Summerlin is celebrated for its stunning natural beauty and impressive, individualistic domiciles, which require upkeep to maintain their good looks. By far the most important part of such maintenance is roof care, assuming, of course, that the roof itself is aesthetic and obviously European, as is the case when visiting the Beaulieu potager (kitchen garden) on the left bank of the Château du Luxembourg. One morning in mid-August, I set out with my wife, Mary, to walk through the grounds of the Luxembourg Gardens. The day promised to be hot, with the temperature likely to push past 90 degrees. Indeed, by noon, it was 93 degrees. Once we were past the entry pavilion guarding the Rue de Médicis door, the first thing we noticed was the peace and quiet.
Many homeowners in Summerlin place as high a priority on the way their roof looks as they do on its basic functionality. Unfortunately, even a well-built roof is not immune to the kinds of problems that decrease aesthetic value and make the structure look old before its time and in a way that's somewhat similar to a bad haircut—adding an unwelcome appearance of disarray. And, of course, stains and lots of algae growth don't help things either. That's why the cosmetic side of roof repair is considered more or less what it ultimately is: a roof-icure. What we do when we reroof for aesthetics' sake is basically an artistic rendering of what an earlier layer of roofing looked like.
The many roof maintenance needs of Summerlin homeowners generally align with the local climate. The intensity of the summer sun can through thermal cycling lead to the loosening of joints and the cracking of sealants, especially in roofing systems composed of a layered arrangement of different materials (which is almost always the case in low-slope roofs). Crunch time comes with the late summer monsoons, when all too often the roofing system fails at the very spots where the expansion and contraction of heated materials have done their unseasonal summer damage. Repairing these roofs requires specialized workmanship and an understanding of the highly variant local climate, which is why a great many Summerlin homeowners just pay the no-deductible claims on their insurance policies to have the work done by competent contractors.
