Licensed Roofing Contractor in Carefree, AZ

Boulders, Black Mountain and Easy Street: what's on Carefree's roofs

Tom Darlington and K.T. Palmer started selling Carefree land in 1955, and homebuilding followed in 1958. They had fun with the street names, from Easy Street and Ho Hum Road to Nonchalant Avenue, but the development rules were serious and kept houses off the mountainsides. The town incorporated in 1984 and still counts fewer than 4,000 residents.

Roofs here track the era a house was built. The early custom homes include 1970s Territorial and Santa Fe ranches under tile on lots of an acre or more, some with a hot-mopped rolled roof over the flat parts, plus 1970s mid-century modern homes with built-up flat roofs. A late-1980s Territorial home can carry a built-up and foam roof with HVAC units sitting on top. The Boulders, which straddles the Carefree and Scottsdale line, leans Southwestern and Territorial, from small casitas to custom homes on the golf course. Carefree Foothills, on the south slope of Black Mountain, laid out 77 custom home sites of one to four acres starting in 1996.

Town color rules, hillsides and weather in Carefree

Under Carefree's design standards, no exterior color on a home should exceed 40 percent light reflective value, and the town prefers hip roofs over gable ends. Solar panels on a flat roof have to sit behind the parapet. Lots where the ground rises or falls 10 feet or more across a 50-foot run fall under the town's Mountainside rules, which have their own development review manual. For a reroof, that mostly shows up in color and material choices: a coating or tile that reads fine in a Phoenix subdivision may be too bright here.

The desert gets its say too. Monsoon storms between June and September bring gusts that work at ridge caps and the edges of flat roofs, and boulder lots trap leaves and grit in valleys and scuppers. The 2005 Cave Creek Complex Fire, which burned 243,950 acres, is a reminder that wildfire belongs in the roofing conversation in this corner of the Valley. Granite outcrops and desert trees also shade part of many roofs while the rest bakes, so coatings and felt age unevenly. During an inspection we look at the shaded and sun-beaten faces separately.

Carefree roof costs

From our price sheet, on a 3,000 sq ft roof: shingle runs about $11,250–$14,250, a tile underlayment replacement $33,000–$48,000 and a complete tile tear-off $57,000–$78,000. Foam over an existing flat roof is $4.75–$6 per square foot. See every range on our pricing page.

• Roof area and how many separate roof forms the house has
• Flat sections behind parapets versus tile slopes
• Tile profile and whether your existing tile can be relaid
• A coating or tile color that meets the town's reflectance standard and any HOA rules
• Access on boulder-strewn or mountainside lots
• Decking and underlayment condition on 1960s and 1970s homes

The instant estimator is a fast way to see a range. A free inspection then nails down your scope.

Roofing services around Carefree

• Spray foam roofing in Carefree
• Tile roofing in Carefree
• Shingle roofing in Carefree
• Commercial roofing in Carefree

We're also up the road in Cave Creek and down the hill in Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Phoenix.