Buffalo's building boomWhy are so many Buffalo roofs due at the same time?
About 1,966 of Buffalo's roughly 6,500 homes were built from 2000 to 2009, according to Census estimates. That's close to a third of the city in one decade. Asphalt roofs installed then are now around 20 years old, the age when a hailstorm or strong wind often turns patchable wear into a full replacement.
Buffalo has been the Wright County seat since the 1860s, but most of today's city is much newer. The median Buffalo home was built in 1993, and the 2000s alone added more housing than the 1970s, 1980s and 1960s combined. Whole streets went up in a few years, with the same builders, the same shingle lines and the same roof shapes.
When a storm hits a neighborhood like that, it tends to hit everyone's roof at once. NOAA storm reports put 2-inch hail near our Buffalo job site on August 9 and 10, 2020, and 1.75-inch hail on May 30, 2022. On a 20-year-old shingle, the granules are thinner and the mat is stiffer, so hail breaks through more easily and wind lifts tabs that would have held when the roof was new.
Our advice for Buffalo's 2000s neighborhoods is the same whatever the weather brings: get the whole roof inspected, including the vents, flashing, gutters and siding, and keep the photos. If the roof has years left, you'll know. If it doesn't, you'll have a record showing what the last storm did.
