Roofing in Alexandria, VA: rowhouses, condo buildings and historic blocks

Neighborhood notes, with the rules that go with them

• Old Town. Laid out in 1749 around King Street and Washington Street, with Federal period buildings and brick and frame houses. It is part of the Old and Historic Alexandria District, which the Board of Architectural Review regulates.
• Uptown. The Parker-Gray district is mostly small rowhouses and townhouses, with its own BAR rules.
• Del Ray and Rosemont. Del Ray grew around Mount Vernon Avenue, with modest houses from the 1890s to 1941. Rosemont was developed in 1908 to 1914, with homes mostly built by 1930. Both are National Register districts, and neither is regulated by the BAR.
• Cameron Station. A former military site developed from 1999, with a community association that has an architectural review committee. Ask the association about its roof rules before work starts.
• Potomac Yard, Carlyle and Eisenhower East. Newer mixed-use, office and apartment areas. The Arlington side of Potomac Yard follows Arlington County permits.
• Fairlington and Parkfairfax. Colonial Revival garden-apartment complexes from the 1940s, now condominiums. Most of Fairlington lies in Arlington County.
• Landmark Mall. Now a redevelopment site, so we assume nothing about its roofs.

Three rulebooks for one roof

1. City Code Administration and the Permit Center. The office is at 4850 Mark Center Drive, takes applications through the APEX portal, and answers at 703-746-4200. Its permit page lists multi-family buildings of three or more units under Commercial and prints no roofing threshold. State code exempts 100 square feet or less of roof covering. We confirm what applies to your scope before we start.
2. Board of Architectural Review staff. In Old and Historic Alexandria and Parker-Gray, visible replacement roofing of 25 square feet or more goes to staff review, and flat and low-slope roofs are not reviewed by the Board. Slate and tile are replaced with the same material, and original metal with the same style of metal. No profile is pre-approved. A City policy has also called for a building permit above 100 square feet of roofing in those districts, so we confirm that figure with Code Administration. Staff answer at 703-746-3833.
3. Condo boards and associations. Condo roofs are usually common elements, so the association decides. The City's June 2022 memo says changes to load-bearing elements, roof assemblies included, need a Virginia registered design professional.

Storms and fallen limbs

Alexandria's news this year has been about power and water. Thunderstorms on the night of September 3 to 4, 2026 left more than 10,000 customers without power, brought flash flooding, and dropped trees on homes in the 700 block of North Columbus Street. Storms on June 11, 2026 cut power to more than 10,800 customers. The reports mention outages, trees and flooding, not roof damage, so we draw no roof conclusions. If a limb has hit your roof, call Dominion Energy about wires first. Then call us: we tarp the opening, photograph the damage for your claim and plan the permanent repair. Our emergency roof repair guide covers the steps before we arrive.

Two typical Alexandria calls

A chimney leak on an Uptown rowhouse. The brick chimney sits beside the stair, and a stain shows on the ceiling after a long rain. We would trace where water enters, which is often the flashing, and renew it. City guidance treats repair or in-kind replacement of under 25 square feet of roofing as needing no BAR review, so a flashing repair may not reach staff, though a larger scope would. The owner sees photos of the leak source and a written scope.

A fallen limb on a Rosemont house. A limb has punctured the back slope of a house built in the 1910s or 1920s. We would tarp the opening, photograph the damage, and return to repair the decking and roofing once the extent is known. Rosemont is not BAR regulated, and a deck replacement beyond 256 square feet would be a permit question for Code Administration. The owner sees the damage photos before the permanent plan.

Flat roofs, rubber, PVC and metal in Alexandria

Each page below is written for Alexandria buildings and covers when the material is the wrong one.

TPO Roofing

Welded white membrane for condo, apartment and small commercial roofs.

TPO in Alexandria

EPDM Roofing

One rubber sheet for rowhouse porches, additions and rear flat roofs.

EPDM in Alexandria

PVC Roofing

For kitchen exhaust, mixed-use roofs and crowded rooftops.

PVC in Alexandria

Metal Roofing

Standing seam for pitched roofs, with the Board's same-style rule explained.

Metal in Alexandria

Getting started

1. Call (571) 453-6515 or book a phone consultation, with your address.
2. We confirm the parcel's jurisdiction and any historic district.
3. We inspect the roof and photograph what we find.
4. You receive a written scope that notes what may need a City permit or BAR staff review.
5. We close the job with photos of the finished roof.

Frequently Asked Questions

Next Door to Alexandria

Arlington is a separate county with its own permits and shares part of Potomac Yard and most of Fairlington with the City. Falls Church is another independent city to the north. Springfield is Fairfax County. See all service areas.