Birchwood is one of Bellingham's most practical neighborhoods: modest midcentury ranches and split-levels on the city's northwest side, laid out in the postwar decades along streets like Birchwood Avenue and Northwest, close to Squalicum Creek and the parkway trail. Most of these houses were built between the 1950s and the 1970s, which means their roofs share a family of traits, and by now most are on their second or third covering. How that next roof gets done matters more than most owners realize.
The Midcentury Roof Problem
The low-pitched rooflines common in Birchwood were often built with minimal overhangs and thin plywood or plank decks. Several homes we have re-roofed here still carried two old shingle layers, and doubling up layers on a 60-year-old deck hides soft spots that should have been cut out and replaced. Low pitch also means water moves slowly, so any moss colony, and Bellingham grows moss enthusiastically, holds moisture against the roof surface far longer than it would on a steep Victorian.
Ventilation is the other quiet issue. Many Birchwood attics were built with a couple of gable vents and nothing else, so winter moisture from the living space condenses on the underside of the roof deck. We regularly find deck staining and rusty shingle nails that have nothing to do with leaks and everything to do with trapped air.