One township, three very different re-roofs
A roof replacement in Lawrence depends a lot on which part of the township you're in. The same crew and the same materials go on every house, but the plan changes.
An older home in or near Lawrenceville village usually means a steep roof with dormers, a chimney or two and valleys that have carried water for decades. Under the shingles there's often board sheathing rather than plywood. Much of our time goes into rebuilding flashing at every wall and chimney and replacing boards that have split or softened at the eaves. Narrow lots near Main Street also mean planning where the dumpster goes before the first day.
A mid-century house in a neighborhood like Slackwood or Eldridge Park is usually a simpler roof that's been replaced once or twice already. The big variables there are how many old layers come off, how much decking needs replacing and whether the attic can breathe.
A townhouse or condo in one of the township's attached communities is its own project, covered below.
We look at the whole roof and attic during the estimate and put the plan in writing, so you know which version of the job you're getting before we start.
Replacing one unit in an attached row
Lawrence has added a lot of attached housing over the past few decades. If you own a townhouse or condo, the first step for a new roof isn't picking a shingle. It's reading your association documents. Some associations replace every roof in a building on a schedule. Others make each owner responsible but set the approved manufacturer, color and style.
Once you know it's your call, the job comes down to the edges:
- Party-wall seams. We cut in cleanly at the property line and weave or flash the new shingles into the neighbor's roof, so the joint doesn't become the next leak.
- Walls between roof heights. Where your roof runs into the wall of a taller neighboring unit, we install new step flashing. When that flashing fails, water can get into the wall next door as well as yours.
- Coordination. If several owners in the same building are due at once, doing them together gives cleaner seams and a matching roof.
We provide product names and spec sheets for your association and wait for approval before ordering.
Permits and what comes with the roof
Lawrence Township's permit guidance says a permit is needed before new construction or alterations, except for ordinary repairs. Since March 2018, New Jersey has treated re-roofing a detached one- or two-family house as ordinary maintenance, so most single-family replacements need no permit. Townhouses, condos and other attached homes aren't covered by that exemption, and a permit is generally required. We prepare it and pull it through the township's Construction Code Enforcement Division, then coordinate the inspection.
Every replacement includes a tear-off to the deck, ice and water barrier at the eaves and in the valleys, synthetic underlayment, new flashing, architectural asphalt shingles from a GAF-certified crew and ridge ventilation matched to your soffits. Every new roof carries a lifetime manufacturer's warranty and a 10-year workmanship warranty, and financing is available.
If your roof has years left and one bad spot, a roof repair may be all you need. If a porch or rear section is too flat for shingles, we can install EPDM flat roofing during the same job. Learn more about our roof replacement service, or get a starting number from the Instant Roof Quote.
More detail on how we handle this work anywhere we serve: Roof Replacement. Everything we do in Lawrence Township: roofing in Lawrence Township, NJ.
