Roofing Contractor in Laurel, MD

Laurel sits on the Patuxent about midway between Washington and Baltimore, an old mill town that turned into a commuter town, so its housing runs from tight-lot frame homes near Main Street to open mid-century and newer streets beyond. Around here the record is wind more than hail.

Humid summers age shingles from under an unvented attic and winter freeze-thaw works every flashing seam, on the old frame houses and the newer ones alike. We inspect for the lifted and creased tabs wind leaves behind and scope it in Xactimate to line up with your adjuster.

Laurel is a city in Prince George's County on the banks of the Patuxent River, and its story starts well before the mills. The Snowden family patented the land in 1658 as part of the 12,250-acre New Birmingham plantation, and between 1796 and 1812 the Washington Turnpike Road Company built what is now Route 1 through it. That created a major north-south land route, served by a halfway house that handled four stage lines a day by 1816.

The mills are where the tight old streets near Main Street come from. Nicholas Snowden built a grist mill around 1811 that had grown into a small cotton mill by the 1820s, and in 1835, the same year the rail line from Baltimore to Washington opened, the Patuxent Manufacturing Company was chartered. The operation expanded greatly with the Avondale Mill building of 1844.

Mill president Horace Capron and his partners built housing for close to 300 workers, and cotton duck went down what would become Main Street and then by rail to Baltimore. The place was originally known as Laurel Factory, for its laurel trees, and it was a true company town, with many mill workers' homes owned by the company until the 1860s. One of those homes, a former 1840s mill workers' home at 9th and Main, opened as the Laurel Museum in 1996.

When manufacturing faded in the later 19th century, Laurel evolved into an early commuter town for Washington and Baltimore, and that is where the newer streets beyond Main Street come from. It was incorporated in 1870 and reincorporated in 1890, and a twelve-building fire destroyed part of Main Street in December 1899.

Main Street is a historic district, so inside it we talk through product and color before we order. The city council created the district in 1975.

Laurel has a documented tornado on its record. On September 24, 2001 a tornado passed through Laurel and left F3-level property damage, which is part of why we take a homeowner here seriously when they say a storm sounded wrong.

The climate is humid subtropical, with summer highs around 88.3 degrees and winter lows near 25 degrees, in USDA hardiness zones 7 and 8.

Roof or siding work in Laurel? Call (667) 200-6656 or book a free inspection.