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Roof Replacement in Annapolis, MD: What the Historic District Changes
A new roof on an old Annapolis house starts at City Hall before it starts on the ladder. Here is how the review fits into a roof replacement, and how we plan the work around it.
A roof replacement in Annapolis, MD goes differently when the house sits inside the city's historic district. The old city around Church Circle, St. Anne's and Main Street down to City Dock still holds about 120 buildings from the 1700s, laid out on Francis Nicholson's 1695 town plan, and the city reviews exterior changes to the buildings in that district.
Mostly, it changes the order of the work. This guide covers who reviews the work, when to apply, and how we plan a roof replacement on a house in the district. For the job itself, start with our page on roof replacement in Annapolis, and for the town as a whole, see roofing in Annapolis, MD.
Who reviews a roof in the Annapolis Historic District
The City of Annapolis has a Historic Preservation Division inside its Department of Planning and Zoning. Its job is reviewing exterior changes in the Annapolis Historic District, supporting the Historic Preservation Commission, and giving the final review of exterior work proposed for building permits in the district. Staff there also evaluate drawings, construction materials and techniques.
The city sums up its own advice for property owners in three lines:
- Ask first, and use the Division's technical help.
- Apply early, and get review and approval before you sign a contract or start the work.
- Do no harm, and keep historic features by using accepted preservation practices.
The second line is the one that catches people out. If a contract is signed and a dumpster is booked before anyone at the city has seen the plan, the schedule is already wrong.
Check your address before anything else
The district has a mapped boundary, and the city publishes a Historic District and National Register boundary map along with a Historic District Design Manual. Out toward Bestgate or Broadneck none of this usually comes up. Inside the old city, it decides how the project starts.
If your house is inside the line, call the Division before you collect bids. Ask whether your roof plan needs Commission review or a staff review, what they want to see, and which application deadline you are working toward. The city posts its Historic Preservation Commission application deadlines and meeting dates for the year, and those dates set the earliest week a crew can realistically start.
We do not decide what the city will approve, and we will not tell you a review is unnecessary. That answer comes from the Division.
What we bring to the review
A reviewer wants to understand what is on the roof now and what will go on it. Our free inspection produces most of that. The owner goes up himself and photographs every slope, the ridge and hips, the valleys, the flashing at each chimney, dormer and wall, the pipe boots and the metal at the roof edge. Those photos and a written scope give you a clear record of the existing roof to attach to an application.
For the new roof, the scope names the system: the shingle we install is Owens Corning TruDefinition Duration, and you choose the color from real samples held against your own brick or siding. If the review asks for a different material or detail than the one we quoted, we rewrite the scope to match before work is scheduled.
Old roofs in the old city
Houses this old rarely have a modern deck under the shingles. After the tear-off we expect plank boards, earlier repairs, and chimneys that were flashed and reflashed over the years. We strip to bare wood, check every board, replace the bad ones, then lay ice and water membrane at the eaves and valleys and synthetic underlayment over the rest.
Flashing gets the most care. At the chimneys and walls the step flashing is woven into the shingle courses and the base flashing is set properly, rather than smeared with sealant and left for the next storm to open. Wind off the Severn and the Bay is the other constant here, so starter courses run along the eaves and rakes and every nail the Owens Corning wrapper calls for goes in.
Tight streets and the one-day plan
Downtown streets often have no room for a dumpster or a material drop, so on a historic district job that is the first thing we work out, before a date is set. Most of our residential replacements are torn off, dried in, shingled and cleaned up in one working day, and an old house close to its neighbors is exactly where that matters. A roof that is open overnight is a risk to the house and to the one next door.
Permit timing, the city's review and the material order all feed that date. We set it once the approval is in hand, not before.
A short checklist for Annapolis homeowners
- Confirm on the city's boundary map whether the house is in the historic district.
- Book a free roof inspection so you have photos of every slope and a written scope.
- Call the Historic Preservation Division with that scope and ask what review applies.
- Work back from the next application deadline and meeting date.
- Sign the contract and set the work date after the approval, as the city advises.
The inspection is free and carries no obligation, and we work Monday through Saturday, 8am to 5pm. For how the work runs on any house we replace, see our roof replacement page.
Related reading
If you are still deciding whether the roof needs replacing at all, read when to replace your roof in Maryland. For how long the work takes on a typical house, see how long a roof replacement takes.
Old house in Annapolis?
We start with a free inspection and photos of every slope, so you have something real to take to the city.