Three-Flat and Courtyard Roofing in Lakeview
Dense blocks where one flat roof drains onto the next, so the source is rarely above the stain.
What goes wrong on roofs in Lakeview
Lakeview runs heavily to multi-unit: brick three-flats, vintage courtyard apartment buildings, and six-flats, nearly all with low-slope roofs behind parapets. Mixed in are frame cottages and two-flats from the 1880s and 1890s, many raised over a masonry base at some point, and a substantial amount of newer condominium construction. Roof decks are widespread. The vintage courtyard buildings are worth calling out separately: large low-slope roof areas, internal drains, and terracotta or masonry parapets that have been through a century of freeze-thaw.
Internal roof drains on the vintage courtyard buildings are a recurring problem: undersized, partially blocked, or with failed drain bowl seals that leak directly into the top-floor units. Parapet coping joints and the terminations where the membrane turns up the parapet wall account for most of the rest. On the smaller frame buildings, the transitions between the main roof and rear porch or addition roofs are the usual entry point.
Lakeview sits on the North Side, covering 60613 and 60657, so the roof detail above is specific to these blocks rather than to Chicago as a whole.
What gets called in around Lakeview
Internal roof drains on the vintage courtyard buildings are a recurring problem: undersized, partially blocked, or with failed drain bowl seals that leak directly into the top-floor units.
Roofing questions from Lakeview
The top-floor unit in our courtyard building keeps leaking. Why?
Often an internal roof drain. On vintage courtyard buildings the drains are frequently undersized, partly blocked, or have a failed seal at the drain bowl, and that leaks straight into the top floor. It can look like a roof leak when it is really a drain. Ask the roofer to check the drains first.
What is a drain bowl seal?
It is the clamped joint where the roof membrane meets the internal drain. When the seal or the clamping ring fails, water that should go down the drain runs under the membrane instead. It is a small part with an outsized effect, and replacing it is usually far cheaper than the water damage it causes.
Do the 1880s frame cottages in Lakeview need different roofing?
They do. Mixed in among the multi-unit buildings are frame cottages and two-flats from the 1880s and 1890s, often with pitched roofs and older decking rather than low-slope membrane. They need steep-slope work and a check of the old deck, which is a different job from the courtyard buildings beside them.
How often should a building’s roof drains be checked?
At least twice a year, spring and fall, and after big storms. Leaves, grit and debris build up and slow the drains, and a slow drain causes ponding that works at the seams through the winter. Clearing drains is cheap, and it prevents one of the most common causes of top-floor leaks.
Adjacent neighborhoods
- Lincoln ParkNorth Side
- North CenterNorth Side
- UptownNorth Side
- AndersonvilleNorth Side
Roofing estimate in Lakeview
Give us the address and what the roof is doing. 60613 and 60657 and the rest of the North Side are covered, and the estimate is free.