Roofing Contractor in Anacortes, WA

Old Town cottages, Skyline and the rest of the Anacortes housing stock

Anacortes incorporated in 1891 and grew up on lumber mills and fish canneries. Old Town still holds the oldest houses in the city, near Commercial Avenue and the Cap Sante waterfront. Many are early 1900s cottages and period homes with steep pitches, narrow eaves and small dormers.

On a house that age the roof has been done more than once already. What sits under the shingles matters as much as what goes on top. We pull the old roofing back to the deck and look at the sheathing first. Soft boards get replaced before the underlayment, flashing and new shingles go down.

The rest of the city reads differently. Skyline went in on the west end in the 1960s, laid out around Flounder Bay and its marina. That ground held a sawmill before the houses did. Skyline has kept filling in with newer houses ever since. Alexander Beach and a wide band through the middle of town went up between the 1970s and the 1990s. Newer view lots are still going in above the water. A 1910 cottage in Old Town and a 1985 house up the hill do not need the same roof.

Wind off Rosario Strait, salt air and the Fidalgo Island rain shadow

Anacortes sits at the edge of the Olympic rain shadow. Published climate figures put it well under Seattle for rain in a normal year. That helps, but it does not make a roof last forever here. The wet season still runs from about October into April, and wind is the part people underestimate.

Rosario Strait is open water on the west side, past the ferry terminal where the San Juan Islands boats load. Guemes Channel runs along the north side of town. Wind that comes off open water hits the roof edge, not the middle. It lifts shingle tabs at the rakes, pulls at loose flashing and finds every nail that was not driven right. Waterfront and bluff lots on the Skyline side and along the Guemes Channel side take the worst of it.

Salt air is the other half of it. It rides in on the same wind and goes after metal: fasteners, flashing, drip edge, vent boots and gutters. Fir needles and moss handle the rest. On shaded north planes near Mount Erie and Whistle Lake, needles pack the valleys and moss lifts the shingle edges. That is part of why standing seam metal roofing does well out here. Debris slides off the panels and moss has nothing to grab.

Do you need a permit to re-roof in Anacortes?

Inside the city limits, yes. The City of Anacortes lists re-roofs, siding and window or door replacements as work that needs a building permit. Permits go through Planning, Community and Economic Development at City Hall on 6th Street. Applications are submitted on the city SmartGov portal, and the department answers at 360-293-1901. The city notes its list is not exhaustive, so check your project against it.

Not every Fidalgo Island address is inside the Anacortes city limits. Addresses outside that line go through Skagit County Planning and Development Services in Mount Vernon. Rules and fees change, so confirm with the office that covers your address before work starts. We handle the permit paperwork where the jurisdiction lets the contractor pull it. Where it has to be in the homeowner name, we say so up front. We are licensed, bonded and insured in Washington, contractor license CULVEL*828N4.

Siding, gutters and rot on a saltwater island town

A roof is rarely the only thing the weather has gotten to. The same wind driven rain that works on shingles pushes water behind siding, into window trim and up under fascia. Near Cap Sante and Old Town we find cedar and lap siding painted over more often than it was repaired. Siding installation on a house like that starts with pulling the old boards to see what the water actually did.

Rot is the usual answer, and wood rot repair is its own kind of work. It shows up in fascia, soffits, window sills, door thresholds and the framing under carports and patio covers. We cut it out, find the leak that fed it, and replace the wood. New flashing sends the water where it should have gone. We paint the repair to match the rest of the house.

Gutters are worth doing at the same time as the roof. Fir needles fill them fast here, and an overflowing gutter sends water down the siding and into the trim. New fascia, new gutters and a new roof edge all go on in one pass. Wider exterior projects run the same way, in one sequence, so nothing gets torn off twice.