Storm & Hail Damage Roof Replacement in Fairfax

The city of Fairfax and the county around it are dominated by 1960s-1990s subdivisions — split-levels, colonials and two-storey builder houses on quarter-acre lots — with an older core near the courthouse and a steady supply of 2000s infill.

A house built in 1975 with a 25-year architectural shingle put on in 1998 is on borrowed time and looks fine from the kerb. The subdivisions here went up together, which means they age together: when one street starts replacing roofs, the rest of the street is usually within three years of the same decision.

Builder-grade ridge venting and undersized soffit intake are the standard defect in this housing stock. An attic that cannot breathe cooks the shingle from underneath and shortens the roof's life by years, and it is not visible in any photo of the outside of the roof.

Fairfax County carries real hail and wind history — more logged NOAA reports than any other Virginia jurisdiction we serve — and hail bruising routinely passes a look from the driveway. Bruising crushes the mat under the granules; it shows on the roof and almost nowhere else.

Roofing permits for Fairfax are handled by Fairfax County Land Development Services. Their permit line is 703-222-0801. We pull the permit as part of the job — you are not meant to be chasing this — but it is your house, so you should know who is actually deciding.

Worth knowing: Fairfax County publishes replacement of roof shingles on the list of work that does NOT require a building permit, and it draws the line at the decking: replacing less than 256 square feet — nine boards — of roof plywood is also exempt, and more than that is not (townhouse sheathing that has to be fire-rated is treated separately). That threshold is the one number worth knowing here, because a storm job that finds rotten decking crosses it and a shingle-only job never does. Read from fairfaxcounty.gov/landdevelopment/when-permit-required on 2026-09-01.

Permit rules change and depend on the scope of the work — replacing shingles, replacing decking and rebuilding a roof structure are not treated the same. Confirm anything that matters to you with the office above rather than with any contractor's website, including ours.