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Several factors are taken into consideration for a property to be labeled as historic in South Carolina, such as:

Age

For a property to be considered historical, it has to be old enough. What does that entail? It means a property has to be 50 years or older for it to be considered historical, though this is simply a rule of thumb.

Integrity

Apart from having a sufficient age, a historic property must have retained most of its historic physical integrity. For a structure, building, historic district, or landscape feature, this means that its integrity must be relatively unaffected. The structure’s main character-defining aspects relative to its significance should still be present.

Significance

The last and most important thing is that the structure/property must be significant enough to be considered a historic structure. There are three ways significance is defined:

• Through direct association with activities, developments, events, or individuals that reflect an important aspect of history or that shaped history
• By embodying the distinguishing spatial and physical characteristics of an architectural type or style of building
• By having the potential to provide information crucial to our understanding of years gone by through architectural, archaeological, or any other physical analysis and investigation.

Throughout history, there’s always been one way to deal with a problematic roof – completely replacing it. In most cases, this is done while the roof still has some useful life left in it, costing the home or building owner millions of dollars.

Restoring a roof is a simpler, more effective solution considering that it avoids a majority of the pains and costs associated with completely replacing a roof.

On average, most roofs are replaced seven years before necessary because a lot of roofers are focused on expensive replacements rather than simple repairs and maintenance. If your roof has stains, missing shingles, leaks, or looks old and worn out, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it needs to be replaced. You can have it restored.

In fact, 95% of all older roofs need some preservation. When done right, roof preservation can increase the lifespan of your old roof by up to 15 years. At the same time, there are some benefits to restoring an old roof. Here is a look at some of them:

It's Less Expensive

By avoiding the complexities of replacing a historic roof, something that involves the tearing down of the existing roof, you get to save more. What most people don’t know is that restoring a roof costs about a third of what it would cost you to have it replaced.

It Takes Less Time

The process of preserving a roof takes significantly less time than replacing it.

There Is Less Disruption

People living or working in the structure are unlikely to be affected during a restoration, which isn’t the case with a roof replacement. Roof restorations are quieter, and since the existing roof is not being removed, they are also less messy.

It Is More Environmentally Friendly

Repairing your roof instead of investing in a new one means that you will be saving on resources too!

It Can Lead to Tax Benefits

Restoring your commercial roof can be factored in as a maintenance expense when filing your taxes.

Considering that all historical buildings are different, having a roof restored is something that will require a carefully individualized and considered approach. This is why we start each project with careful consideration of the client’s requirements.

This helps us to create a project plan and approach that preserves as much of your original historic roof as possible while adding a few modern touches and upgrades that’ll help improve the roof’s durability and energy efficiency. Our process involves several steps:

Assessment

To successfully renovate a historical roof, assessment is crucial. Assessments allow us to identify the location of the damage(s) and their extent. Since wear and tear are not always immediately visible, we might have to remove several tiles and other roofing components to see how things are underneath. We also look inside the roof for leaks and any other signs of damage. Based on what we find, our expert technicians will create a comprehensive report of the state of the roof.

Research

For roofs that have been significantly neglected or damaged, historical research becomes a crucial part of the entire restoration process. Our experienced and professional team of technicians will consult photographic and archival records to see what your roof looked like when it was in its prime. This also helps us determine if we need to use historically accurate materials and tools when restoring your roof.

Repairs

How we handle repairs will mainly depend on how bad the damages are and the building materials involved. For instance, the restoration of copper and other metal roofs generally involves removing, cleaning, and repairing individual elements as needed before reinstalling them. We always do our best to ensure that we use original materials where possible – especially when it comes to ornate architectural features that would otherwise be expensive to reproduce. For clay and slate tiles, we assess every individual shingle, retaining those that are still in great condition while replacing damaged ones with modern reproductions.