Roofing Contractor in Excelsior, MN
That One Construction Co. is a roofing contractor serving Excelsior and the Lake Minnetonka area. Whether you’re dealing with storm damage, an aging roof on an older home, or questions about what the permit process actually requires here, a roofer from That One Construction Co. can inspect your roof, give you an honest read, and handle the work from permit to final inspection.
Old homes, complex rooflines, and a permit process most contractors miss
Excelsior has the oldest housing stock of any community in the service area. The median construction year is 1970, and nearly 20% of homes were built before 1940. These aren’t the standard suburban ranch and rambler profiles that make up most replacement work in the metro. A significant share of Excelsior’s homes are Victorian and Craftsman-era structures with steep pitches, dormers, multiple valleys, and architectural details that require more careful installation than a straightforward suburban tear-off.
Age alone makes these roofs relevant. A home built in 1955 has likely been through at least one full replacement already. The question isn’t whether the roof is original but whether whoever installed the current one did it correctly on a complex structure, and whether enough winters have passed that it’s time again. On top of the age and geometry, Excelsior has a two-tier permit system for properties in the historic district or designated as Heritage Preservation Landmarks that most roofing contractors in the metro have never encountered. More on that in the permits section below.
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Two reasons Excelsior homeowners call a roofing contractor
Most calls to a roofing company in Excelsior start with one of two situations, and the path forward looks different for each.
The first is storm damage. Excelsior sits on the south shore of Lake Minnetonka, and open water changes how storms arrive. Wind coming from the west or southwest builds over the lake before it hits the shoreline, which means gusts arrive with more force than the same storm would deliver to an inland neighborhood. Hail damage on older rooflines with multiple valleys and penetrations is harder to assess from the ground, and the architectural details that make these homes distinctive are also the places where damage hides. The right first step is a free inspection from a roofer who knows what to look for on older, more complex structures. If there’s a legitimate claim, That One Construction Co. handles the process: we meet the adjuster on-site, manage the submission, and work through any disputes so you’re not navigating it alone.
The second situation is age. A roof on a 1940s or 1950s home has been through multiple replacement cycles. The current installation may be 15 or 20 years old without the homeowner being entirely sure when it went on or who did the work. In this case the conversation starts the same way it always does: a free inspection and an honest read on what’s actually there. That One Construction Co. applies the same 50% threshold the insurance industry uses to determine when repair makes more sense than full replacement. We will tell you if the roof doesn’t need replacing, even when that means walking away from the job.
What an Excelsior roof actually deals with
The lake exposure is real and specific. Storms tracking from the west or southwest have an unobstructed run across Lake Minnetonka before they reach the south shore. Wind-driven rain and hail arrive at higher velocity than they would in a neighborhood with miles of development buffering it. On older homes with complex rooflines, the vulnerable spots are the valleys, the dormers, and the flashing at every penetration and wall junction. These are the places a storm finds first and a roofer has to check most carefully.
The freeze-thaw cycle compounds everything on an older structure. Water gets under shingles, freezes, expands, and works the shingles loose over hundreds of cycles in a single winter. On a steeply pitched Victorian roofline with multiple intersecting planes, the geometry creates more opportunities for water to find an edge and get underneath. Nailing patterns matter because shingles need room to expand and contract without cracking.
Ice dams trace back to the attic. When heat escapes through a poorly ventilated attic, it melts snow at the ridge, the water runs to the cold eave edge, refreezes, and builds up. On older homes with attic configurations that weren’t designed around modern ventilation standards, getting the intake and exhaust balance right requires someone who understands how the whole structure works, not
Permits and inspections in Excelsior: the part most contractors skip
Every re-roofing job in Excelsior requires the standard Minnesota State Building Code permit, with two inspections: one after tear-off and ice barrier installation, and a final after the job is complete. That applies citywide.
What most roofing contractors don’t know is that Excelsior has a second permit layer. Properties within the Excelsior Downtown Historic District or individually designated as Heritage Preservation Landmarks require a Site Alteration Permit before any exterior work, including roofing. The trigger is specific: applying roofing material of a different kind, type, color, or texture than what’s already on the structure requires Heritage Preservation Commission review on a designated property. The Site Alteration Permit is filed with City Hall, reviewed by the HPC, and approved by the City Council. There’s no fee for it, but it has to happen before work starts.
A contractor who doesn’t know to check whether a property is a Heritage Preservation Site before pulling a standard building permit can leave a homeowner with unpermitted exterior work on a designated historic structure. That creates problems at the title level that are harder to resolve than a standard unpermitted roof. That One Construction Co. checks heritage designation status before the permit process begins. It’s part of how the job gets set up correctly from the start.
Properties outside the historic district and not individually designated follow standard state code only. No material or color restrictions apply in those cases.
Why That One Construction Co.
Joe Huber spent years building homes from the ground up before shifting focus to exterior contracting. That background matters on older, more complex structures in a way it doesn’t on a standard suburban replacement. He looks at how the roof plane sits on the wall system, where the drainage goes across multiple intersecting roof surfaces, whether the attic ventilation is adequate given the structure’s original configuration, and what the geometry of the roofline tells him about where water is moving and where it’s likely getting in. On a Victorian-era home with dormers and steep pitches, that’s a different inspection than a 1990s rambler.
That One Construction Co. has staff whose primary job is daily communication with insurance companies. On older homes with complex rooflines, storm damage assessments can be more involved, adjuster estimates can miss things a thorough inspection found, and the back-and-forth takes longer. Having a dedicated person following the claim rather than handling it between jobs makes a difference when the process runs long.
The company is privately owned with no outside investors. The decisions get made by the same people doing the work, and the work reflects it.
Your Excelsior roofing company
That One Construction Co. serves Excelsior and the surrounding area, including Minnetonka, Mound, and Shorewood. If you’re in Excelsior and need a roofer near you, the starting point is always the same: a free inspection, no obligation, and an honest answer about what you’re actually looking at.
Call or fill out the contact form to schedule yours.