A roof in the mountains works harder than a roof almost anywhere else in North Carolina. It sheds hurricane-remnant rain one week and sits under a load of oak leaves and pine needles the next. It freezes and thaws through January at elevation, bakes on the south slope in July, and takes gusts on the ridgelines that a roof in the Piedmont never sees. Arolite Group installs and repairs roofs built for that, across Buncombe, Haywood and Henderson counties, from the 1920s bungalows in Montford to the cabins above Maggie Valley.
We are a roofing, siding and gutter company, and roofing is the biggest part of what we do. Most weeks that means a full replacement or two and a handful of repairs. Every job starts the same way: an exterior consultant gets on your roof, photographs what is there, and sits down with you in person to go through it with a written price. We are not the bargain roofer in Asheville. The quote is itemized so you can see exactly what the money buys.
This page is the overview. If you already know what you need, the five roofing pages below go deeper: roof replacement, roof repair, storm damage and insurance, metal roofing and the free roof inspection. If you are not sure, keep reading, or call (828) 818-8392 and describe what you are seeing.
The roofing we install
Architectural shingle roofs
Architectural (also called dimensional) asphalt shingles are the roof on most houses in Western North Carolina, and for good reason. They handle the pitch, they come in colors that sit well against a wooded lot, and they are the most cost-effective roof you can put on a house. We install shingle systems from manufacturers such as CertainTeed, as a complete system: synthetic underlayment, ice-and-water membrane in the valleys and along the eaves, starter strip, the shingles themselves, hip and ridge cap, and the matching ridge vent. A shingle roof done as a system, rather than as shingles nailed over whatever was there, is the one that is still tight in fifteen years. The full process is on the roof replacement page.
Standing-seam metal roofs
Metal roofs are common on mountain homes, and more homeowners here are asking for them every year. Standing-seam panels run from ridge to eave with the fasteners hidden under the seams, so there are no exposed screws to back out and leak. Snow slides off instead of sitting, leaves do not catch the way they do on shingle, and the panels outlast shingle by a wide margin. The trade-off is cost, and a different skill set on the crew. We install standing-seam in standard colors and in copper-tone finishes, and we price it against shingle on your own roof so you can see the real gap. More on the metal roofing page.
Decking and underlayment
What is under the shingles decides how long the roof lasts. Once the old roof is off, we walk the decking and replace any sheet that is soft, delaminated or rotten, which on an older house with a history of leaks is often a few sheets around the chimney and the valleys. New synthetic underlayment goes over the whole deck. On the steep pitches we work in Black Mountain and Waynesville, that underlayment also keeps the crew safe, so it goes down the day the roof comes off, never the day after. You will see decking and underlayment as separate lines on the quote, with the decking shown as its own line so a surprise under the old roof is not a surprise on the bill.
Ridge, eave and flashing details
Roofs rarely fail in the middle of a slope. They fail at the edges and the penetrations: a drip edge that was never installed so water wicks back into the fascia, a chimney cricket that was skipped, a pipe boot that cracked in the sun, a valley cut too tight. Every roof we install gets metal drip edge at the eaves and rakes, new pipe boots, new step and counter flashing at walls and chimneys, and a continuous ridge vent so the attic can breathe. Those are the details that separate a roof that lasts from one that leaks in year three, and they are the ones a low bid quietly leaves out.
Roofing in the Asheville area
Roofing in Asheville is shaped by three things: the weather, the pitch and the trees. The city sits in a basin that holds humidity, so moss and algae streak the shaded north slopes and a roof under heavy canopy can stay damp for days after rain. Winter here brings freeze and thaw more than deep snow, which works water under any shingle that has lost its seal. Gusts funnel down the French Broad and Swannanoa river valleys and hit the roofs on the open side of a ridge hardest.
The houses add the rest. Older in-town roofs in Montford and West Asheville are steep, often carry a second or third layer over plank decking, and sit on narrow lots where the tear-off has to be planned around the neighbors. Newer homes toward Arden and Biltmore Park have sound decking but a lot of valleys, dormers and intersecting gables, and those are where they fail first.
That is why the eaves and valleys get ice-and-water membrane, the ridge and rakes get close attention, and a shaded roof is a good candidate for algae-resistant shingle. Trees are the constant: oak leaves and pine needles fill the valleys and gutters, and a dropped limb after a wind event is the most common reason Asheville homeowners call us. The Asheville service area page goes neighborhood by neighborhood.
Repair or replace?
The honest answer depends on three things: how much life the shingles have, whether the decking is dry, and how many places the roof is failing. A single leak at a flashing, a run of shingles lifted by wind, or a tree limb that punched one spot on a roof that is otherwise sound is a repair, and we will say so even though a replacement would be a bigger ticket. Shingles that are curling or bald across whole slopes, leaks in more than one place, soft spots underfoot, or a roof so old that every repair is chasing the next one point to a replacement. If a storm did the damage, start with the storm damage page, because the order of operations matters for a claim. Whatever we find, you get the photos and the recommendation in writing, and it is yours whether or not you hire us.
How a roof job runs here
After the free inspection and the in-person quote, we set a start date and tell you what to expect: trucks in the driveway, a dumpster or trailer for the tear-off, noise from roughly eight until the light goes. A straightforward single-family roof is often a one or two day job; the exterior consultant gives you the schedule for your house with the quote. The aim on every job is to have the deck dried in the same day it is opened, and the crew watches the mountain forecast closely because weather here can turn by the hour. You hear from us every working day. When the roof is on, the yard, beds and driveway get picked up and cleaned of nails, and we walk the finished roof with you.
Why homeowners here choose Arolite for roofing
- An exterior consultant on the roof, then at your table. The inspection is free and the quote is explained in person, line by line. No phone-only estimates and no pressure to sign on the day.
- Built as a system. Underlayment, ice-and-water, drip edge, flashing and ridge vent are in every roof, not optional extras that disappear from a low bid.
- Shingle and metal, both in house. We install both, so the recommendation is about your roof and not about which one we happen to sell.
- Local, with reviews to match. Based on Church Street in downtown Asheville, 5-star reviews on Google, Facebook and Angi, and customers who mention the daily updates and the cleanup by name.