Delaware for over 22 years — those are verifiable credentials, not just claims on a truck door.
Yes, we offer financing options for roofing projects. For homeowners in communities like Hourglass — which is a USDA Rural Development loan-eligible area — a full roof replacement is a significant expense that doesn’t always fit neatly into a household budget. Financing makes it possible to move forward with a necessary repair or replacement without depleting savings or delaying a job that genuinely needs to get done.
The way it works in practice is straightforward: once you have a written estimate for the project, you can discuss financing terms directly with us. The availability of financing also matters from a timing standpoint. Deferring a roof replacement on a 1970s or 1980s home in this area because of upfront cost usually means the underlying damage gets worse — water intrusion, insulation damage, and potential mold move faster than most homeowners expect. Getting the job done on a manageable payment schedule is almost always the better financial outcome compared to waiting until a repair situation becomes a full structural problem.
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