Roof repair in Edgewater, NJ
Our office is on Vreeland Terrace, so a leak in Edgewater is a local call. We find where the water is actually getting in before we price anything, repair it in the material already on the roof — shingle, slate or membrane — and leave you the photographs and a written note of what we found.
Six places the hillside houses leak.
Most of the pitched roofs in the borough sit on houses built in the first half of the last century, on the streets under the cliff. Their leaks come from a short list.
Brick chimneys
An old chimney lets water in three ways: past the flashing, through a cracked crown on top, and through the brick and mortar once the joints have worn. Re-flashing a chimney whose mortar has failed does not stop the leak, so all three get looked at before anything is recommended.
Dormer walls under later siding
Many of these houses were re-sided in vinyl or aluminum over the original wood. Where that siding meets a dormer or a wall above a roof, the step flashing is often buried, cut short or lapped the wrong way, and water runs down behind the siding to appear well away from where it went in.
Valleys
Where two slopes meet on a cape or a cross-gabled house, the valley carries the water of both. Worn valley shingles, a valley trimmed too close, or leaves packed in from the heavier tree canopy on the hillside streets, and it overflows under the courses on either side.
River-side ridges and rakes
The slopes that face the Hudson take wind with nothing in front of it. Shingles along the ridge and up the rakes lose their seal, lift and crease, and a creased shingle keeps letting water in long after the wind has dropped. They are replaced and sealed down, not glued back.
Where an addition meets the house
If the house has been added to, the joint between the rear room or porch roof and the original house is a joint between two roofs built decades apart. Where the newer roof was simply run up under the old one without proper step or apron flashing, it leaks at the junction in every heavy rain.
Ice at the eaves
Capes with rooms in the roof lose heat through the slopes and knee walls; snow melts and refreezes at the cold overhang. Membrane at the eaves limits the damage and insulation stops it forming. Houses tucked right under the cliff lose the afternoon sun early in winter, which keeps ice on the eaves longer.
On a house built into a hill, not every leak is the roof.
A house cut into a slope can meet the ground a full floor higher at the back than at the street. Water running down the hillside behind it — off the cliff, off the lot above — can come through that uphill wall at an upper floor and look exactly like a roof leak. So can a failed window head or a siding joint on an exposed elevation.
Before we quote a roof repair we trace where the water is really coming from: the attic first where there is one, then the roof, then the walls and the ground behind them. If the problem is not the roof, you will hear that from us rather than be sold one.
If you would rather know the condition of the whole roof than chase one stain, a roof inspection gives you it in writing, with photographs.
Where slate survives, it is repaired in slate.
Most of the older houses on the hillside streets carry asphalt shingle now. Where slate survives — on a house, a bay or a porch roof — a leak is almost never the stone wearing out. Slate outlasts the nails that hold it and the flashing around it, so the usual failure is a slate slipped off a rusted nail, a cracked one, or a valley or chimney flashing at the end of its life.
A broken slate is drawn out with a slate ripper and replaced with one matched for size, thickness and color, fixed with a copper nail and bib or a slate hook. Flashings are renewed in formed metal. What we will not do is coat a slate roof in roofing cement: it holds for a season and makes the next proper repair harder and more expensive.
Is your slate worth repairing? A sound slate rings when it is tapped; a failing one sounds dull, flakes at the edges or has started to split into layers. When a large share of the roof sounds dull, it is a replacement conversation, and we will tell you which conversation you are having. More on slate roofing and on restoring slate against replacing it.
Call (201) 446-5941 — do not wait on an email. What to do in the meantime, and what the first visit covers, is on urgent leak repair.
Membrane roofs leak at the edges, not the middle.
The buildings along River Road carry low-slope membrane roofs, and their leaks come from the details: edge metal, drains, parapet caps, seams, and whatever another trade bolted down without flashing it. When to repair such a roof, when to lay a new one over it and when to strip it are covered on flat roofs in Edgewater.
When a repair is not the whole answer.
How quickly can you get to a roof leak in Edgewater?
Our office is in the borough, and an active leak gets an assessment within 24 hours, year-round. On that visit the source is found and, if the roof is open, the building is dried in; the permanent repair follows once the roof is dry and matched material is on hand. If water is coming in now, call (201) 446-5941 rather than emailing.
Can you repair my slate roof instead of replacing it?
Usually, if the stone is sound. Most slate leaks come from a slipped or broken slate, rusted nails or tired flashing rather than from the slate itself. Broken slates are replaced with matched stock on copper nails or slate hooks, and the flashings are renewed in formed metal. If a large share of the slate has begun to split into layers, we will tell you a repair is no longer good value.
The stain is on an upper floor at the back of the house. Is it the roof?
Possibly not. On a house built into the slope, the uphill wall can meet the ground at an upper floor, and water running down the hill behind it can come in there and look exactly like a roof leak. We trace the water before we quote, and if the roof is not the cause, we tell you.
Will you just patch it with roofing cement?
Only as a stopgap to keep water out on the day, and we will tell you that is what it is. A lasting repair to flashing is formed metal, and a lasting repair to shingle or slate is the same material laid properly. Cement smeared over a failed detail buys a season and makes the proper repair harder later.
Can you check the roof before it starts leaking?
Yes. A roof inspection produces a written, photographed report on the flashings, the field, the gutters and anything mounted on the roof, with what needs doing now kept apart from what can wait. On an older house it is the cheapest way to find the chimney or dormer detail that is about to fail.
An Edgewater roof, repaired in its own material.
Traced, photographed and written up before anything is priced, by a crew based right here in Edgewater.