Dodd Roofing and Exteriors

Dodd Roofing and Exteriors Dodd Roofing and Exteriors is a family owned and operated roofing company in Idaho, Texas and North Dakota!

09/01/2026

In the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson was an early advocate of metal roofing and installed a standing-seam tin roof at Monticello—pretty advanced for a time when wood shingles were still extremely common across the country.

Metal roofing eventually became popular because it was lighter, more fire-resistant, and required less maintenance than many traditional roofing materials.

It also handled weather surprisingly well, which was a pretty big deal when your alternative was essentially putting thousands of pieces of wood on top of your house and hoping lightning stayed away.

Jefferson reportedly became so obsessed with the roof that he would walk outside every morning, stare at it for several minutes, nod approvingly, and quietly whisper, “Yeah… that’s not going anywhere.”

Historians believe this was the earliest recorded use of the phrase later adopted by every dad securing absolutely anything with a ratchet strap.

There are also completely legitimate and definitely-not-made-up reports that Jefferson briefly considered adding a second story to Monticello just so he could “get more roof up there.” The plan was abandoned after his contractor informed him that this was, quote, “an absolutely insane reason to renovate a house.”

Jefferson allegedly responded by staring silently at the roof for another 45 seconds before saying, “You just don’t understand craftsmanship.”

Despite the extremely questionable historical records surrounding that conversation, the real history is actually pretty impressive.

Metal roofing has been used on prominent American buildings for more than 200 years, and many of the reasons people liked it then—durability, fire resistance, longevity, and low maintenance—are still some of the biggest reasons homeowners choose metal roofs today.

So while roofing technology has changed dramatically since Jefferson’s time, one thing apparently hasn’t:

People still love standing outside and admiring a really good roof.

08/28/2026

Dodd Gives Back Episode 001:

National Dog Day 🐶

🐶

08/26/2026

Apparently giving away thousands of dollars looks a little suspicious.

For the record, nobody stole anything. And please don’t call Dad.

08/25/2026

Ancient Romans were using clay roofing systems more than 2,000 years ago, combining flat tiles called tegulae with curved tiles called imbrices that covered the seams and helped shed water.

The system worked so well that archaeologists still uncover Roman roof tiles across Europe today.

Some even have maker stamps, fingerprints, and animal foot prints permanently baked into the clay, giving historians a surprisingly personal look at the people—and apparently animals—who were hanging around ancient tile yards.

Roman roofing crews were reportedly supervised by a highly respected foreman known as the Roofus Maximus, whose main responsibility was standing safely on the ground while yelling, “That row looks crooked!” at everyone actually doing the work. Historians have yet to confirm whether he also disappeared for three hours to “grab materials.”

Romans also understood the importance of roof pitch, drainage, and overlapping materials, so the basic principles behind their roofs really aren’t that different from what we use today.

Their buildings were designed to move rainwater away efficiently, and clay tile became popular because it was durable, fire-resistant, and could last for generations.

08/21/2026

Leo needed a roof.

Zeke handled it.

Pretty standard day around here.

08/20/2026

By the 1920s and 1930s, asphalt shingles were becoming increasingly common across the United States.

As suburban housing construction exploded later in the century, especially after World War II, asphalt shingles became an almost perfect match for mass-produced American housing: relatively inexpensive, reasonably durable, available in different colors, and fast for roofing crews to install.

What makes it interesting is that asphalt roofing was essentially construction technology disrupting an industry that had been doing things roughly the same way for hundreds of years.

Today, seeing asphalt shingles on a house feels completely ordinary.

But about a century ago, that roof would have represented a newer generation of building technology—lighter, standardized, mass-produced, and designed for the rapidly growing modern American city.

08/13/2026

In medieval Europe, the size and design of your roof could literally affect how much you paid in taxes.

In some regions, buildings were assessed based on the size or number of hearths, rooms, or other indicators of wealth—and larger homes with more substantial roofs often signaled that the owner had more money.

