Roofing & exteriors in Little Ferry, NJ
Little Ferry grew up as a brickworkers' town on the low ground where the Hackensack River meets Overpeck Creek, then filled in with small-lot one- and two-family houses through the mid-century. About a third of the borough sits in the river's floodplain, so roof, siding and gutters here work as one drainage system, moving water away from a house that already stands close to it.
Little Ferry is 1.67 square miles of low ground. The name comes from a rope ferry across the Hackensack that ran from 1659 until the Bergen Turnpike bridge replaced it in 1826. Clay came next: the first brickyard opened in 1872 and eight yards were running by 1904, so the oldest streets went up for brickworkers between the 1870s and the 1910s. The borough then filled in with dense mid-century housing, roughly 3,000 units to the square mile by 2020, and the newest building is multifamily rental along Route 46.
That leaves three kinds of house standing close together: brickyard-era one- and two-families, mid-century infill on small lots, and garden apartments and rental buildings with low-slope roofs. What they share is the ground. Losen Slote Creek drains the middle of the borough toward the Hackensack, and a third of the borough lies in the river's floodplain. Hurricane Sandy put low-lying streets under as much as ten feet of water, and a tide gate and pump station went in at the creek's mouth afterward. Roofs here fail at the flashing, the gutters and the downspouts, and the water has nowhere good to go, so we read a house from the ground up as well as the ridge down. Where roof leaks actually start →
What we check first on a Little Ferry house
Where the water goes
Before the roof, the ground. We walk every downspout to its outlet and check the grading. On a floodplain lot, a buried downspout backs up when the soil is saturated, so we route to the surface, away from the house. Gutters →
Metal in salt-marsh air
Humid air off the meadows works on drip edge, valley liners, chimney flashing and nail heads. We look for rust streaks below the flashing lines and specify aluminum, copper or heavy galvanized metal with stainless fasteners. Roofing →
The low-slope roofs
Two-family rear sections, garden apartments and the newer multifamily buildings carry membrane roofs. We check for ponding, open seams, clogged drain screens and parapet flashing that has pulled away, because a flat roof fails quietly until it does not.
The wall below the roof
Many older houses were sided over decades ago, and on streets that have flooded the lower courses can hide wet sheathing and soft sills. When we open a wall for new siding or a window replacement, the estimate says what we do if we find it.
What we install on Little Ferry houses
Gutters sized for the roof
6-inch seamless aluminum where 5-inch runs overshoot, oversized downspouts, and discharge to daylight away from the foundation. Guards where they earn their place. Gutter systems →
Roofing for the pitched and the flat
On pitched roofs, a wind-rated architectural shingle over ice-and-water shield at the eaves and valleys. On low-slope roofs, fully adhered EPDM or TPO with tapered insulation to the drains. Roofing → How long a roof lasts here →
Siding, windows and doors
Insulated vinyl or fiber cement over new housewrap and flashed openings, with the original wood repaired first. Replacement windows go in flashed into the wall, not caulked to the old trim. Siding → Windows & doors →
Decks on wet ground
Composite or pressure-treated decks scaled to a small backyard, with a bolted and flashed ledger and ground-contact-rated posts on footings below frost. Decks →
Low ground, close lots and a lot of water to manage.
South Bergen sits between the Hackensack and the Passaic on some of the lowest ground in the county: close-set pre-war and mid-century houses, many of them two-families, many with low-slope roofs. An exterior contractor here spends as much time on drainage, flashing and fasteners as on the roof covering, because this ground does not forgive standing water.
Neighborhoods and streets we work in Little Ferry
ZIP code served: 07643.
- Bergen Turnpike and the older streets around it, the brickyard-era one- and two-families
- The Route 46 corridor, garden apartments and newer rental buildings with low-slope roofs
- The Hackensack riverfront on the eastern edge, inside the floodplain, where downspout routing matters most
- Around Losen Slote Creek Park and Mehrhof Pond, the low ground the creek drains, where we look hardest at sills and ground-floor walls
- The blocks around Washington Elementary and Memorial Middle School, mid-century small-lot houses, often sided over
Little Ferry response, anywhere in 07643. Call (201) 446-5941 or request a free written estimate online.
Adjacent Bergen towns
Does Johannemann & Sons serve Little Ferry, NJ?
Yes — all of 07643, from the Hackensack riverfront to the Route 46 corridor. We repair and replace roofs on the borough's small-lot one- and two-family houses and install low-slope membrane on garden apartments and multifamily buildings. We also handle siding, windows and doors, gutters and decks, across the county from our Edgewater base. Every estimate is written, with photographs and named materials.
My house is in the Little Ferry flood zone. Does that change how you do gutters?
It changes where the water goes more than the gutter itself. On a lot that has flooded, a downspout tied into a dry well or footing drain backs up when the ground is saturated, so we run downspouts to the surface and away from the foundation. We size gutters to the roof area so heavy rain does not overshoot, and we use hangers and fasteners that tolerate damp, salt-marsh air.
Do I need a permit to replace a roof or siding in Little Ferry?
Under New Jersey's Uniform Construction Code, like-for-like roof or siding replacement on a one- or two-family house is ordinary maintenance and needs no permit. Work on a multifamily building, structural repair to rafters or sheathing, and a new deck do. Much of the borough is mapped floodplain, where the construction office may track the value of improvements, so we itemize the estimate accordingly and confirm requirements before we start.
Roofing for the homes of Little Ferry, NJ.
A free written estimate with photographs and named materials, from a Bergen County exterior crew that starts with where the water goes.