If you've scheduled a roof replacement for your Ada, MI home, the day itself can feel like a mystery: a crew arrives at dawn, the driveway fills with equipment, and by evening the house looks brand new. Here's what's actually happening in between — so you know what's normal, what to ask about, and how to prepare. Before the crew arrives A few days ahead of your installation date, materials are staged. On many Ada projects — including the roof replacements documented in our portfolio — shingles arrive by boom truck or crane and are loaded directly onto the roof or staged in the driveway. That crane delivery you see in the photo above is a real Ada job of ours, not a stock image. Before the day starts, it helps to move vehicles out of the garage and driveway, take down fragile wall hangings (tear off vibrates the whole structure), and mark any landscaping you're concerned about so the crew can protect it. Tear off: the loud part The old roof comes off first — shingles, underlayment, and flashing, down to the bare deck. This is the noisiest stretch of the day. A quality crew protects your siding, gutters, and landscaping with tarps and plywood, and keeps a trailer or dump container close to the house so debris goes straight from roof to container. Because Grandville Roofing & Exteriors is employee owned and doesn't use subcontractors, the people tearing off your roof are the same crew that installs the new one — there's no handoff between a demo crew and an install crew, and no gap in accountability. The deck inspection — the step that matters most With the deck exposed, the crew inspects the wood underneath. This is the one point in the project where hidden problems surface: soft or rotted decking, old storm damage, previous repairs that weren't done right. Bad decking gets replaced before anything new goes on top of it — shingles are only as good as the surface they're fastened to. This is also why a written estimate matters. If you haven't read ours yet, our guide to reading a roofing estimate explains how decking replacement is typically handled. Underlayment, flashing, and ice protection West Michigan winters are hard on roof edges, so the layers under the shingles do a lot of the work: ice and water protection along the eaves and valleys, underlayment across the deck, drip edge at the perimeter, and new flashing around chimneys, walls, and penetrations. As a CertainTeed ShingleMaster company, we install these components to the manufacturer's specifications — which is also what keeps shingle warranties intact. Shingle installation and ventilation Shingles go on from the eaves up, with ridge caps finishing the peak. Ventilation is addressed at the same time — intake at the soffits, exhaust at the ridge — because a roof that can't breathe ages prematurely. If you want the deeper story on airflow, we covered it in our Kentwood roof ventilation guide. Cleanup and final walkthrough A proper cleanup includes magnetic sweeps of the lawn and driveway for nails, hauling away all tear off debris, and a final walkthrough with you. Straightforward residential replacements are often finished in a single day; steep, complex, or larger roofs can run longer — your estimate should tell you which to expect before the crew ever arrives. Getting ready for yours After more than 50 years serving Ada, Grand Rapids, and the surrounding communities, we've refined this process into a predictable day rather than a disruptive one. If your roof is showing its age, start with a free inspection — we'll tell you honestly whether it needs replacement, repair, or just more time. See our Ada roof replacement guide for how to plan the project, or request your free inspection today.
