How the business runs

A repair business organized around finding the cause

This is a roof repair business working Elizabeth and the Union County municipalities around it. The work is residential and small multi-family: leaks, flashings, ice dams, shingle and low-slope repair, on pre-war and post-war housing.

It is built around one observation about this market. A large share of the repair work here is second-time work -- a leak somebody has already paid to fix, that came back. Almost always the patch went where the ceiling was wet rather than where the water entered, and in winter the cause frequently was not the covering at all. So the survey covers the roof space as well as the roof, the cause gets named in writing, and where the real fix is insulation and ventilation rather than roofing we say so instead of selling a repair that will fail.

Repairs and small sections -- full replacement is not our lane
No storm-damage paperwork of any kind
No masonry rebuilding: we will name it, not flash over it
No price without walking the roof and the roof space

An old attic with heavy timber framing and plank walls — **On the roof**Survey before any price is given

How it runs

Four steps, no surprises

Free inspection of the roof and the roof space, the cause named in writing, then a written quote.

Call or message

Tell us when it leaks -- in rain, in driving rain, or during a thaw -- and what is under the wet area. Those two answers narrow the cause further than a photograph does, and the thaw answer changes the diagnosis entirely.

Survey, roof space first

Unusual order and a deliberate one. The underside of the deck shows where water has actually traveled, which is normally uphill of the stain. Then the roof, with the eaves and the flashings looked at by hand rather than from the ladder.

The cause in writing, then the price

Named: which flashing, which lap, which upstand, or which part of the roof space is losing heat. Where the honest answer is that the fix is not roofing, that is written down too, with what it would take.

The work, and the photographs

Containment first if it is live, the repair when the roof is dry, and a before-and-after set that is yours whatever you decide to do next.

Before you choose

Four questions worth asking anybody who quotes a repair

Including us. On repair work the checks are different from the ones people apply to a replacement, and cheaper to make.

Is there an HIC registration number on it

New Jersey registers home improvement contractors rather than licensing roofers, and the number belongs on every advert and contract. The register is public. The wording is a tell as well: the code says not to call it a license, so a New Jersey roofer advertising their roofing 'license' has not read the rules closely.

Did anybody go into the roof space

The single most useful question on this page. A repair quoted from the roof alone is a repair quoted without knowing where the water traveled, and that is how a patch ends up in the wrong place. It costs nothing to ask and it separates most quotes immediately.

Does the quote name the cause, not just the work

'Repair roof' is not a scope. 'Rebuild step flashing to the chimney, replace two vent boots, re-lap the valley' is -- and it can be checked when it is finished, which is the point.

What happens if it leaks again

Ask before, not after. A repair aimed at a named cause can be stood behind; a patch aimed at a stain cannot, and a contractor who is vague about the cause will be vague about this too.

About