Roofing in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin

Named For A Fort, Built On A River, And Hit By More Wind Than Anywhere Else We Work

In 1832, during the Black Hawk War, General Henry Atkinson’s forces built a stockade on the Rock River and called it Fort Koshkonong. The war ended, the fort came down, and the settlement that grew on the site took the general’s name instead. Today it is the largest city entirely inside Jefferson County, at 12,579 people — bigger than the county seat at Jefferson, and big enough to support its own hospital, its own historic districts along Main Street and Merchants Avenue, and a genuine downtown.

Two things here are genuinely unusual. The first is that Fort Atkinson has been a publishing town for a hundred and forty years: William Dempster Hoard founded Hoard’s Dairyman here in 1885, it went on to be read across the country, and Hoard himself became governor of Wisconsin in 1889. The magazine still operates. The second is the Panther Intaglio — a 125-foot effigy figure cut into the ground rather than mounded up, and the last surviving intaglio of its kind in the state.

For roofing purposes, though, the defining fact is the weather, and it is not what people expect. The National Weather Service database records 43 severe events at Fort Atkinson since 2005, which is more than any other town we cover. But only 13 of those are hail. 31 are straight-line wind and eight are tornadoes.

On the evening of August 18, 2005, five separate tornadoes touched down in or around Fort Atkinson inside about half an hour — the first at 6:15 p.m. five and a half miles west of town near the end of West Grove Road, the last at 6:45 p.m. three miles southeast, where it uprooted trees and tore apart a corn bin. In June 2010 an 81 mile an hour gust took down trees across the southwest side. In July 2010 an EF0 developed near Highway 26 and the Rock-Jefferson county line. That is a different risk profile from Lake Mills or Oconomowoc, and it calls for different attention: nailing patterns, edge and rake detail, ridge attachment, and flashing that is fastened rather than relying on sealant.

The housing stock reinforces it. The older neighborhoods along the river are pre-war two-stories and Victorians — steep, cut up, and originally built for slate or shake before being re-covered in asphalt. Steep sheds water beautifully and catches wind badly. South of town the Lake Koshkonong properties add open-water exposure on top. And downtown floods from the Rock River periodically, which is a reminder that on a river town the gutters and the drainage matter as much as the shingles.

Do You Need A Roofing Permit In Fort Atkinson?

Yes. The City of Fort Atkinson requires a permit to re-roof — City of Fort Atkinson — Permit FAQs: “Replacement of roof structure: Yes · Reshingle or leak repair: Reshingle – Yes, Leak repair – No · Replacement of siding Yes” We pull it before the crew arrives and it is a line item on your estimate rather than a surprise; a permit pulled by the homeowner makes the homeowner responsible for code compliance on somebody else’s work. A leak repair alone needs none.

Questions go to Neighborhood and Building Services on (920) 397-9901. The answer differs town to town because SPS 320.09(2)(b) leaves permits for alterations and repairs to local ordinance.

A River Town: Gutters Matter As Much As Shingles

Fort Atkinson floods. Not catastrophically and not often, but the Rock River backs up into the downtown periodically, and living in a river town changes what you should worry about on a building.

The point people miss is that a roof’s job does not end at the shingles. It ends wherever the water is finally put down, and on an older Fort Atkinson house that is frequently the wrong place: a gutter undersized for the roof it serves, one downspout doing the work of two, and the outlet discharging three feet from a hundred-year-old fieldstone foundation. In a town that already has a high water table after a wet spring, that is how you get a wet basement and blame the wrong trade.

So on a house here we look at the whole path. Is the gutter five inch or six, and is that right for the pitch and area feeding it? Are there enough downspouts, and are they at the low points? Is the fascia sound enough to carry hidden hangers, or has spike-and-ferrule gutter already worked it loose? And where does the water actually end up — extensions, a buried drain, or a splash block six inches from the wall?

The wind history makes it more pressing rather than less. This is the most wind-exposed town we cover, and a gutter that is only just attached is the first thing to come off in an eighty mile an hour gust — which then takes fascia and soffit with it, and turns a gutter job into a carpentry job.

None of that is expensive to get right at the same time as a roof. All of it is expensive to fix separately afterward.