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‘Roofing costs and average prices’ Category Archive


How To Identify Good Cedar Roofing

Friday, October 13th, 2017

Tips on grading the cedar roofing material that shows up at your home for your roofing job. Introduction, by Steve Kuhl There are many variables that factor into the quality and character of cedar shake and shingle roofing including the age of the tree when logged, the region the tree came from, the thickness of […]


Flat Roof Leak Repair

Friday, September 22nd, 2017

Flat Roof In Minneapolis Leaked for Years and Copper Was the Answer The Problem: Perhaps you have heard it before. There are two types of at roofs: Those that are leaking and those that are about to leak. In fairness to flat roofs, the reality is that there is no truly permanent roof. When at […]


Lifespans of Cedar Roofs

Friday, August 4th, 2017

How long should cedar roofs last?  


Solving Ice Dams in Minneapolis

Friday, July 21st, 2017

Science + Common Sense + Insulation & Ventilation = No Ice Dams Frost Melt Patterns At their most fundamental level, ice dams are the result of the interaction of heat loss and snow on your roof. An experienced Kuhl Thermographer can use photos like these in conjunction with infrared imaging to see the weak points […]


Pressure Washing Damage on Cedar Roof

Friday, July 7th, 2017

Thoughts from an Honest Roofer on Washing Cedar Shake Roofs, Part One. Why Equipment Matters: If your roof is in good enough condition to wash, congratulations. You have the opportunity to add years to its remaining life through occasional maintenance. But it is important to understand that a cedar roof should only be washed using […]


Low Bidding Minneapolis Contractor Wins Again

Friday, June 30th, 2017

Kuhl’s Contracting Six Examples of How the Cheapest Company Costs the Most After being in business this long we have countless examples of crappy work done by other contractors here in the Twin Cities. Sometimes it’s a matter of inexperience while others it is a question of ethics. Either way, it’s a giant buzz kill […]


Minneapolis Ice Dams Warning Signs

Friday, May 26th, 2017

How to Spot Ice Dams on Homes in Minneapolis and Surrounding Areas Thoughts on Ice Dams by Steve Kuhl: Think of it this way. Ice dams normally migrate over time from the the outer most edge of your eave in towards your home. If you have gutters, the ice dam will form there first and […]


But I just need my roof washed…

Friday, January 27th, 2017

Cedar Roof Cleaning Expert Rescues Excelsior Homeowner from Other ‘Expert’ The Backstory: Upon the advice of her realtor, our client hired a roof washing franchise to wash her cedar shake roof. She was about to put her house on the market and a moss-free roof would be a nice touch. The company she hired specialized […]


Classic Flashing Failure

Friday, January 20th, 2017

A Leaking Home Gets Fixed for Good The Problem: We’ve seen this over and over on Twin Cities’ homes, in particular homes built in the last 30 years in Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Edina, Plymouth, Wayzata, and Bloomington. A bottleneck created by the intersection of the garage roof and the wall of the home. The result […]


Leaf Guard, Gutter Guard, Gutter Helmet

Friday, January 6th, 2017

Gutter Contractor Installed $32,000 of Worthless Copper Gutters… Then Laughed All The Way To The Bank The Problem: Our client had gone ten rounds with the company that installed this gutter debris management system (A). Next stop, lawyers and courts. They decided to cut their losses and hire Kuhl to replace all of their gutters. The […]


Creativity Matters

Friday, December 9th, 2016

Remodeling a Bumpout Window With a Bad Leak in Minnetonka The Problem: Imagine you have a window bumpout like the one here (below). The builder was running a little thin on his margin so he skimped on a few details. Now 13 years later, you have rotten siding, soggy millwork, and a roof that leaks. […]


Ugly Chimneys in Eden Prairie

Friday, November 11th, 2016

Clients Chimneys Were Leaking, But at Least They Were Super Ugly The Problem: Our Eden Prairie homeowner needed a new cedar shake roof and two chimneys rebuilt. More than a simple chimney rebuild, these babies needed a redesign (thank you 1970’s). The 12” thick lump of concrete originally installed on top just wasn’t going to […]


