Designer Shingle, HOA-Approved, Preston

The Situation

A mid-1990s two-story in Preston, the planned-community core of Cary that wraps Prestonwood Country Club, where the architectural covenant governs shingle color and material before any exterior work begins. The owners had the original builder-grade three-tab roof from the home's first decade and wanted to step up to a designer slate-look profile when they sold the idea of selling within a few years. They called Summit & Oak not because of a leak but because two neighbors on the street had recently been turned around by the Preston architectural-review committee for submitting the wrong color, and they did not want to buy a roof twice. The home sits inside Cary town limits in Wake County, so the work falls under the Town of Cary Inspections and Permits department and the 2018 North Carolina Residential Code, with the HOA submittal running in parallel to the permit.

This was an end-of-life replacement, not a storm job, and the failure mode was the slow one Cary is known for rather than a single wind event. The roof was a builder-grade three-tab system around 28 years old, a single layer well past its 20-to-25-year design life, with a wind rating in the 60-to-70 mph range that no longer met the 115 mph ASCE 7-16 design wind speed for Wake County at Exposure B. The mature hardwood canopy that makes Preston beautiful had done the rest: years of leaf litter and limb debris held moisture on the shaded north slope, where Gloeocapsa algae had streaked the field black and accelerated granule loss, while the south and west planes that take full afternoon sun had gone brittle and chalky. The original three-tab tabs had lost most of their sealant grip, so the roof was one good straight-line gust from a real problem, the exact wear curve a canopy lot drives faster than an open one.

The System We Installed

Full tear-off to the deck, then a GAF Camelot II designer shingle system installed to the 2018 NCRC: the two soft north-valley decking sheets cut out and replaced with new OSB re-nailed in a ring-shank pattern, GAF StormGuard self-adhered ice-and-water membrane at the eaves and through every valley, synthetic underlayment across the field in place of the old felt, new aluminum drip edge, and GAF Pro-Start starter strip at the eaves and rakes. The heavier oversized-tab Camelot II profile was set on a six-nail-per-shingle high-wind fastening pattern to validate its 130 mph limited wind warranty against the 115 mph Wake County design speed, with the color matched to the Preston covenant palette before a board was ordered. Choked soffit intake was opened and the ridge ventilation balanced so the upgraded assembly breathes, and the StainGuard Plus algae-resistant granules answer the canopy shade that streaked the original north slope.

Timeline & Constraints

Free in-person inspection within a couple of days of the call, climbing all four slopes and laying out shingle boards so the owners could see the designer profiles in their own light next to the covenant color on file. The architectural-committee submittal, color board, and product data sheet went to the Preston review board while the Town of Cary permit application ran alongside it, and the designer profile cleared committee on the first submission. The tear-off and full re-roof ran a single working day with a five-person crew once both approvals were in hand; the heavier Camelot II profile slows alignment, so the crew started at first light to finish the irregular-tab field in the same day. A passing morning shower the day before pushed the start back a few hours but did not split the job across two days. Final magnetic nail sweep of the drive and beds, then the Town of Cary final inspection cleared behind it.

The Outcome

Before: a chalky, algae-streaked 28-year-old builder three-tab at end of life, with a soft north valley and a wind rating two generations behind code. After: a designer slate-look Camelot II roof matched exactly to the Preston covenant, with the decking sound, the ventilation balanced, and the field fastened to hold its 130 mph wind warranty on a canopy lot. The roof passed the architectural-review committee on the first submission, so the owners never paid for a color mistake or a second trip through the board, and Summit & Oak filed the manufacturer system-warranty registration on their behalf. The finished roof carries our 25-year workmanship warranty, which transfers once to a new owner, a real signal on a Preston street where buyers shop for move-in-ready homes and a documented HOA-approved roof is part of the file. This was a planned end-of-life upgrade paid for by the homeowners, not an insurance job: no claim was filed, no deductible was involved, and no coverage outcome was promised.