Steeple People takes care of everything above your ceiling — steeples and roofs. Cleaning, patching, repair, coatings, restoration, and full roof replacement. We work at height so your congregation never has to.
Monday – Saturday · 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM
A steeple takes more weather than any other part of your building. Sun, wind, driving rain, and algae work on it year-round, and nobody sees the damage from the parking lot until it's already expensive.
By the time you can see staining, chalking paint, or an open seam from the ground, water has usually been getting in for a while. What starts as a wash-and-seal job becomes framing repair, then interior water damage, then a full replacement.
The same goes for the roof. It's the largest surface on the property and it protects everything underneath it, and almost nobody looks at it until there's a stain on the sanctuary ceiling.
We keep churches ahead of that curve on both. Clean it, seal it, look at it every year, and a steeple or a roof lasts decades longer for a fraction of what replacing it costs.
Most churches call us about one and find out they need something on the other. Since we're already up there, the assessment covers both — and you only pay to have equipment on site once.
Soft-wash removal of algae, mildew, oxidation, and road film — at the right pressure for your steeple's material.
See details →UV-stable coatings that stop chalking and fading, plus gold-leaf and metallic refinishing for crosses and finials.
See details →Open seams, cracked gelcoat, failed sealant, damaged louvers, loose flashing, leaning crosses, and storm damage.
See details →Close-up annual inspection with a photo report your trustees can actually use for budgeting.
See details →Full tear-off and new roof — architectural shingle, standing-seam metal, or low-slope membrane over fellowship halls and additions.
See details →Leaks traced to the actual source — valleys, flashing, penetrations, ridge, and storm damage — then patched properly.
See details →Soft washing that lifts the black streaking and moss off shingles without blasting the granules off with them.
See details →Annual photo-documented inspection, plus honest storm assessments if you're deciding whether to file a claim.
See details →You don't need to be up there to know something's wrong. Stand at the far end of the lot on a bright day and look up. Here's what to notice.
Almost always algae and mildew, usually worst on the north face where it stays damp. Cosmetic at first, but the organic growth holds moisture against the surface and shortens the life of the coating underneath.
Chalking. The binder in the paint has broken down under UV and the pigment is powdering off. Rub it with your hand and you'll come away with white residue. It means the protective layer is failing.
A joint has opened. Water follows gravity down the inside of the steeple from there, and you often won't see the damage until it reaches the ceiling below.
If it's showing up inside, water has been getting in for a while. This is the point where a wash-and-seal job can turn into framing repair, and every season of delay makes it more expensive.
A cross that isn't plumb has usually lost anchoring, often after a wind event. It's both a water-intrusion path and a safety issue, and it doesn't correct itself.
Louvers let the belfry breathe and keep weather out. When one is gone or loose you've got an open path for rain and birds, and nesting inside a steeple causes its own kind of damage.
Roofs fail slowly and then all at once. Every one of these is visible without a ladder — most from the ground, a couple from inside the building.
Airborne algae, extremely common across the Southeast. It isn't structural damage, but it holds heat and moisture against the shingle and it makes a well-kept building look neglected from the road.
Those granules are the shingle's UV protection. Once they're washing off in quantity, the asphalt underneath is exposed and the clock on that roof is running much faster than the warranty suggests.
Usually age or heat, sometimes wind. A few missing shingles is a repair. Widespread curling across a whole slope generally means the roof is at the end of its service life rather than in need of patching.
Water has already made it through the roof, through the deck, and through the insulation. Every week it continues costs more, and interior finishes and framing are far more expensive to fix than the leak that caused them.
Sight along the ridge from the end of the parking lot. If it isn't straight, that's decking or structure, not shingles — and it needs looking at before anyone walks on it.
Valleys, chimneys, vents, and the joint where the steeple base meets the roof are where the overwhelming majority of leaks actually start. Almost never in the middle of a clean slope.
Tell us what you're seeing and roughly how tall the steeple is. Five minutes on the phone tells us most of what we need.
We come out, get up close, and photograph the actual condition — not a guess from the ground. No charge, no obligation.
You get photos, findings, and a fixed price in writing. Take it to your board. We'll wait for the vote.
We work around your service calendar and clean up completely. Before-and-after photos when we're done.
You've got a specific problem — a leak, staining, peeling paint, a visible crack, storm damage. We come out, fix that, and you're done.
We put your steeple and your roof on a schedule. Annual inspections, scheduled cleanings, and small repairs handled before they turn into big ones — at a budgeted cost your finance committee can plan around.
A congregation called about staining they'd noticed from the road. From the ground it looked like a cleaning job. Up close, two seams had opened and sealant had failed along the belfry cornice — water had been tracking down inside the tower for at least a couple of seasons.
We washed, re-sealed every joint, replaced two louver sections, and recoated the spire. Total cost came in well under the replacement quote they'd been dreading, and the steeple is now on an annual inspection cycle.
