Roofing contractors in Whitehall, Pennsylvania
Whitehall grew out of the cement mills along the Lehigh, and its housing runs from company-built rows to post-war ranches on wide lots. Two very different roofs, on the same township road.
What Whitehall roofs are dealing with
The older stock near Fullerton and Cementon was built for mill families: narrow, attached or nearly so, with steep roofs that were slated when slate was the nearest thing to hand. Many of those roofs are still up there, and the question they pose is not whether they leak but what replaces them.
North and west of the township line the housing is later and simpler, and the problem shifts to the ordinary one: coverings from the seventies and eighties on their second life, attics ventilated to the standards of their day, and ice at the eaves every time a thaw follows a cold week.
Two townships in one, effectively. The mill-era housing near Fullerton and Cementon is narrow, close-set and frequently still slated. North and west it is post-war detached stock with wide eaves, shallow pitches and attics that were insulated long after they were framed.
Not sure how much life is left up there? The roof age check walks the envelope part by part, which matters more here than a single number for the whole roof.
Covering Fullerton, Egypt, Cementon, Coplay, Hokendauqua and the rest of Whitehall.
- 1 The ridge. The highest course, and on slate the one most often reset by hand.
- 2 The field. Slate on the older stock, shingle on the rest. Two very different clocks.
- 3 Valleys. Where leaf litter settles, and where a slate roof usually ends its life.
- 4 Wall flashing. The party wall of a row or twin, rising through a roof two houses share.
- 5 Penetrations. Holes cut on purpose. When access is awkward they get sealed instead of rebuilt.
- 6 The overhang. Where meltwater from a warm attic reaches cold framing and stops.
When the work happens in Whitehall
The comfortable window runs from spring through October, and the autumn rush here is sharper than in the boroughs because so much of the township turns over at once. A quote taken in summer is a job with a date; the same quote in October is a job waiting for a crew.
What moves the price in Whitehall
On the old side the number moves on what the tear-off finds: spaced boards, previous layers, and whether the slate is worth keeping. On the newer side it is the edge detail and the ventilation, because that is what produces ice every February and that is what a proper job corrects rather than covers.
On housing this old the price is settled underneath rather than on top. Five questions get there faster than comparing product brands, and if two or three quotes are already in hand, the quote comparison checklist puts them side by side:
- Is the sheathing solid, or spaced boards that need a new surface first?
- What is the per-sheet rate for decking, agreed before the roof is opened?
- Is the shallow rear section specified separately from the front slope?
- Is the flashing at a shared wall rebuilt, or sealed against the neighbour?
- What happens to any sound copper that comes off the roof?
The work
Before you call anyone in Whitehall
A few questions come up on nearly every older roof around here, and the answers do not change from one city to the next, so they are written once, in the guides, with figures measured for this area:
Why roofs fail here
Six failures account for most of what gets reported in this valley, and each one has its own page. Where a stain appears inside is rarely above where the water came in.