Roof replacement in Montville Township near Medina, Ohio

Where is Montville Township?

Montville Township borders the City of Medina on the south and east. Part of the city actually lies inside the township's northwest corner. Medina Township is to the north, Sharon Township to the east, Guilford Township to the south and Lafayette Township to the west. It covers about 21 square miles, and its population reached 13,131 at the 2020 census, more than Medina Township's.

The township was established in 1820, two years after the first settlers arrived, and takes its name from an early landowner's former home in Vermont. For most of its history it was farmland. Its best-known neighborhoods date from the 1990s onward.

What kinds of homes and roofs are in Montville Township?

Fox Meadow

The best-known neighborhood is Fox Meadow, just south of the city. The Fox Meadow Country Club on Fox Meadow Drive opened in 1996, and homes went up around the course in the years that followed. Country Lakes of Fox Meadow is one of its sections, with its own sub-association under the Fox Meadow homeowners association.

Houses near a golf course tend to be designed to be looked at, and that shows in the roofs. Expect hip roofs in place of plain gables, several street-facing gables, dormers, and bays with their own small roofs. All of that adds hips, ridges and valleys, and each one needs cap shingles, membrane or flashing.

Subdivisions along the township roads

Beyond Fox Meadow, the township has other neighborhoods from the 1990s and 2000s with two-story homes on roomier lots than in town. Their roofs resemble the colonials inside Medina's city subdivisions, usually a size up.

Older farmhouses and frontage homes

Along State Route 57 and the older roads you still find farmhouses and mid-century homes on frontage lots. Their roofs are simpler, and their decking and flashing are older.

What does a complex roof change?

• More squares than the floor plan suggests. Steep pitches and overlapping planes add surface. A house that looks like 30 squares from the street can measure closer to 40.
• More waste. Shingles cut along every hip and valley produce offcuts. A cut-up roof uses more bundles per square than a plain one.
• More cap. Every hip and ridge is covered with cap shingles made for the purpose, and a hip roof has several times the cap length of a gable roof.
• More membrane. Ice and water shield belongs in every valley as well as at the eaves. Long valleys on a large roof use a lot of it.
• More setup. Steep sections need roof jacks, planks and harness anchors before a single shingle is pulled.

None of this is a reason to worry. It is the reason a quote for a Montville roof should come from someone who has measured it, not from a satellite estimate alone. The Medina roof cost page shows how each of these moves the number.

Who issues roofing permits in Montville Township?

Not the City of Medina. Montville is unincorporated, so building permits come under the Medina County Building Department at 791 West Smith Road. The county's regulations make each applicant responsible for following local township rules as well, and zoning is enforced by the township.

The county takes applications through its online permit portal. Its residential fee schedule does not list reroofing as a separate item, so the county office is the one to say whether your particular job needs a permit. That question is answered before a date is set.

Be careful with the city line here. Because the city reaches into the township, some streets with a Montville feel are inside Medina and use the city's roof permit. Montville Farms, despite the name, was platted as a city subdivision in 1990. The parcel record settles it.

What should you check with your association?

If your home is in Fox Meadow or another neighborhood with covenants, look for three things before you choose a shingle.

1. Whether exterior changes need written approval, and how long approval takes.
2. Whether roof colors are limited to a list.
3. Whether there are rules about dumpsters, work hours or street parking.

Your written quote names the shingle line and color, and you can pass it to the board as it stands. Because the price is good for a year, a slow approval does not cost you anything. See the shingle page for how colors are compared at the house.

How do you get started?

Book a free roof inspection. The owner drives up from North Canton, roughly 45 minutes, and inspects the roof himself. On a large roof that takes a little longer, and the photo report is correspondingly bigger: every valley, every hip, each chimney chase and each roof window. It reaches you the same day with a rating of Good, Watch or Replace Soon. From there the steps are the same as for any roof replacement in the Medina area.