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Tell us what you're seeing from the ground. We'll tell you what it probably is, what it takes to fix, and whether it can wait.
(256) 343-5192Cleaning, coating, repair, and inspection — done at height with the right equipment and the right pressure for your steeple's material. Looking for roof work? That's over here.
Most steeples don't need to be replaced. They need to be washed. Years of algae, mildew, oxidation, and highway film make a white steeple read gray from the road — and once you clean it properly, people notice from the parking lot.
We match the method to the material. Fiberglass and aluminum steeples get a low-pressure soft wash with the right detergent; high pressure on the wrong surface strips gelcoat and drives water into seams.
Paint on a steeple isn't cosmetic — it's the waterproofing layer. When it chalks, fades, or cracks, the surface underneath starts absorbing moisture, and that's where the real cost begins.
We prep properly, prime what needs priming, and finish with coatings rated for constant sun and wind exposure. Crosses, finials, and weathervanes get refinished separately so the details look right, not just the big surfaces.
If water is getting into your steeple, it's getting in somewhere specific — an open seam, a failed sealant joint, a lifted piece of flashing, a cracked panel. Our job is to find it and close it before it reaches framing.
For older steeples we do full restoration: structural evaluation, panel repair or replacement, re-seating a leaning cross, replacing rotted louvers, and re-sealing the whole assembly.
An inspection is the cheapest thing we do and the one that saves churches the most money. We get up close, photograph every side, and hand you a report that says plainly what's fine, what to watch, and what needs attention this year.
It's written so a building committee can read it and budget from it — not a technical document you have to interpret.
This is the single most important thing to get right, and it's where a general pressure-washing contractor causes damage. A steeple is not a driveway. If you don't know what yours is made of, we'll identify it during the assessment.
The majority of steeples put up since the 1960s. Light, durable, and low-maintenance — right up until the gelcoat surface starts to break down under UV.
Very long-lived structurally, but the finish and the seams are where trouble starts. Oxidation dulls the surface and sealant at the panel joints has a shorter life than the metal does.
Found on older and historic buildings. Beautiful, repairable, and the least forgiving of neglect — because when wood takes on water it doesn't just stain, it rots.
The reason steeple work costs what it does isn't the washing or the caulking — it's safely reaching a surface forty to a hundred and twenty feet in the air, on a structure that was never designed to be stood on.
We use aerial lift equipment where the site allows and rope access methods where it doesn't. Neither approach requires erecting scaffolding, which means no weeks of staging in your parking lot, no anchor points drilled into your building, and no exposed structure sitting there through a storm.
Everything is insured for work at height, and we'll put a certificate of insurance in your hands before anyone leaves the ground. If your trustees want it on file before they vote, ask when you call and we'll send it over.
We also protect what's underneath. Landscaping gets covered, walkways stay clear, and the site gets left the way we found it. Congregations notice that part more than they expect to.
Tell us what you're seeing and roughly how tall the steeple is. Five minutes on the phone tells us most of what we need.
We come out, get up close, and photograph the actual condition — not a guess from the ground. No charge, no obligation.
You get photos, findings, and a fixed price in writing. Take it to your board. We'll wait for the vote.
We work around your service calendar and clean up completely. You get before-and-after photos when we're done.
That's what the assessment is for. Call and describe what you're seeing — we'll tell you honestly whether it's a wash, a repair, or something that can wait a year.
(256) 343-5192We clean, repair, patch, and replace church roofs — shingle, metal, and low-slope. Same crew, same equipment, same free assessment as the steeple.
When a roof is genuinely at the end of its life, patching it again is throwing money at a problem that's already decided. We'll tell you plainly when you've reached that point — and just as plainly when you haven't.
A replacement means a full tear-off down to the deck so we can see what's actually under there. Soft decking gets replaced, not covered over. Then underlayment, proper flashing at every transition, and the finish material you've chosen.
Layering new shingles over old is cheaper on paper and we don't recommend it on a church. It hides the decking, adds weight to a structure that may be a century old, and cuts the life of the new roof.
The hard part of a leak isn't the patch. It's finding it. Water enters at one point and shows up on a ceiling somewhere else entirely, often several feet away and sometimes on a different slope.
Leaks almost never start in the middle of a clean run of shingles. They start at transitions — valleys, chimneys, vents, skylights, the joint where the steeple base meets the roof plane. That's where we look first, and that last one is a joint most roofers handle poorly and we deal with constantly.
If a repair is the right answer, we do the repair and don't try to sell you a roof. If it isn't, we'll show you photographs of why.
Those black streaks running down Southern roofs are algae, and this climate grows it enthusiastically. It won't collapse your roof, but it holds moisture and heat against the shingle, and it makes a maintained building look abandoned from the road.
