Lyndhurst is the southern tip of Bergen County: low ground between the Passaic River and the Meadowlands, a walkable grid rising gently toward Ridge Road. Most of its houses were built before 1970 — early-1900s colonials and Sears-plan houses beside 1940s and 50s capes, ranches and two-families on small lots. That means aging shingle over old decking, aluminum over wood, and little room for water to drain.
The township was built in two pushes. The Kingsland section grew up around the 1872 Delaware, Lackawanna and Western depot. When the local race track closed in the early 1900s, the land went to a housing boom, much of it built from Sears catalog plans. A second push came after Route 3 opened in 1945, when returning veterans settled the remaining blocks. One real-estate profile puts about 28 percent of the housing before 1939 and about 43 percent from 1940 to 1969; duplexes, two-families and converted small apartment buildings are roughly a third of all units.
Each era fails in its own way. The pre-war colonials and Sears-plan houses carry steep gables over board sheathing, with the trouble at valleys, chimneys and wherever a porch roof meets the wall. Under the aluminum or vinyl that went on decades ago is the original wood. The two-families add shared walls, low-slope rear roofs and a neighbor's gutter emptying onto yours.
The developed half of Lyndhurst sits about ten feet above sea level, and the eastern portion of the municipality is part of the uninhabited wetlands of the New Jersey Meadowlands. The riverside blocks and the streets nearest the marsh should be assumed to sit in or near mapped flood areas, so where a downspout ends is not a detail. On any house here we start with the roof.
The early-1900s houses were sheathed in individual boards, not plywood. After a century some have cupped or split and the gaps let nails miss. We check the deck from the attic and again after tear-off, renail what has loosened, and price replacement decking per sheet up front.
Two post-war roof shapes punish a quick job: cape dormers with sidewall flashing and valleys that ice up, and ranch roofs pitched low enough that wind-driven rain gets under a standard shingle course. Both get full ice-and-water coverage and ventilation sized for the attic.
Roughly a third of the township's units are in duplexes, two-families and converted buildings, on lots where a ladder often stands in the neighbor's driveway. We plan access before the estimate and treat the shared-wall flashing and the low-slope rear roof as one job.
Between the Passaic and the Meadowlands, a downspout that empties at the foundation is a basement problem. We size gutters to the roof and take downspouts to daylight away from the house. Gutters →
For the colonials, capes and ranches: a wind-rated architectural shingle over synthetic underlayment, ice-and-water shield at eaves, valleys and dormers, new chimney flashing, and intake plus ridge ventilation. Roofing → How long a roof lasts here →
Rear roofs, porch roofs and the flat sections shingle was never meant to cover get fully adhered EPDM or TPO, tapered to the drain, with new edge metal. The shared-wall joint is flashed and described in the estimate. Where leaks actually start →
Insulated vinyl or fiber cement over new housewrap, with the original wood repaired and the sills checked for rot first. Windows go in with the frame flashed into the wall; where a pre-war wood sash is worth keeping, we say so. Siding → Windows & doors →
The towns along the Passaic and around the Meadowlands are the county's working towns: pre-war grids, post-war capes, two-families and flat roofs on low, wet ground. An exterior contractor here has to know membrane as well as shingle, plan access where there is no side yard, and detail every downspout for rain the soil cannot take.
ZIP code served: 07071.
Lyndhurst response, anywhere in 07071. Call (201) 446-5941 or request a free written estimate online.
Yes — every address in 07071, from the Kingsland section in the north to the North Arlington line. That includes the grid on both sides of Ridge Road and the low blocks along the Passaic River and the Meadowlands edge. We work on the pitched shingle roofs of the township's colonials, Sears-plan houses, capes and ranches, and on the low-slope roofs of its two-families and small apartment buildings. Siding, windows, doors, gutters and decks go with them. Estimates are written, free and come with photographs.
Usually both, and the dormers are the tell. A 1940s or 50s cape has a finished half-story pressed against the roof, so warm air reaches the deck and melts snow. The meltwater refreezes at the cold eave and in the narrow valleys beside each dormer. A new roof alone will not stop it. We run ice-and-water shield from the eave past the wall line and up every dormer valley, and open intake and ridge ventilation. Where the insulation and air-sealing need work from inside, we put that in writing.
Under New Jersey's Uniform Construction Code, replacing the roof covering like for like on a one- or two-family house is ordinary maintenance and generally needs no permit. Three-family and larger buildings, the commercial buildings along Ridge Road and Valley Brook Avenue, and any repair to the deck or framing do need one. We confirm with the township's construction office before work starts, pull the permit as contractor of record when one is required, and hand you the closed paperwork at the end.
A free written estimate with photographs and the materials named by product, from a Bergen County exterior crew based in Edgewater.