Old homes pitch pesky problem for roof repairs|[2/21/06]

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Six months after Hurricane Katrina, Vicksburg owners of antebellum and other older homes are facing an added hurdle in roof repairs.

Materials and knowledge.

The owners whose roofs were damaged by the storm were held up in their attempts to find a roofing contractor who knows how to repair roofs that may have been designed or built 100 or more years ago.

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One of the owners, Carolyn Stephenson, said the roof of her Annabelle Bed & Breakfast was damaged when Katrina blew in on Aug. 29. Today, a tarp is still covering part of the two-story home and leaks have limited rentals in affected rooms to days with fair weather, she said.

&#8220‘I’ll rent it to you if it doesn’t rain,’” Stephenson said she’s had to tell prospective customers of those rooms. &#8220If it starts raining, I don’t know what we’ll do.”

The roof of the home, which was built about 1868, needed a contractor willing to work on its high, steep slope.

&#8220Because our pitch is so high, just getting somebody who would walk out there was a problem,” Stephenson said of the need for an insurance-company-required assessment to be made.

The company she found to do the work, Phoenix Roofing Inc. of Katy, Texas, has stepped into a Vicksburg market flooded with demand and has rapidly built a reputation, especially in areas of town with older homes and buildings.

Phoenix owner Allen Klappenbach said roofing contractors in the region who faced severe backlogs following Katrina.

Klappenbach, who said he started Phoenix in Katy in January 2002 and moved here just this week, said his company has employed a peak of about 60 to 70 people here just before Christmas and has about 25 people working here now. Many of the roofing crews Phoenix has employed have been from out-of-town, including the Hattiesburg and Houston areas.

The company has moved all but about four of its employees here, however, and plans to stay here, Klappenbach said.

Klappenbach told the story of how he and another Phoenix manager landed here, while on their way to the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coasts following the storm. They were searching for scarce gasoline and ended up at a grocery store south of Interstate 20.

&#8220Finally we just decided to call a bed-and-breakfast, kind of thinking that nobody would really think of that,” Klappenbach said. &#8220Especially contractors – they’re not used to staying in the B&Bs.”

They happened to find a room at a bed-and-breakfast that had just had power restored and so had rooms available, Anchuca, 1010 First East St. The home’s roof had been damaged by the storm and it became Phoenix’s first Vicksburg customer.

&#8220We thought it was the right spot and ended up meeting some influential people early on and we’ve done the best we can to maintain that,” Klappenbach said.

Other bed-and-breakfasts or businesses whose roofs the company plans to repair are Annabelle, 501 Speed St.; Cedar Grove Inn, 2200 Oak St.; and The Corners Bed & Breakfast, 601 Klein St. The owners of those homes are awaiting funding from insurance companies.

Klappenbach said some of the materials his crews needed to repair the older roofs were not available from local suppliers. Much of the damage has required fixes that have had to be &#8220custom-built or rebuilt entirely.”

Klappenbach and a company manager, Derek Weichlein, said they’ve been impressed by the craftsmanship in the older homes here and, more important, by the warm welcome they have received from Vicksburg residents.

&#8220That’s what’s kept our chin up,” Weichlein said.

At least two other Phoenix employees are looking to buy homes and move their families here from the Houston area, Klappenbach added.

Weichlein said a Phoenix truck is set to pull the local Bed & Breakfast Association’s float in the Saturday’s Vicksburg Mardi Gras Parade.