Roof repair in High River from a residential roofing contractor

The Town of High River's building permit page lists replacing siding, deck boards or shingles under work that does not need a building permit. A straight re-roof or re-side is exempt.

The same page lists work that does need one, and several items come up on roofing jobs: replacing insulation, solar photovoltaic panels, and reconstruction of a building damaged by flood, fire or another cause. So new shingles alone need no permit, but replacing attic insulation at the same time, or rebuilding part of the roof structure after storm damage, is a different matter.

If you are not sure which side of the line your job falls on, the Town's Safety Codes department answers at permits@highriver.ca. Acreages outside the town are in Foothills County, which runs its own building permit office.

Sources, checked 7 October 2026: Town of High River, do you need a building permit?; Alberta Permit Regulation, AR 204/2007, section 6(3)(c); Foothills County, building permits and inspections.

High River is known for the 2013 flood, which the Town calls one of the most significant natural disasters in Alberta's history. The Highwood River reached about 1,820 cubic metres per second. Since then the Town has built more than seven kilometres of engineered dikes, designed to withstand a repeat of 2013 with an extra metre of height as a safety margin.

For a roof in High River the risks that come up more often are hail and age. The Insurance Bureau of Canada describes Alberta's Hail Alley as running from High River north to central Alberta, and says the province has had at least one major hailstorm every year for the past two decades.

3 August 2024

A Northern Hail Project field team collected a hailstone 47.6 mm across, nearly 5 cm, about 11 km southeast of High River, and logged the northern edge of the same hail swath about 6 km northwest of town. The project's radar map shows that swath, 113 km long and up to 7 km wide, passing within 5 km of the town centre.

Hail of that size can damage shingles, siding and the soft metal on a roof. If a storm passes and you find dents in your eavestroughs, downspouts or roof vents, book a free hail inspection. We photograph and document the damage so you have clear evidence for your insurer.

Sources, checked 7 October 2026: Town of High River, flood preparedness and protection; Insurance Bureau of Canada, Alberta hailstorms; Insurance Bureau of Canada, 13 July 2025 Calgary hailstorm; Northern Hail Project open data, Western University: field surveys, event database and radar hail-swath maps.

Statistics Canada's 2021 Census counted 14,324 people and 5,787 occupied private dwellings in High River. Half of them (2,915) are single-detached houses. The rest include 1,030 semi-detached homes, 730 row houses, 725 low-rise apartments and 275 movable dwellings.

Of Chestermere, Cochrane, Okotoks, Strathmore and High River, High River has the largest share of older homes: 1,380 dwellings, about 24%, were built before 1981, and 400 of those in 1960 or earlier. Another 1,675, about 29%, were built from 2001 to 2010, so an original roof on one of those is now 16 to 25 years old.

An older house has usually been re-roofed at least once already. As our roof replacement page explains, the number of old shingle layers and the condition of the roof deck both change what a replacement costs, which is why we look before we price. If the roof only needs a repair, we say so: see repairing or replacing a roof.

Sources, checked 7 October 2026: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Profile, High River (Town).

High River's town centre is at about 1,037 m, beside the Highwood River. It is the farthest of the towns we serve: about 68 km by road from our base at 3016 Morley Trail NW in Calgary.

Our crews travel from Calgary for every High River job. For a leak that cannot wait, call the 24/7 line at (587) 969-2720 and ask for an arrival time. We also cover roofing in Okotoks, which lies between High River and Calgary.

Sources, checked 7 October 2026: Natural Resources Canada, elevation at High River town centre; OpenStreetMap routing, 3016 Morley Trail NW to High River.