Garfield is a mill city on low ground between two rivers: 32,655 people on just over two square miles, in wards that filled with mill-worker housing from the 1880s to the 1920s. That means pre-war frame houses a few feet apart, low-slope roofs on the multi-families, siding over original wood, and gutters draining onto small lots at about 98 feet of elevation.
The city's shape was set in a single half-century. In 1873 Gilbert D. Bogart put up seven houses between Monroe Street and Van Winkle Avenue, and went on to build some 300 more in Bogart Heights. The place was East Passaic until it took President Garfield's name in 1881. The same year Bogart began, Fritzche Brothers opened the city's first modern factory, and the Dundee Dam drew New Jersey Worsted, Phoenix Mills and the Forstmann plant after it. The borough of 1898 became a city in 1917 as the wards filled in.
The mills closed or moved south after World War II, but the housing they built is still standing, and it is what we work on. A frame house from the 1890s or 1910s has usually had two or three roofs, some laid over the one before. The two- and three-family houses carry low-slope roofs that fail at the parapets and at the wall against a taller neighbor, not in the field. Siding is typically vinyl or aluminum applied decades ago over the original clapboard with nothing behind it. Gutters are five-inch and drop water beside a foundation on a lot that is already low.
We replace and repair roofs, install membrane on the flat ones, reside, replace and restore windows and doors, hang gutters, and build decks on all of it. Every estimate comes with photographs and named materials. Start with roofing or call (201) 446-5941.
The Passaic runs along the west and south of the city and the Saddle River along the east, with the ground between at about 98 feet. Where the water goes after the gutter matters more here than on a hillside. We size gutters to the roof area, run downspouts to the street or a dry well, and never discharge onto a neighbor's slab.
Garfield holds 12,407 housing units on 2.11 square miles of land. That density governs staging, where debris lands, how we protect the siding next door, and how we flash the wall where a lower roof meets a taller one. We plan all of it on the estimate visit.
The low-slope roofs on the city's two- and three-family houses pond where the deck has sagged and leak at the parapet caps, the pitch pockets around vents and the seam against the neighbor's wall. We rebuild those details in metal and membrane over tapered insulation, with an overflow scupper for the day a drain blocks.
A house that has stood since the mills were running has been roofed and sided more than once, often over what was there. Before we quote we find out how many roof layers are up, what the deck looks like, and whether any weather barrier sits behind the cladding. Two layers up means a tear-off to the deck. More under siding.
Architectural shingle with ice-and-water membrane at eaves and valleys, synthetic underlayment over a deck we have inspected, and new step flashing at every wall and chimney. Leaks get traced to the source, not patched where the stain shows — see where roof leaks actually start.
Fully adhered EPDM or TPO over tapered insulation, with new parapet caps, edge metal and overflow scuppers. The same system serves the flat-roofed commercial buildings along Route 46. See roofing.
Fiber cement or insulated vinyl over a stripped, wrapped and flashed wall, and window replacement that keeps the full original opening (what that costs in Bergen County). Six-inch seamless gutters placed for a narrow lot, and decks with the ledger bolted through and flashed.
Central Bergen's oldest streets sit on the low ground beside the Passaic, the Saddle and the Hackensack, and its newest sit on the flat land between them. One kind of house is a pre-war frame two-family with a low-slope roof and a parapet to keep tight; the other is a cape or split with aluminum over clapboard and five-inch gutters. Both need water managed on ground that does not drain itself.
ZIP code served: 07026.
Garfield response, anywhere in 07026. Call (201) 446-5941 or request a free written estimate online.
Yes — all of 07026, from the oldest blocks around Monroe Street and Van Winkle Avenue to Plauderville, Bogart Heights and the streets off Midland Avenue. We replace and repair the steep shingle roofs on the city's frame houses, install low-slope membrane on the flat roofs of its two- and three-family houses, and handle siding, windows and doors, gutters and decks. We work across Bergen County from our Edgewater base.
Standing water a day after rain means the roof has no fall to its drains, and on a house a century old the deck has usually sagged between joists. The right fix is a fully adhered EPDM or TPO membrane over tapered insulation that builds the slope back in. It gets new parapet caps, edge metal and an overflow scupper, so a blocked drain cannot flood the roof. We photograph the finished edges, because the edges are where these roofs fail.
Garfield's construction office decides, and it depends on the scope. Like-for-like reroofing and residing usually count as ordinary maintenance under the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code, but anything structural — replacing rotted rafters or sheathing, a new deck, a deck ledger — needs a permit and inspections. Tearing off a roof that already carries two layers is not optional; the code caps it at two. We confirm the requirement with the city before we start and file the paperwork ourselves.
A free written estimate with photographs and named materials, from a Bergen County exterior crew based in Edgewater.