Roof repair in Jersey City

Roofer Jersey City is an independent referral service, not a roofing company. When you call or send the form, an independent local roofer can contact you about your job; that roofer gives any quote and does any work.

What gets repaired on Jersey City roofs

The city’s housing sets the repair list. Downtown rows and brownstones tend to have flat or low-slope roofs boxed in by brick parapets. Two-family homes and houses away from the rows often have pitched roofs in asphalt shingle or slate. Walk-ups and other multi-family buildings sit under wide low-slope roofs with several drains. Each shape fails in its own places.

Flat-roof seams, blisters and splits

Flat roofs here are covered with modified bitumen, EPDM rubber, TPO, built-up roofing or a coating over one of those. The covering is laid in sheets, and the joins between sheets are where trouble often starts. A seam that has opened, a blister that has cracked, or a split where the roof has moved can all let water under the surface. A repair cuts out or covers the damaged area with matching material and seals the edges, which is why it helps to know what your roof is made of before the roofer arrives.

Flashing and coping at the parapets

On a rowhouse, the roof covering turns up the inside face of each parapet wall. That turned-up edge, and the metal or membrane flashing that protects it, takes sun, wind and standing water year after year. When it loosens or cracks, water runs down behind it and into the wall. The top of the parapet matters too: if the coping stones or metal cap have open joints, rain soaks into the brick from above and can show up as a stain well below the roof. The article on parapet wall leaks goes further.

Chimneys

Old rowhouses often have several chimneys, some still in use and some long closed off. Each one breaks through the roof and needs flashing where it does. A repair may reseal or replace that flashing, repoint loose mortar near the roof line, or cap a chimney that is no longer used. Ask whether the roofer handles the masonry or works alongside a mason for it.

Skylights, roof hatches and vents

Skylights over a stairwell, a roof hatch for access, and plumbing vent pipes are all openings in the roof. Their curbs and boots are a frequent leak point. Sometimes the fix is a new boot or fresh flashing; sometimes an old skylight is worn enough that the roofer suggests replacing the unit.

Drains, scuppers, gutters and leaders

A flat roof depends on water leaving it. Leaves, grit and debris collect at drains and scuppers, water backs up, and it finds the nearest weak seam. Clearing them is the simplest repair there is, and in winter, ice in gutters can do the same damage at the roof edge. Gutters and leaders on the rear of a row, or around a pitched roof, can be repaired or replaced as ordinary maintenance under the New Jersey code.

Cornices

The cornice at the front of a brownstone is a small roof of its own. Its top surface sheds water away from the facade, and when that surface or its flashing fails, water soaks into the cornice and drips onto the steps or runs down the front wall. In Paulus Hook and Van Vorst Park, which are historic districts, ask the city before changing anything visible from the street, cornices included. See brownstone and rowhouse roofs.

Shingles and slate on pitched roofs

On a pitched roof, a repair usually means replacing shingles that have lifted, cracked or blown off, or slates that have slipped or broken, and checking the flashing in valleys and around dormers. Slate is its own trade: ask whether the roofer works with slate before the visit.

Before the roofer arrives

If water is coming in now, a few things help and none of them involve a ladder:

• Stay off the roof while it is wet or icy, and keep others off it
• Move furniture, electronics and rugs away from the drip, and catch the water in a bucket
• Photograph the stain, the drip and any damage before you clean up, for your insurer
• Note when it leaks: in every rain, in wind-driven rain, or when snow melts
• If you can see the roof safely from a window or the hatch, photograph that too, without stepping out

What a repair visit should look at

A roofer called about a leak in one room should still look at the whole roof, because the cause is often somewhere else. A thorough visit usually covers:

1. The inside first: where the stain is, how big, and whether the ceiling or wall is wet now
2. The roof covering across the whole surface: seams, blisters, cracks, soft spots and low places that hold water
3. Every edge: parapet flashing, coping, the cornice top and the rear edge or gutter
4. Every opening: chimneys, skylights, the hatch and vent pipes
5. Where water leaves the roof: drains, scuppers, gutters and leaders
6. The shared walls with the neighbors on each side, where a leak can start on one roof and show up next door

Ask for photos of what they found, marked with where each one was taken. A roofer who can show you the open seam or the cracked flashing is giving you something you can check and compare.

Problems and the usual fix

What you see	Where it often starts	What a repair usually involves
Stain on the top-floor ceiling near a side wall	Parapet flashing or coping	Resealing or replacing flashing; repairing coping joints
Leak around the stair skylight or hatch	Curb flashing or the unit itself	New flashing or boot; sometimes a new skylight
Water after heavy rain, in the middle of a room	A seam, blister or ponding area	Patching the covering with matching material
Drips at the front steps or facade	The cornice top or its flashing	Repairing the cornice cover; ask the city first in a historic district
Leak by a chimney breast	Chimney flashing or mortar	New flashing, repointing, or capping an unused flue
Water at the rear wall in winter	Ice in the gutter or a blocked leader	Clearing, repairing or replacing gutters and leaders

Questions to ask about a repair quote

• What exactly is causing the leak, and can you show me?
• What material is my roof, and will the repair match it?
• Is this one repair, or do you see other spots that will need work soon?
• Does the neighbor’s roof or wall play any part, and how will you work at the shared edge?
• Is a permit needed for this work on this building?
• What is your New Jersey contractor registration number?
• Will the price and the description of the work be in writing?

New Jersey wants any job of $500 or more in a written contract, and that contract has to show the contractor’s legal name, business address and registration number, when the work starts and finishes, what the work is, and the total price. The roofing contractors in Jersey City NJ page lists every check.

Repair or replace?

A repair makes sense when the roof is sound apart from one or two problems. Replacement starts to make more sense when leaks keep moving around, water ponds across wide areas, the covering is blistered or brittle all over, or the roof has been patched so many times that new patches no longer hold. On a pitched roof, shingles that are curling and shedding granules on every slope tell the same story.

If a roofer recommends replacement, ask why in plain words, and ask what a repair would involve as a comparison. For a big decision, a second opinion is reasonable. The page on roof replacement in Jersey City covers the systems and the questions.

Do roof repairs need a permit in Jersey City?

Under the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code, the repair or replacement of existing roof covering on detached one- and two-family dwellings is ordinary maintenance, which can be done without filing a permit application. Gutters and leaders are on the same list. Any work that affects the structure is not ordinary maintenance. For an attached rowhouse, a multi-family building, or any structural work, ask the Jersey City construction code office whether a permit is needed before work starts. The Jersey City roofing permit guide explains more.

Leaks first, then the rest

If you are dealing with water coming in today, the page on roof leak repair in Jersey City goes step by step through finding the source. If your building is a brownstone or a row, the brownstone roof repair page covers parapets, cornices and shared walls, and the flat roof page names each covering and how it is repaired.

Questions people ask