East Syracuse is a small village inside the Town of DeWitt that grew up around the railroad east of the city. Its streets are lined with older two-story frame houses on narrow lots, most with a front porch and many with a roof that's been covered over more than once. That history is the first thing we deal with on almost every job here.
When a roof has two or three layers on it, the weight under a heavy snow is significant, nails can't reach solid wood, and the new shingles telegraph every bump beneath. We take it all down to the boards. On houses this age the deck is sometimes the original plank sheathing with gaps between boards; where that's the case, we sheathe over it so the new shingles have a solid, continuous base.
Porch roofs are the other big one. Many are low-slope and tie into the house wall under a second-floor window, which is exactly where water gets in. Those often do best with a membrane and proper flashing up the wall. Permits for full replacements come from the Village of East Syracuse.
What we see on East Syracuse streets
- Two-story frame houses on narrow lots
- Front porch roofs tied into the house wall
- Roofs with two or three old layers
- Plank decking from the original build
- Brick chimneys needing new flashing
The roofing work we do most in East Syracuse
Roof replacement
Full tear-offs of multiple old layers, new sheathing where needed.
Flat roofing
Low-slope porch roofs rebuilt with membrane.
Roof repair
Chimney and wall flashing rebuilt in metal.
Roof inspection
Layer count and deck check before you buy.
East Syracuse roofing questions
How do I know how many layers my roof has?
Look at the edge of the roof from a ladder or at the rake: you can often count the shingle edges. We'll count during an inspection.
What is plank decking?
Boards laid across the rafters with small gaps, common on older houses. Shingle makers want a solid deck, so we add sheathing over it on replacement.
Does my porch roof need a permit?
A full porch roof replacement usually falls under the same permit as the main roof. We check with the village.
Also nearby: DeWitt · Manlius · North Syracuse · Solvay · every town we cover