How a East Orange job runs, step by step: free quote, written scope, written quote, sign-off - and the cheaper option named when there is one.
Free inspection, the unit count and permit position in writing, then a written quote. No curbside numbers.
Tell us the address and how many dwelling units are in the building. That one answer settles whether this is ordinary maintenance or permitted work, and whether the building is a registered multiple dwelling -- which is usually the first thing an owner wants to know.
Both together. On slate the underside tells you whether the nails have gone, which is the difference between a repair and a replacement. On asphalt the eaves tell you whether an ice barrier was ever there. Layer count gets checked at the rake edge while we are up.
Named details rather than 'replace roof': ice barrier coverage, drip edge, underlayment, nailing, and decking priced per sheet. The permit position is stated in writing, including when the honest answer is that none is needed.
Tenant notice and a waste route agreed before the day, a sequence that keeps every unit covered overnight, nails swept, and a before-and-after set that is yours whatever you decide to do next.
Published Essex County ranges, with your written quote after the visit.
$12,000-18,000 on a 2,000 sq ft house.
Plus permit, and the building is a multiple dwelling.
Epdm $5-9, tpo $6-12, installed.
Three-tab to architectural, installed.
Replacing existing; new slate $15-30.
Per slope or structure, fixed costs unchanged.
One is about your building and one is about your covering, and most quotes in this city establish neither.
At one or two and detached, replacing a covering is ordinary maintenance under N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7: no permit, no inspection. At three it is permitted construction work, and the building is also a registered multiple dwelling under N.J.S.A. 55:13A-1 et seq. on a five-year inspection cycle. Nothing about the roof explains that.
Slate outlives almost everything fixed to it. Slipped slates usually mean corroded nails; leaks at a valley usually mean a rusted lining. Both are repairs. Replacing an existing slate roof is $20 to $35 per square foot, so the difference between diagnosing that correctly and not runs to tens of thousands.
On asphalt, if the covering away from the leak still lies flat, holds its granules and is not brittle, the roof has life in it and a repair is the right job. A failed flashing or a split upstand is hundreds of dollars and is routinely produced as proof that the whole roof is finished.
Two coverings is the practical ceiling. A roof already at two is a tear-off whatever anybody quotes, and it takes two minutes to check at the rake edge. It is the fastest way to tell whether the quotes in front of you describe the same job.
Two clocks run on this work in this city and only one of them is about the weather.
Northern roofs fail at the edges in the freeze. Water backs up under the courses at the eaves, freezes, lifts them, and the ceiling below stains during the first thaw -- so the calls arrive in a cluster, in the same two weeks, and the roof that could have been done comfortably in September becomes an emergency in February.
The second clock only runs on some buildings, and it is the reason the unit count comes first. A detached one- or two-family house is ordinary maintenance and can be booked as soon as there is a crew. A three-family needs a construction permit and a closing inspection, and on a tenanted building it needs notice as well. Those are days, and they belong in the plan rather than in a surprise.
A free written quote, no obligation.