Nombach Roofing - Chicago Roofing & Repairs

Nombach Home Exteriors in Blue Island, just south of downtown Chicago, is here for all your roofing needs! We have decades of experience in a variety of roofing and roofing repairs, including shingle roofs, flat roofs, asphalt roofs, silver coating for roofs, and commercial and industrial roofs. Our experts are ready to provide you with the greatest performance value and maximum service life for your roofing investment. We've proudly served the Chicago area for many years, and are ready to help solve your roofing dilemmas.

Millions of years ago, Man was able to climb out of the mud and do something that no other species had ever done before - man learned to control his environment. Starting with simple things like clothing, and then moving onto ever larger endeavors such as the building of homes, Mans control of his environment is still being expanded today. Of the many small steps in this process, housing was the most important: safety from powerful storms, fires, wars, and myriad other worries forced man into caves as their first formal "house".

Caves provided reliable, sturdy, and usually maintenance-free shelter, however, caves also created a problem. As hunter-gatherers, early Man could only forage within a safe distance of his "home". Straying too far could mean death by wild animals, the suffering of brutal weather phenomena such as tornadoes, and other disasters.

At some point in the distant past, it finally became clear to someone, that living in a cave was becoming more of a hindrance than a benefit: as cave dwelling communities grew in population, already scarce natural resources became ever more difficult to acquire. What was needed was "a cave" that could be literally taken along with a family, no matter how far the family traveled in search of new resources. The answer to the problem was what we would recognize today as a house. Man had figured out the way to take his shelter with him, instead of finding a shelter and staying with it - a breakthrough in Man's history.

Housing quickly moved through many different designs, looking for the "best fit". As housing experiments went on in earnest, it quickly became obvious that the one piece of a house that makes the entire structure both safe and effective was the roof. Without a good roof to repel water, the walls would fall under their own weight if it ever rained. The roof protected the people in the house from more than just rain though - the roof stood in between Man and all manner of hazards: birds and their droppings; sunstroke in the summer and frostbite in the winter.

New roofing methods were actively researched by the Romans in the year 100 BC. They discovered slating and tiling systems, variants of which are still in use today.

Somewhere around 730AD, thatched roofing was widely introduced by both the Greeks and Romans. It was discovered that thatching was a simple yet effective roofing system, and the materials to make a new room and roof were readily available almost anywhere a person or family was likely to travel.

Thatched roofing was a widely accepted and fairly reliable roofing method in use for several millennia: it is even in use today. Were it not for the ease at which thatching catches fire, it might still be a predominant roofing material today. Unfortunately though, fire is a common and potentially deadly problem with thatching, and in the twelfth century King John took steps to end the fire menace that the large numbers of thatched roofs had created. The King issued a decree requiring the citizens of London to replace all thatched roofing with clay tiles. This decree created a sudden demand for these modern roofing tiles, as well as for people who knew how to install and maintain them. The incredibly high demand for these tiles created a mass production industry, and with it, the first "standardized roof".

The King's tiles remained the roofing system of choice, with a few minor variations, until the beginning of the 20th century, when concrete roofing was first used.

While roofing methods and styles are pretty uniform today, minor regional differences make for an abundance of individual expression: adobe in the southwest, timber in the midwest, slate tiles in the northeast, etc. Whatever the styles or materials used, every roof will eventually need maintenance. Because modern roofs are complex mechanical systems (unlike our thatched roof cousins had), it is important that only trained professionals make any repairs. Professional repairs will guarantee that your roof will continue to provide you with many many decades of faithful service.

At Nombach Home Exteriors, our professional roofing technicians are here to help you with all your roofing needs. In addition to roofing, Nombach offers a number of other services including tuckpointing and gutter guards installation. Stop by Nombach's showroom in Blue Island, conveniently near Chicago, to see all the services we have to offer.