Wind across open meadow
Flat, largely treeless ground gives wind a clear run at every rake and eave. We nail shingles on a six-nail pattern, use high-wind rated starter and hip-and-ridge, and hand-seal the rakes.
South Bergen & the Meadowlands · Bergen County · 07074
Roofing & exteriors in Moonachie, NJ
Moonachie is a small residential pocket inside a much larger industrial borough: about 1,150 homes on flat former marsh between Moonachie Road, Teterboro Airport and the warehouses, with almost no change in elevation across town. Water leaves by gravity through ditches and tide gates, wind arrives across open meadow, and both decide how a roof, its gutters and its downspouts should be built here.
In detail
Moonachie was cut out of Lodi Township in 1910, and the flat meadowland kept it thinly settled for decades. The 2020 census counts 3,133 people in 1,149 housing units — a residential enclave ringed by truck terminals and warehouses, with part of Teterboro Airport inside the borough line. The houses are modest one- and two-story frame houses on small, flat lots, many with a porch or garage roof tied in below the main roof.
The ground is the story. There is essentially no grade across the borough. Rainwater leaves through the East Riser and West Riser ditches and Moonachie Creek to the Hackensack River and Berry's Creek, with tide gates holding the tidal river back. When the river comes over those gates — as it did in October 2012, when roughly 70% of the borough went under as much as five feet of water — no roof is the issue. Every ordinary week, though, the roof and gutters are the drainage a homeowner controls: where each downspout discharges, and whether the grade beside the foundation carries water off or holds it against the wall.
What fails first is what wind takes from a frame house on open ground with no tree cover. Shingle tabs lift at rakes and eaves, ridge vents and step flashing work loose, gutters pull off the fascia, siding unzips along the windward wall. Houses raised after 2012 add a second list — stair and landing framing, more wall to clad, a new roof-to-wall line where a porch roof meets the house higher up. Our note on where North Jersey roofs actually leak covers the first list.
What is different here
Four Moonachie conditions and what we do about them
Gravity-only drainage
Nothing drains downhill because there is no hill. A downspout that dumps beside the foundation leaves water where it landed. We size gutters to shed fast, extend every downspout away from the house, and test any existing leader drain before we tie into it.
Brackish water at grade
The water that has come into this borough is tidal and brackish. Low siding courses, fasteners and flashing near the ground are specified for it — aluminum or stainless where steel would corrode, and clearance above grade.
Small lots, close neighbors
A Moonachie job happens in your driveway and your neighbor's sightline. We tarp beds and walkways, keep the dumpster off the street where we can, magnet-sweep twice, and tear off only what we can dry in that day.
Materials & services
What this housing stock actually needs
01
Architectural shingle, and membrane where the pitch drops
A Class A architectural shingle on synthetic underlayment, with ice-and-water shield at the eaves, valleys and every roof-to-wall line. Where a porch or garage roof falls below 3:12, shingles are the wrong material; we put down a fully adhered membrane instead. Both are on our roofing page.
02
Siding that handles wind and splash
Vinyl or fiber cement over a drainable housewrap, the bottom edge locked to a starter, kick-out flashing where each lower roof meets the wall, the first course held clear of the ground. On a raised house the new wall below the old floor line gets the most care. See siding.
03
Gutters sized for a flat lot
Six-inch gutters where two roof planes drain into one run, oversized outlets, and downspouts that discharge onto splash blocks or into a leader drain we have confirmed is open. Guards matter less here than in the wooded towns; capacity matters more. See gutters.
04
Windows, entry doors, stairs and decks
Windows and doors flashed into the housewrap rather than face-caulked, and, on raised houses, the stair and landing framing that now carries the front door, with flashed ledgers and footings set for wet ground. See windows & doors and decks.
South Bergen & the Meadowlands
Low ground, open sky, and roofs that have to shed water fast.
South Bergen runs from the ridge villages down onto the Meadowlands. The houses are frame, the lots are small, and the weather comes across open marsh with little to slow it. An exterior contractor here is judged on edges — rakes, eaves, roof-to-wall lines, downspout ends — because that is where wind and water get in.
Where we work
Streets and landmarks we work around in Moonachie
ZIP code served: 07074.
- Moonachie Road (County Route 503) — the borough's spine, with the residential streets off it.
- Around Robert L. Craig School — the pre-K to 8 school at the heart of the residential pocket.
- The Teterboro Airport edge — the most open ground in town.
- Along Moonachie Creek and the East and West Riser ditches — the lowest lots, where downspout discharge matters most.
- Near Borough Hall — the municipal complex was flooded out in 2012 and rebuilt; the houses around it saw the same water.
- Toward the East Rutherford line — the southern streets, the Meadowlands Sports Complex just beyond.
In short
Moonachie response, anywhere in 07074. Call (201) 446-5941 or request a free written estimate online.
Nearby
Adjacent Bergen towns
Questions
Does Johannemann & Sons serve Moonachie, NJ?
Yes — all of 07074, from the residential streets off Moonachie Road to the houses that back onto the Teterboro Airport edge and the Moonachie Creek ditches. We replace and repair shingle roofs on the borough's one- and two-story frame houses, put low-slope membrane on porch and garage roofs, and handle siding, windows and doors, gutters and decks. We work across Bergen County from our Edgewater base.
My Moonachie house was flooded in 2012 and later raised. What does that change on the outside?
Three things. A raised house has more wall exposed to wind and splash, so its bottom siding courses need a proper starter, a kick-out at every roof-to-wall line and a clear gap above grade. The new stairs and landings are exterior structures in their own right, with flashed ledgers and footings set for wet ground. And a porch or garage roof that once met the house at one height now meets it at another: a new flashing line to build, not caulk. We photograph all three before we quote.
Do I need a permit for a new roof, siding or a deck in Moonachie?
The borough's construction office decides, and it depends on scope. Like-for-like reroofing and residing often qualify as ordinary maintenance under the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code. Structural work such as new sheathing or rafters needs a permit and inspections, and so does a new or completely rebuilt deck or a new stair on an elevated house; repairing part of an existing deck, porch or stoop in kind does not. Because so much of the borough has flooded from the river, the office may also ask about grade and elevation. We confirm what is required before we start and we file it; you do not chase paperwork.
Free assessment
Roofing for the homes of Moonachie, NJ.
A free written estimate with photographs, named materials and a fixed scope, from a Bergen County exterior crew.