Roofing + Design + Carpentry = Happy Client

Friday, October 28th, 2016

Roofing Contractor Uses Designers and Carpenters to Help Wayzata Commercial Roofing Client The Problem: We had worked on Craig’s residence a few times over the past fifteen years. He invited us to give him a bid on one of his commercial properties. It had a tired cedar shingle roof with dated treatments around each window. […]


Upgrading a Chimney

Friday, October 7th, 2016

Repair Your Chimney or Enhance the Look of Your Exterior The Problem Your chimney is failing, it looks like this, and someone wants $3,200 to fix it. Ouch. The Solution Hire someone with experienced designers on staff who know the difference between concepts like Cotswold and Tudor. It would have been easy enough to simply […]


Hear. See. Speak. We’ll Tell You What We Find.

Tuesday, August 9th, 2016

Minnetonka Homeowner Hears the Truth from Roof Cleaning Contractor with Integrity The Backstory: It’s not considered bad-mouthing your competition when you don’t name names, right? We were the third company to review this 13 year old cedar shingle roof and provide a cedar cleaning and sealing estimate. By the time I arrived, the client was […]


Roof Snow Removal in Minneapolis

Friday, July 15th, 2016

How Using a Roof Rake Can Make Ice Dam Problems Much, Much Worse The Problem: You learned your lesson in the winter of 2011 with the epic ice dam outbreak that hit Minnesota. You read up that removing snow from your roof will prevent ice dams. Ice dams get their fuel (i.e., water) from the […]


Why Orange You Going to Stain Your Roof?

Thursday, May 12th, 2016

Staining Your Cedar Shake Roof is Not a Great Idea…Here is Why The Problem: Your neighbor just had some stuff sprayed on his roof and it looks pretty spiffy. It looks almost like a new roof! But here is the problem with pigmented products when applied to cedar shakes: they fade in irregular patterns after […]


Cedar roof types in Minneapolis

Friday, December 12th, 2014

In the past twenty five years I have inspected over 9000 cedar roofs in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area. That’s a lot of climbing. In that time I’ve seen just about every type of cedar roof imaginable as well as all manor of defect and curiosity imaginable. That timeframe has allowed me to observe a number of […]


Roofing prices are on the rise in Minneapolis

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

The primary challenge in working with insurance companies in terms of the replacement of roofs damaged by the August 6th hail storm isn’t so much in defining an accurate scope for the work but in getting paid fairly for that work. Insurance companies have an immense apparatus in place to depress pricing. It’s based on […]


How to fight your insurance company: Part One

Sunday, August 25th, 2013

The recent storms that passed through the southwest communities of Minneapolis left a trail of damage and confusion (as well as an incredible bloom of storm chasers). Not surprisingly, the aftermath of that storm has been interesting for a veteran of the industry to observe. From the almost comical circus of door-knocking contractors to the […]


Cedar Roof Comparisons & Life Spans in Minneapolis

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

Understanding how long a cedar roof will last is one of the most important considerations in deciding which material to choose.  Here is the skinny on the most common wood roof materials, their basic characteristics and expected lifespans in the Minneapolis area: 16” Machine Sawn Shingles (Life Span 17-21 Years) Cedar shingles are used for […]


Insurance company tries to screw Minneapolis homeowner

Sunday, September 16th, 2012

News flash. Your insurance company is not always looking out for your better interest. In fact, in the past 30 years they have developed sophisticated internal systems for limiting, delaying or denying claims altogether. Here is one such story. I just inspected a cedar roof on Prairie Lakes Drive in Eden Prairie and was shocked […]


Roof Replacement Costs in Minneapolis

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

I get asked all the time how much roofs cost to replace here in the Twin Cities. That’s sort of like asking how much a car costs. It depends on many variables. But for the sake of trying to be as helpful as I can in answering that question…


Birds Cause Ice Dams in Minneapolis

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

Birds and Ice Dams Birds might be the last thing you think about when you see ice dams forming on the edge of your roof this January. Yet birds can play a role in how they affect the ventilation of your roof. And as we all know, ventilation and insulation are two of the three […]


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