Edina Craftsman Bungalow — GAF HDZ Re-Roof

Edina's Country Club District is one of the better-preserved craftsman neighborhoods in the Twin Cities metro — homes built between 1915 and 1935 on 50-foot lots, tapered columns, wide overhangs, exposed rafter tails, most of them still wearing their original dimensions even after 90-plus years of owners. The bungalow on this block was built in 1924 and had gone through two roofing cycles before this job.

The homeowners are architects. They specified the material early in the conversation: GAF Timberline HDZ in slate grey, which reads close to the mottled charcoal of the original cedar shake the home would have worn in 1924. No three-tab, no architectural shingle in brown or tan. The slate grey profile has enough dimensional shadow at the tab line to hold its own against the deep overhangs.

The 9/12 pitch meant hand-nailing at the upper courses — pneumatic nailers don't get close enough to the ridge on a steep-slope bungalow without bumping the exposed rafter tails. We ran the job with a four-person crew over two days. The existing deck had one rotten board near the north-valley transition and a section of the original skip sheathing along the front gable that had to come out and be replaced with OSB before the new underlayment went down.

Ice-and-water shield ran six feet up from each drip edge and through the two valleys. The front porch ceiling is original bead board — we ran Visqueen over it during the tear-off to protect it from debris. Clean site at the end of each day: magnetized roller, tarps pulled, dumpster staged in the alley. The owners said the slate grey reads exactly the way they wanted against the cream-painted trim.