This helped encourage some surprisingly creative architecture.

Wealthier homeowners could afford steeper, more complicated roofs with multiple gables, dormers, and decorative timber work, while poorer households generally relied on simpler roof structures using locally available materials such as thatch.

Roofing materials themselves also became a status symbol.

Slate and clay tile were considerably more expensive than thatch, but they were more durable and far less vulnerable to fire.

As medieval towns became denser, governments increasingly encouraged or required more fire-resistant roofing.

A tile or slate roof wasn’t just about keeping rain out—it could communicate that the building’s owner had money.

One of the biggest changes came as cities began experiencing devastating urban fires.

After major fires, authorities frequently introduced building rules requiring tile, slate, or other non-combustible roofing materials.

Over time, these regulations helped transform the appearance of European towns, replacing large amounts of thatched roofing with more durable materials.

So the next time you look at an old European building with a massive slate roof, you’re not just looking at an architectural choice—you may be looking at the result of centuries of taxation, fire regulations, wealth, and roofing technology all colliding.

08/12/2026

During the 1700s and 1800s, Welsh slate became one of the most sought-after roofing materials in the world, and some of it made its way overseas in a surprisingly practical way: aboard sailing ships as ballast.

Large sailing vessels needed heavy material stored low in the hull to keep the ship balanced and stable during long ocean crossings.

Slate was dense, durable, easy to stack, and—unlike useless stones—could actually be sold once the ship reached port.

So shipments of Welsh slate could serve two purposes: helping stabilize the vessel at sea, then becoming valuable building material after arrival.

Once unloaded, that slate was often split into thin, overlapping tiles and used on homes, churches, factories, and other major buildings.

Welsh slate had an incredible reputation because it was naturally water-resistant, fire-resistant, and durable enough to last for generations.

Some properly installed slate roofs have survived well over a century.

So imagine the life of a single roofing slate: quarried from a mountainside in Wales, hauled to a port, loaded into the belly of a wooden sailing ship, carried across a violent ocean, unloaded thousands of miles away, hand-split into a roofing tile, and nailed onto a building where it might remain for the next 100–200 years.

Before it ever protected a house from rain, it may have helped keep an entire ship upright in the Atlantic.

07/29/2026

In medieval Norway, the roofs of stave churches were covered with thousands of overlapping wooden shingles, often made from dense, resin-rich heart pine.

The shingles were arranged almost like reptile scales, creating steep, layered roof systems designed to shed heavy rain and snow.

What makes it especially wild is that many of these wooden roofs were repeatedly coated with pine tar to protect them from moisture and decay.

That maintenance tradition helped some stave churches survive for 800–900 years. Norway once had roughly 1,300–2,000 stave churches, but only 28 survive today.

So centuries before modern synthetic underlayments and engineered roofing products, Scandinavian roofers were essentially building multi-layered, water-shedding wood roof systems and preserving them with a renewable waterproofing treatment—and some are still standing today.

07/28/2026

During Korea’s Unified Silla period (676–935 AD), the capital city of Gyeongju was reportedly so prosperous that tiled roofing wasn’t reserved for palaces, temples, or wealthy families.

The Samguk Yusa, one of Korea’s earliest surviving historical texts, says that ordinary dwellings throughout the capital had tile roofs—an impressive level of urban development for more than 1,000 years ago.

And these weren’t just plain clay tiles. Along the edge of the roof, builders installed specially made roof-end tiles that capped the curved rows at the eaves.

Many were decorated with detailed lotus flowers, floral medallions, bead patterns, and other designs.

So essentially, ancient Korean roofs were doing three jobs at once: protecting the home from weather, finishing the roof system with purpose-built edge pieces, and turning the roofline itself into architectural artwork.

Address

1711 S Millennium Way Ste 130
Meridian, ID
83642

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 6pm
Tuesday 8am - 6pm
Wednesday 8am - 6pm
Thursday 8am - 6pm
Friday 8am - 6pm

Telephone

+12082959421

Website

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