Historic Roof Restoration in LaPlace, LA
Older houses along West 5th Street fall inside St. John Parish's LaPlace Historic District. We scope those roofs to the district's 2024 guidelines and hand you the photos and written scope your commission application needs.
Ask around LaPlace about historic houses, and you'll hear about the plantation homes. The parish's historic district reaches well past them. It follows West 5th Street, Main and Cardinal Streets, and East 5th Street, and its later period of significance runs through 1968. A 1950s cottage or a low 1960s ranch can be part of that district, and a new roof on it can need the parish's sign-off before the old one comes off.
On a district roof, our historic roof restoration work starts by identifying the material and reading what the LaPlace chapter asks of it.
A Parish District That Reaches Into the 1960s
St. John the Baptist Parish passed Ordinance 17-27 in 2017. It established local historic districts and landmarks and created a Historic District Commission to review building work against written design guidelines. LaPlace is one of four districts in the parish, with Garyville, Reserve and River Road. In August 2024, the parish published guidelines written district by district, so a LaPlace roof is weighed against the LaPlace chapter.
Those guidelines give the district two periods of significance. The first, 1793 to 1922, covers the Woodland Plantation era. The second, 1923 to 1968, covers the town that grew up after Woodland was subdivided in 1923. The buildings still standing are mainly 20th-century houses: bungalows, Minimal Traditional cottages with shallow gables and little overhang, and ranch houses with low-pitched gable or hip roofs.
So a LaPlace district roof can as easily be asphalt or asbestos shingle on a modest house as slate on a grand one, and the thing worth protecting is frequently the profile: a low pitch, a tight eave. Contributing status is settled property by property, and the parish's district records show where your address stands.
Slate, Asbestos and Asphalt in the LaPlace Chapter
The roofing chapter calls for repairs and replacements to maintain the roof's historic configuration, slope, and materials. Five of its rules shape our district scopes:
- Match the material itself: Replacement is meant to be in kind, slate for slate, with similar shape, size, and appearance; a color match alone falls short. A different material can work if it suits the style or an old photograph shows it on the house.
- Synthetic slate comes second: Where real slate cannot be used, a modern material that mimics it can be considered appropriate if it resembles the original and has suitable longevity. We are a DaVinci Roofscapes Authorized Installer, and on a slate house we price composite slate as the alternate behind natural slate.
- Asbestos shingle goes to a certified contractor: Removing or replacing an asbestos shingle roof involves a certified asbestos contractor and follows disposal regulations, and that work comes before any new roofing goes on. Where the shingles are staying, the guidelines ask for loose ones to be reattached and rusted nails replaced.
- Asphalt matched to what is there: Patches use shingles of the same size, color and scale. A full asphalt replacement matches the original in size, color, scale and overall look, so swapping a flat three-tab roof for a heavy dimensional shingle may not pass that test.
- Features go back where they were: Decorative details lifted for the work return in the same position and orientation. Dormers stay, and new ones need historic evidence. The guidelines also say an interior fireplace coming out should not take the exterior chimney with it, so we reflash a dead chimney and keep it.
The chapter also covers tile and metal: cracked tiles patched with tinted roofing cement, metal repainted to prevent rust and patched with matching material.
Your LaPlace District Roof and the Commission
Our house on West 5th is a 1950s cottage. If staff can approve a matching shingle reroof, is there still paperwork?
Yes. Planning and Zoning staff can approve routine maintenance without a commission hearing, but a full application package still goes in, and the department decides whether a reroof qualifies. Phone them before we schedule.
Will the commission accept composite slate on a house that has natural slate now?
Only once real slate has been ruled out, and the commission has the final word. Name the composite product by maker and color in the application, next to photos of the existing slate, so the commission can judge the match.
What does a reroof on a LaPlace district house run?
Our $13,000–$23,000 band covers a like-for-like asphalt reroof when the house itself is 2,000–2,500 sq ft. Slate, tile, metal, and composite slate work is quoted on a job-by-job basis after we measure the roof and confirm what the guidelines require.
A hurricane opened part of the roof. Do we wait on the commission before covering it?
Cover it first. The guidelines call for a temporary covering once it is safe to put one on. A tarp works, and carefully rolling roofing over the damage can hold until the old material is documented and a match is ordered.
What happens if the commission turns down our application?
You can revise the proposal and resubmit, and we will rework the specification with you. An appeal is the other route: it is submitted in writing to Planning and Zoning within 10 days of the commission's written decision, and the Parish Council confirms or reverses it.
Does a certificate replace the parish roofing permit?
No, it comes ahead of it. Work proceeds once the other required permits are issued. We file the parish reroof permit after the certificate is issued and the parish inspects the work.
From Application to the Commission Table
A certificate is requested from the St. John Parish Planning and Zoning Department for a Historic District Application, supported by photos, elevations, and plans. Applications go in complete, about three to four weeks before the commission meets, and the property owner has to be at that public meeting.
Our share is the record of the roof. The inspection produces dated drone and close-up photos of each slope, and the written estimate names the proposed product, its maker and color, and what stays, what gets matched, and what gets replaced. You file the application and speak to it at the meeting. Work starts only after the certificate is issued.
Work done without a valid certificate draws a stop-work order, and a half-stripped roof under one is a hard spot in hurricane season.
Who Puts Hands on a LaPlace District Roof
Our own crew on the roofing work.
Epic roofers handle tear-off, matching, and install here as on any other LaPlace roofing job, with no subcontractors, so whoever reads the approved scope builds it.
Records made as the work goes.
A drone flight and an attic check start the file, CompanyCam logs each stage, and the written estimate and its photos come back in 2–5 business days. The consultation itself carries no deposit.
Warranty terms you can read.
A full replacement carries our 5-year transferable workmanship warranty. Repairs also get written workmanship coverage, with shorter terms printed in the repair scope.
Walk the Roof Before You File With the Parish
Phone 225-396-8122 to arrange a free inspection of the district roof. If the parish has already told you whether the house is contributing, say so on the call. If the district records put the house outside the boundary, the commission step drops away, and the job becomes an ordinary roof repair in LaPlace or, for a roof at the end of its life, a roof replacement in LaPlace.
137 Girod Street, Suite 3, Mandeville, LA 70448
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