Roofing & exteriors in Leonia, NJ
Leonia is a small borough wedged between the Palisades ridge and Overpeck Creek, built out mostly between 1900 and 1930 after the Leonia Heights Land Company began selling lots, with capes and ranches filling in later. That means steep-gabled colonials, foursquares and cottages with dormers and re-sided wood walls, mature street trees over the gutters, and a low, wet western edge along the creek.
Leonia covers 1.63 square miles on the east side of Bergen County, and it tilts. The western edge is lowland along Overpeck Creek, most of it inside the 811-acre Overpeck County Park. From there the town rises east toward Fort Lee and the Palisades, with Interstate 95 curving along the northern border. About 9,300 people live here, on lots larger than the area average. It was farmland from 1668 until the railroad made it a commuter stop called West Fort Lee.
The houses came in two waves. After 1899 the Leonia Heights Land Company subdivided the high ground and sold it to academics and illustrators, and most of the housing stock dates from that 1900 to 1930 run. Those are colonials, foursquares, bungalows and shingled cottages with steep gables, dormers and wood or shingle cladding, much of it since covered in aluminum or vinyl. The second wave, likely the 1930s through the 1950s once the George Washington Bridge opened, filled the last lots with Cape Cods and ranches. Two colonial-era houses, one of them the Cole-Allaire House of about 1765, still stand among them.
Each wave fails in its own way. On the older houses it is the joints at dormers and valleys, the original wood windows, and whatever the later siding hides at the sills. On the capes it is undersized gutters under big trees, thin attic ventilation and worn-out shingle. We work on all of it: shingle, cedar and slate roofing, siding over old frame walls, sash restoration and window replacement, and gutters sized for the canopy.
Old wood houses on a hill, with a creek at the bottom
The earliest settlement in Leonia dates to 1668 when Samuel Edsall bought 1,872 acres of land from Chief Oratam of the Hackensack Indians.
Leonia Public Library, History of LeoniaRoofs with a lot of edges. A Leonia Heights colonial or cottage carries dormers, intersecting gables and short valleys, and every joint lets water in. We flash each dormer cheek and valley in metal, not just membrane, because on this roof shape the leak is almost never in the open field.
Trees older than the houses. The town was sold on its wooded hills, and the older streets still carry a full canopy: leaf load every fall, moss on north slopes, ice dams where a shaded eave stays frozen. We size gutters to the roof, fit guards that shed leaves, and check attic insulation before we blame the shingles.
Wind and freeze-thaw over the ridge. The high ground toward Fort Lee sits just below the Palisades crest and takes the wind before the lowland does. Roofs up there get the manufacturer's high-wind nailing pattern and factory-finished aluminum or copper for exposed metal.
Low ground by the creek. The western streets run down to the tidal lowland along Overpeck Creek, the part of town most exposed to standing water. There, downspouts must discharge well away from the foundation, and we plan that route first.
What this housing stock actually needs
Architectural shingle, cedar or slate on the pre-1930 houses
A heavyweight architectural shingle is the usual answer on a colonial or foursquare; where the house was drawn with cedar shake or slate, we restore before we replace.
Shingle roofing and attic ventilation on the capes
A cape's roof sits close to the rooms below, so a re-roof here includes balanced soffit and ridge ventilation, or the new shingle ages as fast as the old one. See how long a roof lasts in New Jersey.
Sash restoration and replacement windows
Original wood double-hungs on the Leonia Heights houses are often worth keeping: we re-cord, re-glaze and weather-strip them and add storm panels. Where one is past saving we fit a replacement that matches the muntin pattern of the original.
Siding that starts with the wall behind it
Removing the aluminum or vinyl that went on decades ago, repairing sheathing and sills where it hid rot, then a weather barrier and flashing at every opening before new cladding goes up. Gutters and decks follow the same rule: substrate first.
Along the Palisades, the weather arrives from the river first.
From Fort Lee down through Leonia, Palisades Park, Cliffside Park, Edgewater and Fairview, the towns on and behind the ridge share one climate. Wind comes up the Hudson, damp air sits on every east-facing wall, and freeze-thaw works flashing and fasteners harder than inland. We specify metal, fastening and underlayment for the exposure each roof has.
Neighborhoods and streets we work in Leonia
ZIP code served: 07605.
- Leonia Heights — the 1899 subdivision on the high ground; early-1900s colonials and cottages with the most dormers and the oldest windows in town
- Grand Avenue and Prospect Street — where the Cole-Allaire House of about 1765 stands, among pre-war frame houses
- Broad Avenue and Fort Lee Road — the small downtown, houses and low-slope commercial roofs side by side
- Lakeview Avenue — the borough's other 18th-century house, on older single-family streets
- The western streets toward Overpeck County Park — low, flat ground along the creek where gutter discharge matters most
- The northern edge along Interstate 95 — houses nearest the bridge approach, where tight sash and storm panels do the most good
Leonia response, anywhere in 07605. Call (201) 446-5941 or request a free written estimate online.
Adjacent Bergen towns
Does Johannemann & Sons serve Leonia, NJ?
Yes — every street in 07605, from the Leonia Heights blocks on the high ground toward Fort Lee down to the streets along Overpeck County Park, and the downtown around Broad Avenue and Fort Lee Road. We replace and repair roofs on the early-1900s colonials, foursquares and cottages and on the later capes and ranches, and we handle siding, windows, doors, gutters and decks on all of them.
My Leonia house has dormers and a steep gable roof under big street trees. Why does it leak every February?
That is an ice dam, and the shape of the house makes it. Heat escapes into a cramped attic or the space behind a dormer, melts the snow above, and the water refreezes at the cold eave into a ridge that backs meltwater under the shingles. A new roof alone will not fix it. We seal and insulate the attic floor, open soffit and ridge ventilation where the framing allows, run ice-and-water membrane past the warm wall line and around every dormer, and keep the gutters clear.
There is aluminum siding on my 1920s colonial. What is under it, and do I have to take it off?
Almost always the original wood clapboard or shingle from when Leonia Heights was built out, with no weather barrier behind it and some rot at the sills that the metal has been hiding. You do not have to remove it to replace a roof, but you do to re-side properly. Before we price new siding we open a test area at the worst corner, so the estimate names the sheathing repair, the housewrap and the flashing at each opening rather than guessing at them.
Do I need a permit in Leonia to replace a roof, siding or a deck?
It depends on the scope, and the borough's construction office makes the call. Under New Jersey's Uniform Construction Code, like-for-like replacement of roofing or siding on a one- or two-family house is generally treated as ordinary maintenance. Anything structural needs a permit and inspections: replacing roof sheathing, changing framing, enlarging a window opening, or building or rebuilding a deck. We state in the written estimate which category your job falls in and file the permit when one is required.
Roofing for the homes of Leonia, NJ.
A free written estimate with photographs and named materials, from a Bergen County exterior crew based just over the ridge in Edgewater.