The critical thing is how it's removed. Pressure washing a shingle roof strips the protective granules off and takes years of life with them. We soft wash — low pressure, correct chemistry, and the algae dies rather than getting blasted away.
Moss on shaded north slopes is a different problem and a more serious one, because moss lifts shingle edges and holds standing water underneath. That gets handled differently, and we'll tell you which one you have.
Most churches find out about a roof problem from a ceiling stain, which means they find out late. An annual inspection moves that discovery two or three years earlier, when it's still a repair.
You get the same kind of report we do for steeples: photographs of every slope and transition, plain-language findings, and a priority ranking your building committee can budget from.
After a hail or wind event we'll come look and tell you honestly whether there's real damage. Sometimes there is and it's worth a claim. Sometimes there isn't, and we'd rather say so than help you spend a deductible for nothing.
Most churches have at least two of these on one property — a steep sanctuary roof and something low-slope over an addition. They fail differently and they get treated differently.
What's on the majority of church buildings. Affordable, repairable, widely available in colours that match what's already there.
Higher up-front cost and much longer life. Increasingly the choice when a congregation is replacing a roof they intend to be the last one they buy.
Fellowship halls, classroom wings, and additions. This is where most church roof problems actually live, because water sits instead of running off.
The spans are longer, the pitches are often steeper, and the structure underneath is frequently older than anyone currently on the building committee. Sanctuary ceilings are usually finished in ways that make interior water damage expensive out of all proportion to the leak that caused it.
Then there's the steeple sitting in the middle of the roof plane. That joint is a leak point on a large share of the churches we look at, and it gets handled badly by roofers who see one a year. We see them constantly, and we can address the steeple and the flashing around it in the same visit rather than sending you to two contractors who each blame the other.
The scheduling is different too. You can't close a church for a week. Work has to fit around Sunday, Wednesday, funerals, weddings, and whatever the calendar holds — and the building has to be safe and usable in between.
And the money works differently. Decisions go through a board, get voted on, and have to hold up against a budget. That means a real written number, not a range, and a scope that can be phased if it needs to be spread across two budget years.
We work across a stretch of the Southeast that takes real weather. Here's the order of operations we'd recommend to any church that just came through something.
If there's active intrusion, tarping comes first. Call us and we'll get something over it before anything else gets decided.
Photographs from up close, dated, before anything is touched or cleaned up. This is what an adjuster will want and what churches most often fail to get.
We'll tell you whether the damage is real and claim-worthy or cosmetic. Not every dented vent cap is a new roof, and we won't pretend otherwise.
With photographs and a written scope in hand, you can file a claim, repair it directly, or wait — as an informed decision rather than a guess.
Whether it's a stain, a storm, or nobody's looked in fifteen years — the assessment is free and the answer might be that you're fine.
(256) 343-5192Every church is different. Some need one job done well. Others want the steeple and the roof on a schedule so neither one ever becomes an emergency line item again.
We don't publish flat rates, because a 40-foot aluminum steeple and a 90-foot fiberglass one aren't the same job, and neither are a shingle sanctuary roof and a low-slope fellowship hall. Call and we'll get you a real number in writing.
For a specific, visible problem you want solved now. Clean it, seal it, repair it, done.
Your steeple and roof go on a schedule. We inspect both every year, clean on cycle, and handle small repairs before they grow — for a number your treasurer can budget.
For a steeple with real deterioration — water intrusion, structural concerns, failed panels, or decades of deferred maintenance.
A steeple that gets washed and sealed on schedule costs roughly the same every few years. A steeple that gets ignored doesn't — it gets quietly worse until the repair is structural, and then the number jumps.
Churches don't usually defer steeple work because they don't care. They defer it because it's invisible, hard to price, and easy to push to next year's budget. A plan takes that decision off the table.
Call and we'll walk you through what a five-year plan would actually look like for your building.
This is a typical shape. Your steeple's condition at the first inspection determines where the cleanings land and what gets addressed in which year — we'll map it out with you before anything is signed.
We start with a complete close-up inspection — all four steeple elevations plus every roof slope, valley, and transition — and establish the baseline photo record. Then the steeple gets a full wash, the roof gets treated if it needs it, and any sealant that's already failing gets renewed. This is the year that tells us everything about the next four.
Annual inspection with side-by-side comparison against last year's photos. Small things — a joint starting to open, a loose louver, sealant pulling at a corner — get handled while they're still small. That comparison is where the value of a plan really shows up.
Depending on tree cover and how fast growth returns, most steeples want another wash around here. Inspection happens either way, and we update the written condition history you can hand to whoever's on the building committee next.
By year four we can tell you with real confidence how much life is left in the current coating system — not a guess, but a judgment based on four years of your steeple's own photographs. If a recoat is coming, this is when you start budgeting for it rather than reacting to it.
