Roof Replacement in Nimishillen Township Around Louisville, Ohio
Plenty of homes with a Louisville, Ohio, address are not in the city at all. They are in Nimishillen Township, on bigger lots with older farmhouses, long ranches and more wind, and their permits run through different offices.
Quick facts
- Where
- The township surrounding Louisville: Louisville Street, Easton Street, Columbus Road, Ravenna Avenue, Georgetown Street, Meese Road and Harrisburg.
- Housing era
- Mixed. Census estimates put the median home at 1964, with about one in four built before 1940.
- Typical roofs
- Steep farmhouse roofs with lower additions, and long, low ranch roofs on open lots.
- Permit offices
- Nimishillen Township zoning, 4915 North Nickelplate, and the Stark County Building Inspection Department in Canton.
Where is Nimishillen Township?
All around Louisville. The township was organized in 1809, covers about 31.7 square miles of eastern Stark County and had 9,354 residents at the 2020 census, nearly as many as the city it wraps. Atlantic Boulevard, which is U.S. Route 62, cuts across the north half. Ravenna Avenue carries State Route 44 north from town, and Louisville Street, Easton Street, Columbus Road, Georgetown Street and Meese Road tie the rest together. The community of Harrisburg sits in the north part of the township, with Molly Stark Park on Columbus Road between it and Louisville.
What kind of houses are out here?
Almost all are single-family. Census estimates count about 3,690 housing units in the township, 94 percent of them detached houses, and close to nine in ten of the occupied ones are lived in by their owners. The median build year is 1964, nine years older than in the city. That number hides two different groups.
About 870 homes predate 1940. These are farmhouses and the houses of the old crossroads settlements. Then came the ranches: roughly 1,760 homes from the 1950s through the 1970s, many of them on large lots along the township roads. Listings show the pattern, such as a 1955 brick ranch on Reno Drive, a 1958 brick ranch on Louisville Street and a 1961 ranch on Easton Street.
What should you know about a farmhouse roof?
A farmhouse is rarely one roof. The original two-story block has a steep gable. A kitchen wing was added behind it at a lower pitch, then a porch, then perhaps a mudroom with a roof that is nearly flat. Each addition meets the one before it at a wall or a valley, and every one of those joints was flashed by a different person in a different decade.
- Expect board decking on the oldest section and plywood on the newer ones.
- Expect layers. Two layers of shingles on the main roof is common.
- Check the low sections. Asphalt shingles need a slope of at least 2 in 12. A flatter addition roof needs a membrane from a contractor who installs them. This service is asphalt shingles only.
- Look at the chimneys. Old houses often have one that is no longer used and has not been flashed properly in years. See chimney flashing repair.
The detached garage can be reroofed along with the house when it has a shingle roof. Barns and pole buildings with metal panel roofs are outside what is offered here.
How does open ground change a roof?
A house on a township road does not have a row of neighbors breaking the wind. Gusts cross open fields and hit the roof edge at full strength, and the west and south slopes take most of it. Three details matter more here than on a sheltered city street: a sealed starter strip along every eave and rake, nails placed in the marked strip so each shingle is held by the layer above, and architectural shingles with their higher wind rating. The architectural shingles page explains the ratings.
What about trees?
Where a house sits beside a woodlot or behind a row of spruce or pine planted as a windbreak, needles and twigs collect in the valleys and behind the chimney. They hold water like a sponge. Clearing them once or twice a year does more for the roof than any product.
Who handles roof permits in Nimishillen Township?
Not the City of Louisville. Outside the city limits, two offices are involved.
- Nimishillen Township zoning. The zoning inspector works from the township office at 4915 North Nickelplate. Zoning covers what is built where.
- Stark County Building Inspection Department. Located at 7235 Whipple Avenue NW in Canton, it covers the unincorporated parts of the county and enforces the residential building code for one, two and three family homes. It describes its permits as being for new structures and structural changes to existing buildings.
Whether a like-for-like reshingle with no structural change needs a county permit is a question for that office, and it gets answered for your address before any work is scheduled. The blog post on roof permits in Louisville versus Nimishillen Township sets the two systems side by side.
Unsure whether the city or the township has your parcel? The Stark County Auditor's record names the taxing district. Either way, the first step is the same: a free roof inspection, and if the roof needs replacing, the scope on the Louisville roof replacement page applies out here too.
Questions about roofs in Nimishillen Township
How do I know if my house is in Louisville or in Nimishillen Township?
Your mailing address will say Louisville either way, so it does not tell you. Look up your parcel on the Stark County Auditor's website and read the taxing district. It will name either Louisville City or Nimishillen Township.
Do you replace barn or pole building roofs?
No. The work is asphalt shingle roofs on houses and on garages that have shingle roofs. Metal panel roofs on barns and pole buildings need a contractor who installs metal.
House out in the township?
The owner drives out, climbs up and sends the photo report that day. A Louisville address is all it takes to book.