Ice Dam Repair in Union from $150. If the ceiling stains during a thaw rather than during rain, this is almost certainly what you have. Free inspection and a written quote.
The classic Union ice dam is over an attached garage or a rear addition, because those roofs sit next to heated space on one side and unheated space below. That produces exactly the temperature difference a dam needs, a few feet from a junction that was never detailed for standing water.
An ice dam is a heat problem wearing a roofing costume. Warm air escaping into the roof space melts the snow lying on the upper roof. That meltwater runs down to the eaves, which are cold because nothing heated sits under them, and refreezes there. Repeat for a week and you have a ridge of ice holding water behind it.



The roofing element prices like any other repair, $350 to $1,800. But be clear about what you are buying: an ice dam is caused by heat escaping into the roof space, and the repair that ends it is air sealing, insulation and ventilation. That is not roofing, we do not pretend it is, and no published New Jersey figure for it exists to quote you honestly. The variable here is which roof. A repair to the house is priced normally; a repair to an attached garage or a rear addition often turns out to involve the deck as well, because nobody goes in there in winter and a leak runs unnoticed for weeks.
The roof side: an ice barrier membrane at the eaves where the covering is coming off anyway, the damaged courses, and the flashing or valley the water has been getting past.
Insulation and air sealing work in the roof space, which is the part that actually stops the melting. We will tell you what needs doing and that it is somebody else's trade rather than inventing a number.
One winter, usually. That is a legitimate thing to buy if you are selling or if money is tight this year, and it should be sold as what it is rather than as a fix.
Rear additions and attached garages are the recurring problem here, because the junction where an addition roof meets the original one is where water gets in. A garage roof is also the least-inspected roof on any property: it is usually the oldest covering on the plot and nobody notices until something stored under it is ruined.
Including us. On repair work the checks are different from the ones people apply to a replacement, and cheaper to make.
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.
'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.
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.
Two roofs per property is normal here and the second one is the problem.
The junction between an addition and the original house is where most Union leaks start.
The flat roof in Union is typically over an attached garage, and it has a particular problem: nobody goes in there in winter, so a leak runs for weeks before it is noticed.
The shaded northern slope is the one to look at first on these plots, because mature planting around suburban houses keeps it damp for longer after every thaw.
Where a chimney sits at the junction of the house and an addition, there are two roofs and a masonry stack all meeting in one place.
If the water is coming into a garage or an addition rather than the house, say so -- it changes the urgency and what we bring.
Pre-war chimneys, and eaves with no ice barrier.
Flat roofs behind parapets. Access is the first problem.
Low ground, open water. Which way is the water going?
Post-war and often overlaid, so the eaves are buried.
Steep pitch. Specific details fail, not the field.
Built as a set, so the street is a reliable guide.
The widest age spread. Age decides where to look.
The questions that decide this job, answered up front.
We can clear it, and sometimes that is the right emergency step. But it will be back within the week, because the cause is heat escaping into the roof space and nothing about clearing ice changes that. Steam removal and chipping both risk the covering, and chipping frequently does real damage.
They can keep a channel open and stop water pooling behind a dam, which is a legitimate holding measure on a roof that cannot be improved this year. They do not stop the melting, they cost money to run every winter, and anybody selling them as the solution is selling a symptom.
Look away from the failure. If the covering across the rest of the slope still lies flat, still holds its granules and is not brittle, the roof has life in it and the repair is the right job. If the slope is generally spent, a repair is money spent twice. Then check the layer count: two coverings is the practical ceiling.
Ask for the New Jersey HIC registration number and check it on the public register. Then ask whether they will look in the roof space, and whether the quote will name the cause rather than just the work. Those three questions cost nothing and they separate most of a shortlist immediately.
Most New Jersey roof repairs run $350 to $1,800, with minor work from $150 to $600. A leak is usually $400 to $1,400 and a small isolated one $400 to $900. Flashing is $300 to $900, or $300 to $1,200 around a chimney, vent or skylight. New Jersey runs above the national average on labor, which is why online calculators read low.
The roof space walked as well as the roof, before any price. The cause named in writing, not just the work.