Roof Repair for Chatham homes and buildings
A roof repair in Chatham Borough usually involves a house that is close to a century old. Early-1900s colonials and Dutch colonials have had their roofs replaced several times, and each generation of work left details that can fail: dormer sidewall flashing buried under newer siding, valleys that were woven without metal, chimney flashing that was caulked rather than replaced, and gutters that overflow into the soffit under heavy leaf loads.
Asset Roofing & Chimney traces each leak to its source and fixes it properly. On the gambrel roofs of Dutch colonials, the break between the upper and lower slopes is a frequent trouble spot. On foursquares with hipped roofs and a central dormer, the dormer and the hip ridges get our attention first. We also repair the flat roofs on Main Street's commercial buildings.
Chatham housing
Chatham Borough's housing is predominantly early-1900s through 1930s single-family construction: center-hall colonials, Dutch colonials with gambrel roofs, foursquares and Tudors, with later capes and split-levels on some streets. Roofs are mostly asphalt shingle today, with slate still on some older homes. Nearly every house has a brick chimney, and many have two. The downtown has flat-roofed commercial buildings.
Weather & exposure
Chatham's mature street trees and backyard oaks and maples drop heavy leaf and branch loads onto roofs and keep many of them shaded. Winters are colder and snowier than the Bergen riverfront, with ice dams on homes with older attic insulation. The Passaic River lowlands add humidity, and summer thunderstorms and nor'easters bring wind-driven rain into dormers and chimney flashing.
Repair or replace? What we tell Chatham homeowners
For a localized leak on a roof that still has sound shingles, we repair the flashing or valley at fault and replace the shingles we disturb with matching material. On a Chatham roof that has been patched many times, we give you a frank assessment of how much life remains so you can decide whether a repair is worth it or whether to plan a replacement.
Ice dam leaks are best addressed in two parts: repairing the damaged area with ice-and-water membrane under the new shingles, and improving attic insulation and ventilation so the snow stops melting from underneath. We will tell you what we see in the attic during the visit.
