Roofing Contractor in Parsippany, NJ

Mount Tabor: cottages built on tent lots

Mount Tabor started in 1869 as a Methodist camp meeting ground. Families first camped there in tents, on lots that measured 16 by 32 feet. Over the following decades those tents were replaced with small, decorative Victorian cottages, built to fit the same lots. The Mount Tabor Historic District was listed on both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 2015.

The land is still owned by the Camp Meeting Association. Homeowners own their houses and lease the ground under them, under leases that were made perpetual in 1969. It is one of the more unusual neighborhoods in Morris County, and its roofs come with their own set of problems.

• Houses sit very close together. On lots that narrow, there is often no room for a dumpster or a material drop beside the house. Tear-off debris and new material may have to be carried by hand, and the neighbor's siding, windows and plantings a few feet away have to be protected the whole time.
• Steep, small, cut-up roofs. Victorian cottages tend to have steep pitches, gables, dormers and porch roofs in a small footprint. More edges and more intersections mean more flashing, and more places for water to get in when that flashing ages.
• Decorative trim at the eaves and gables. Brackets, scrollwork and trim boards are part of what makes these houses what they are. They have to be worked around, not torn off to make the roofing easier.
• Winterized summer cottages. Many of these houses started as summer-only places and were insulated and heated later. Converting a cottage to year-round use changes the attic: more heat below the roof, more moisture, and more need for proper ventilation and ice and water barrier at the eaves.

Parsippany's Historical Preservation Advisory Committee is an advisory body formed in 2003 to educate and advocate for preservation. If you own in the district and want to change the look of a visible roof, it is still worth asking the township first. We will talk through material and color choices that suit the house either way.

One township, very different houses

Parsippany-Troy Hills grew faster between 1950 and 1970 than at any other time. The Census counted 15,290 residents in 1950, 25,557 in 1960 and 55,112 in 1970. Most of the township's housing went up in or around that window, but it did not all go up the same way.

• Lake Hiawatha and the older lake neighborhoods have many small capes, bungalows and ranches, plenty of them expanded over the years with dormers, second stories and rear additions.
• Lake Parsippany and Rainbow Lakes started as lake communities, and some homes began life as seasonal cottages before being enlarged and winterized.
• Troy Hills, Powder Mill and the newer subdivisions are mostly larger single-family homes from the later decades, with longer rooflines, hips and valleys.

A house built in the 1950s or 1960s is now on its second or third roof. The wood deck underneath has been through more than one tear-off, and every addition along the way added another place where an old roof meets a new one. That is what we look at first on a Parsippany roof.

Where the addition meets the house

One of the most common leaks we trace on expanded Parsippany homes is at a tie-in: the line where a flat or low-slope roof over an addition, sunroom or porch meets the original pitched roof or the wall of the house. Water reaches that line from two directions, it runs slowly on the low side, and in winter snow and ice sit on it.

Slope matters more than most people realize. Under the International Residential Code, which New Jersey uses for one- and two-family homes, asphalt shingles cannot go on a roof pitched lower than 2 in 12 at all (IRC R905.2.2), and between 2 in 12 and 4 in 12 they need a double layer of underlayment. Many porch and addition roofs were shingled anyway at a pitch that is too low, and those are the ones that leak first.

What we check at a tie-in

• The actual pitch of the low roof, and whether it should be a membrane roof instead of shingles.
• How the low roof is lapped under the upper roof or flashed into the wall, and whether the flashing was ever replaced.
• Ice and water barrier along the whole joint, since this is exactly where ice backs up.
• Soft or stained decking on both sides of the line, from years of slow leaks.

If the stain on your ceiling is near the back of the house or under a dormer, the tie-in is a likely suspect. Our guide to where roof leaks actually start explains how to narrow it down from the attic.

What this Parsippany roof shows

The photo at the top of this page is a finished roof in Parsippany, shot from up on the ridge. Things worth noticing:

• Straight, even courses. Architectural shingles have an uneven look on purpose, but the courses themselves should run straight and parallel up the slope. Wavy courses usually mean a wavy deck underneath.
• A clean hip line. The hip is capped with dedicated cap shingles, not cut-up field shingles, so it sheds water and holds up in wind.
• New gutter at the eave. Gutters are hung and pitched with the new roof, so the water the roof sheds actually goes where it should.
• Heavy tree cover all around. Much of the township backs up to wooded ridges and lakes. Shade and leaves keep roofs damp and fill valleys and gutters, which is why we look closely at both.

Roofing and chimney work we do in Parsippany

• Full roof replacement with complete tear-off, deck inspection and repair, ice and water barrier, synthetic underlayment, new flashing and new shingles.
• Leak repair at tie-ins, dormers, chimneys, skylights, valleys and pipe boots.
• Low-slope sections over porches, sunrooms and additions, done with the right material for the pitch.
• Chimney repair including flashing, crowns and masonry.
• Gutters replaced or re-hung with the new roof.

See every service on our services page, or read how long a roof replacement takes from start to finish.

Parsippany roofing questions