Roof replacement in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ
A new roof in Ho-Ho-Kus usually goes on a steep colonial, cape or Tudor, on a lot shaded by old trees, with planting worth protecting and a driveway that has to take a container. We strip the roof to the deck, repair whatever the tear-off uncovers, choose the material to suit the house, and register the manufacturer warranty in your name.
The house decides the material.
Ho-Ho-Kus is almost entirely single-family: center-hall colonials, Dutch Colonials, Cape Cods and Tudors, with a few colonial-era stone and frame houses along Franklin Turnpike. Most wear architectural shingle; some older houses and Tudors still carry slate or wood.
Architectural asphalt for most colonials and capes
It sits well on a gable of any pitch, weighs little enough for older framing, and a laminated shingle gives a steep roof the shadow line a flat three-tab never had. Details on architectural asphalt shingle.
Slate, kept wherever it is sound
Where a Tudor or an older colonial still carries slate, the first number you get from us is for restoring it, not replacing it. A sound slate roof with tired valleys and flashing can be brought back; one splitting across whole slopes cannot. See slate roofing.
Cedar, the borough’s oldest roof
Wood shingle has the longest history here: the Hermitage on Franklin Turnpike, begun around 1750 and given its Gothic Revival form in 1847, still wears wood-shingled roofs, and it is now a state-owned museum. On a house built for cedar, it is worth putting back, over a breathable mat so the underside dries out under this much shade. See cedar shake.
Standing seam on porches and low pitches
A porch roof or shallow rear roof sheds water too slowly for shingle. Standing seam metal is made for those pitches, and on a colonial it reads as a traditional porch roof. See standing seam metal.
Nobody can price the deck until it is uncovered.
A house built before plywood sheathing became standard sits on sawn boards, and has usually been re-roofed more than once on top of them. With the old roofing stripped, every board is checked: split ends, boards that no longer grip a nail after several roofs’ worth of fastenings, and joints where the wood has shrunk apart.
If the house once wore wood shingle, the boards may have been laid with spaces between them, the way a wood roof likes to breathe. Shingle and slate need a solid surface, so spaced or failing boards get new plywood over them first. Nobody can see that until the tear-off, so the written estimate prices it by the sheet.
Every layer of old roofing comes off, down to the boards. A second roof laid over the first hides the deck for another twenty years and holds heat against the new shingles, which shortens their life.
Four details that shade and a hard freeze will test.
How long a new roof lasts under heavy shade and a cold winter is decided underneath it and along its edges.
Ice barrier at the eaves
Self-adhered membrane from the eave edge up to a point 24 inches or more inside the exterior wall line, so water backed up behind ice has nowhere to go. On capes with rooms in the roof, it runs further up the slope.
Valleys lined before they are finished
Under trees this heavy, a valley carries leaves as well as water. Both sides are lined with membrane before the valley metal or the woven shingle goes in.
Air in low, out at the ridge
A roof that cannot breathe cooks from below in summer and grows ice at its eaves in winter. Soffit intake is opened or added and balanced against a ridge vent.
New metal at every wall and chimney
Old step and counter-flashing is not reused. At chimneys and at brick or stucco walls, the metal is renewed and let into the masonry rather than bedded in sealant.
Why ice forms at the eaves in the first place, and which half of the fix belongs to the roof, is in our note on ice dams.
Old trees, planted beds and one driveway.
Lots in Ho-Ho-Kus are generous and heavily planted, and a tear-off happens over all of it. How the property is protected is written into the estimate.
Trees and planting
Beds along the foundation are tarped, and boarded where debris will fall; shrubs against the walls are tied back. Where limbs hang over the roof, the tear-off is planned around them.
The driveway
The container goes where it will not sit on tree roots or crack a paver, on boards that spread its weight. On a tight drive, drop-off and pickup are timed so you can still get a car out.
The house below the roof
Windows, siding and anything on a deck or patio are covered before the first shingle comes off. Gutters are protected, or taken down if they are being replaced too.
Nails and clean-up
A magnet sweep of the lawn, beds and drive as each working day ends, then a final walk around the property with you.
What a new roof costs, and what you get in writing.
Architectural asphalt is $4–$7 per sq ft, roof only, and tear-off is its own line at $2–$6 per sq ft. Coated-steel standing seam comes in at $12–$18/sq ft. Natural slate on a modest Tudor with 2,500 sq ft of roof runs $40,000–$70,000 in Pennsylvania slate or $60,000–$100,000 in Vermont slate. Cedar is priced after we measure. The full breakdown by material and house type is in our roof replacement cost guide.
Your estimate is itemized: the material named, membrane and flashing specified, deck repair priced by the sheet, tear-off on its own line. We file any permit the work needs, and when the roof is done the manufacturer’s warranty goes on record under your name, with the confirmation sent to you alongside photographs of the completed roof.
Before you decide on a new roof.
Roof repair
If one detail is failing rather than the whole roof: leaks traced, then repaired in kind.
Ho-Ho-Kus →Ho-Ho-Kus
The borough, its house types and the rest of the outside of the house.
The borough →Roof replacement, county-wide
Five lines that explain most of the gap between two quotes for one roof.
Replacement →Ridgewood
New roofs in the neighboring village, on its pre-war slate and shingle houses.
Ridgewood →Should I replace my roof or keep repairing it?
Repair it when the trouble is one detail, such as a chimney, a valley or a dormer wall. Replace it when the open slopes themselves are going: shingles brittle, curling or bare of granules across whole sides of the house, or leaks in unrelated places. The free inspection shows you which case you are in, and if repairing is the better money, the report says that.
What happens if the boards under my old roof are damaged?
They are repaired or covered with new plywood before anything goes back on, and you see photographs first. The estimate prices new sheathing per sheet, so you pay only for the sheets the job actually uses.
How do you protect the trees and garden during a tear-off?
Foundation beds are tarped and boarded where debris will land, shrubs are tied back, and the container is set down clear of tree roots on boards that spread its weight. Old roofing goes into the container or onto covered ground, never into planting.
Who handles the permit?
Often there is nothing to handle: replacing the roof covering on a detached house is ordinary maintenance under New Jersey's construction code and needs no permit. Replacing boards or sheathing does, and on an older board deck that is a real possibility. Where the work needs a permit, we submit it to the borough's building department and schedule the inspection. The approval goes into the folder you get at the end, with the warranty confirmation and the photographs.
What should go back on a Tudor that has slate now?
Slate, if the house is staying a slate house. When the stone is still sound, restoring the roof is usually better value than replacing it. When it has to be replaced, natural slate keeps the house as it was built, and synthetic is an option where weight or budget rules natural out. Shingle on a house designed for slate changes its look, and we will say so plainly.
A new roof, chosen for the house it sits on.
Stripped to the deck, priced line by line, and warranted in your name, by our crews out of Edgewater.