Roof repair in Franklin Lakes, NJ
Roofs in Franklin Lakes are large, steep and broken up by gables, dormers and valleys, and most sit under trees. Leaks start at the joints between all those planes and on the slopes the sun never dries. Our job is to find which joint has failed, fix it in the roofing already up there, and show you the evidence in photographs.
A repair or a replacement? Start with a free inspection and a written report with photographs. If water is coming in now, call us rather than waiting for the form.
See our roof-replacement project in Franklin Lakes for a photographed example of a roof that needed replacing. For replacement scope in your town, see Franklin Lakes roof replacement.
Where a big, cut-up roof lets water in.
The houses built after I-287 was completed in the early 1990s carry the borough’s most complicated roofs. Every change of plane is a joint, and every joint is a way in for water. These five are where we start.
Long valleys
One valley on a large house can drain two broad slopes and a dormer. At its foot, worn shingles, a closed-cut edge trimmed too far or a mat of leaves sends water sideways under the courses. A valley that has failed along its length is rebuilt, not patched at the bottom.
Dormer cheeks and walls above a roof
Each wall rising out of a lower roof needs step flashing at every course and a kick-out where the roof ends. Without the kick-out, water goes into the wall instead of the gutter and can surface a floor below.
Skylights
A skylight fitted when the house was built is as old as the roof around it, and its flashing kit usually fails before the glass does. We re-flash a sound unit and say plainly when the unit is done — more on skylight leaks.
Wide masonry chimneys
Any broad chimney partway down a slope needs a cricket, a little peaked roof built against its upper face to part the water. Without one, leaves and water pile up against the brick. Flashing, crown and mortar are checked together.
Where a later wing meets the house
A family room, garage or wing built on later meets the original roof along a seam between two roofs laid years apart. That seam is only as good as whoever built the wing, and it tends to leak only in hard, wind-driven rain.
On a big house, the attic is several attics.
Tracing a leak starts underneath, because water follows the sheathing and the rafters before it drops. On a large custom house that is harder than it sounds: the roof may cover several separate attics, some reached only through a knee-wall hatch, and a vaulted room has no attic above it at all.
Where we can get in, wet sheathing and rusted nail tips point back up the slope. Where we cannot, we run a hose over the roof one section at a time, from the eave up, until the drip reappears. It is slow, and it fixes a leak once instead of three times.
Steep pitches are worked from roof jacks and planks. If a plane cannot be reached safely on the day, the report says what we could not see. For the whole roof in writing, book a free roof inspection.
What canopy and high ground do to a roof.
Franklin Lakes is thickly wooded, with a big Nature Preserve, lake frontage and lots climbing the Ramapo foothills. Gutters under that canopy are covered on gutters in Franklin Lakes; these are the roof’s share.
Moss on the north slopes
A north face under heavy branches stays wet long after the rest of the roof has dried. Moss lifts the shingle edges and holds moisture in the mat. It comes off by hand, because a pressure washer strips the granules, and a zinc strip near the ridge slows its return.
Debris dams
Leaves and needles collect where a roof cannot shed them: the head of a valley, behind a chimney, where a dormer meets the main slope. The pile holds water against a joint never meant to sit under it, and clearing it is sometimes the whole repair.
Ice held at the eaves
Shade keeps snow on the north slopes long after the south ones clear, and meltwater freezes again where the overhang is cold. Ice-barrier membrane under the eave courses keeps backed-up water out; stopping the ice itself is attic work. See ice dams on Bergen County roofs.
Wind on the ridge and lake lots
Houses on the foothill ridges, or looking across Franklin Lake, Shadow Lake or the Blauvelt Lakes, catch wind with little in front of it. Tabs along the rakes and ridge lose their bond and crease, and a creased tab is replaced and sealed, never stuck down with cement.
Split-levels, ranches and colonials on a later roof.
The houses built after Route 208 reached Oakland in 1959 are on their second or third roof by now, and their leaks come from a short list.
On a split-level it is usually the side wall where the lower roof meets the upper level: the step flashing is buried behind siding and, if it was reused at the last re-roof, may be decades older than the shingles. Plumbing vent boots crack in the sun well before the field wears out. Where a roofer laid a new layer over the old one, nail pops come through from below.
When those start arriving one after another, the field is finished; see roof replacement in Franklin Lakes.
The stone farmhouses are a small, separate case.
About a dozen stone-and-frame farmhouses built by the borough’s Dutch farming families in the 1700s and 1800s still stand on Franklin Lake Road, Ewing Avenue, Woodside Avenue and Franklin Avenue, listed on the National Register. Flashing at a stone gable or chimney on a house that old is set into the mortar joints, because old masonry moves and a caulked face joint soon opens. Where the roof carries slate or wood, the repair is in slate or wood, matched in size and color. More on slate roofing.
A repair, priced after we have seen it.
Most leak repairs run $400–$3,000. For the details on these roofs: skylight re-flashing $400–$1,500, or $1,200–$3,500+ for a new unit with its flashing; chimney re-flashing or re-pointing $500–$2,500; a valley rebuild $800–$4,000+, set mostly by its length; a plumbing or vent boot $150–$600. The inspection is free and the price comes in writing.
Call (201) 446-5941. Steps to take while you wait are on urgent leak repair.
Beyond a single repair.
Roof replacement
When the field is finished, and what a first re-roof involves.
Franklin Lakes →Gutters
Sized for long runs and guarded for heavy canopy.
Franklin Lakes →Roof inspection
Every plane and flashing, photographed and written up, free.
Inspection →Franklin Lakes
The borough, its two layers of houses and what we do there.
The borough →Roof repair across the county → · Seven common leak sources →
Water is coming into our Franklin Lakes house. How soon can you look?
An active leak gets an assessment within 24 hours, year-round, from our base in Edgewater. On that visit we locate where the water enters and cover any opening temporarily; the permanent fix waits for a dry roof and matching material on site. If it is dripping as you read this, phone (201) 446-5941, because email is too slow.
Our house went up in the 1990s. Is one leak worth fixing?
Yes. One leak at a valley, a skylight or a dormer wall is a repair at any age. A house from that decade is likely to be on its first architectural shingle roof, though, so we look over the whole field while we are up there. If the shingles are bald and curling across several slopes, the photographs will show it, and we will tell you.
A limb came down on our roof. Is that a repair?
Usually. Once the limb is off, with a tree company taking anything large, we check the deck under the impact as well as the shingles on top: a cracked or punctured sheet is replaced before new shingle goes over it. If the roof is open and letting water in, call and it gets an assessment within 24 hours.
Is the inspection really free?
Yes. It costs nothing, and the written report and photographs are yours whether or not you hire us. Urgent items are listed apart from those that can wait a season, and each repair is then priced in writing from that report.
A big roof, repaired at the joint that failed.
Found from underneath where we can, tested with water where we cannot, and photographed before anything is priced.