Weather Worries
Using the Right Underlayment Against Rain in Portland, Oregon
by Camille Dodson, Editorial Assistant
Located on a sloping hillside in a neighborhood that is highly protective of its historic architecture, the Corbett Crescent Condominiums in Portland, Oregon, is a development consisting of 31 townhouses. The townhouses are arranged in the crescent shaped layout that gives the residential area its namesake moon curve. With amazing views, community space, and a location just outside of downtown Portland, the condos are a perfect place to live.
Unfortunately, that perfection did not last forever. With almost 20 years of battering from Portland’s winter storms and rainy weather, the roofs on the Corbett Crescent Condos finally needed to be replaced. After some consideration, the development owner reached out to Aylwin Construction from Hillsboro, Oregon, for them to do a whole reroof on the 420 square job.
Aylwin Construction, a family-owned business that focuses on roofing, gutter, and exterior construction, installs between 8,000 and 10,000 squares of pitched roofing per year. As an expert in the field, Aylwin Construction relies on only the best roofing products available, and when it comes to underlayment, SafeguardECO® is the only choice.
“SafeguardECO is a new product that offers superior performance and ease of install, providing 4.5 squares of coverage and weighing only 30 pounds per roll,” said Rodrigo Jimenez Tapia, Supervisor at Aylwin Construction. “Our roofing crews love that it is a lightweight product and it lays flat without any wrinkles, and it’s a thick multilayer product, unlike a synthetic underlayment. The underlayment is one of the most important components in any roofing project, and SafeguardECO is both easy to cut and install, making it a great choice for projects that need to be done quickly and efficiently.”
The reroofing started in early February of 2025, which means the workers at Aylwin Construction had the winter weather to contend with. Wind and rain proved to be a major deciding factor for choosing what products to use, that would still allow for work to continue while ensuring worker safety.
“Being in rainy Oregon, our crews need to be able to rely on the underlayment to ensure a watertight barrier,” said Tapia. “Not only does SafeguardECO provide this, but roofers can be confident walking on it in wet or windy conditions without worry, because it is incredibly slip resistant. The durability of SafeguardECO allows it to hold fasteners better and provide better tear strength and puncture resistance than many other products on the market.”
Additionally, the project did its utmost to be environmentally friendly. Aylwin Construction used Malarkey® Roofing Products Vista® Shingles. The Vista shingles are produced with NEX® Polymer modified which incorporates upcycled polymers to create higher performing shingle with greater granule retention and a Class IV impact rating. The team additionally used Malarkey’s Ice and Water Barrier Arctic Seal® to help create an extra layer of leak protection for the roof. Malarkey products were chosen because they were the most environmentally friendly and a local shingle manufacturer. SafeguardECO is also produced in an environmentally friendly process, which results in no pollution, making it very eco-friendly. The underlayment is also not produced in China, making it a more economically viable option for contractors due to the current tariffs against Chinese goods.
With new roofs and better protection against the Portland weather, the Corbett Crescent Condos are finally back on track to being a perfect place for residents. For a project of this scale and importance, the only way to ensure the new roofs’ continued resilience against leaks is to use high quality products to keep the buildings dry with an underlayment you can always rely on.