Final year of the term includes a full wash and a summary report covering the whole period: what changed, what we addressed, and what the next five years should look like. Most churches renew at this point, and they renew knowing exactly what they're buying.
| One-Time Service | 5-Year Plan | Restoration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A specific visible problem | Keeping a sound building sound | Years of deferred maintenance |
| Free assessment | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Inspections | One, at the assessment | Steeple and roof, every year | Full condition evaluation |
| Cleanings | One | Scheduled through the term | Included in project scope |
| Minor repairs | Quoted separately | Sealant and seam work included | Central to the scope |
| Cost pattern | One line item, one year | Fixed annual amount, locked | Project cost, phaseable |
| Storm response | Standard scheduling | Priority scheduling and tarping | Standard scheduling |
| Written history | Job photos | Year-over-year record | Full project documentation |
| Commitment | None | Five-year term | Per project or per phase |
Steeple work loses budget votes for a predictable reason: nobody can say what it costs, so it gets pushed to next year against something with a firm number attached. Then it gets pushed again.
Everything we give you is designed to survive that meeting. The assessment comes back as photographs, a written scope, and a fixed price — not a range, not an estimate that moves. You can put it in front of a board and get a yes or a no on the first pass.
The five-year plan exists for the same reason. A fixed annual amount goes into the operating budget once and stays there. It doesn't compete for capital dollars every year, and it doesn't need re-arguing when the committee turns over.
And the year-over-year photo record means whoever inherits the building file two chairpersons from now can see exactly what's been done and what's coming. That continuity is worth more than most churches expect it to be.
One call, one free visit, and a written price your board can vote on. There's nothing to sign to find out.
(256) 343-5192Steeples and roofs, different heights and different materials. The common thread is that every one of them looked worse from up close than it did from the parking lot.
A congregation called about staining they'd noticed from the road. From the ground it looked like a cleaning job. Up close, two seams had opened and sealant had failed along the belfry cornice — water had been tracking down inside the tower for at least a couple of seasons.
We washed, re-sealed every joint, replaced two louver sections, and recoated the spire. Total cost came in well under the replacement quote they'd been dreading, and the steeple is now on an annual inspection cycle.
A church had been told their fiberglass steeple was past saving and quoted for a full replacement, including a crane day. Before committing that kind of money they wanted a second opinion.
What we found was chalked gelcoat, heavy algae on the north face, and failed sealant at four joints — significant, but entirely repairable. The structure underneath was sound. We restored the gelcoat, re-sealed everything, recoated the spire, and refinished the cross.
The steeple came out looking new. The congregation kept the difference, and put part of it toward a five-year plan so the question never comes up again.
“They worked around our Sunday and Wednesday schedule without us having to ask twice. The steeple looks like it did the year it went up.”
“The photo report was worth the call by itself. We finally had something concrete to take to the trustees instead of a guess.”
“We were told we needed a whole new steeple. They cleaned and repaired it for a fraction of that and told us honestly what to watch.”
Most steeples that look like they need replacing don't. Call and let us tell you which one yours is.
(256) 343-5192No forms to fill out and no waiting for an email back. Call and talk to someone who works on steeples for a living.
Whether you've noticed something specific or you just realized nobody has been up on the building in fifteen years, the first conversation is free and takes about five minutes.
Tap or dial. If we're up on a roof, leave a message and we'll call back the same day.
(256) 343-5192Home base is Lineville, Alabama, in Clay County. Church work is worth traveling for, so our radius is a good deal wider than most contractors'. If you're near the edge of it, call anyway — the answer is usually yes.
Straight up through Alabama into Tennessee and on into Kentucky. Regular territory for us, not an exception we make.
East across Georgia to South Carolina, up to where North Carolina meets the South Carolina line, and southeast down toward Savannah.
South to the Panhandle and west into Mississippi, out to roughly the middle of the state before we turn back toward Alabama.
We'd rather you called early than late, but we're not going to tell you everything is an emergency. Here's roughly how we triage what people describe on the phone.
Interior stains, a visible drip, a cross that's out of plumb, or obvious storm damage. These get worse on their own and the repair scope grows every season you wait.
Not an emergency, but the protective layer is going. Handled now it's a cleaning and coating job; handled in three years it may not be.
Nothing visibly wrong, but no one can remember the last time anyone was up there. This is the ideal time to get a baseline — the assessment is free and it may well come back clean.
A single spire, one roof, and a tight budget. We'll tell you the minimum that actually needs doing this year and what can honestly wait.
Multi-tier steeples, bell towers, sanctuary roofs, and fellowship hall additions. Usually the best fit for a five-year plan with fixed annual cost.
Older construction where the goal is preservation, not replacement. Phased scopes so the work fits across budget years.
Describe what you're seeing. We'll tell you what it likely is and what it takes to fix — before you spend anything.
(256) 343-5192