Roofing Contractor in Midtown Harrisburg, PA

Steep front, flat back — the Midtown rowhome roof

The classic Midtown roof is a hybrid. The street-facing slope is steep, often slate, sometimes with decorative cresting or a mansard face. Behind it, over the kitchen and the rear addition, is a low-slope section with a membrane or built-up roof, terminating into party walls on both sides.

The two halves fail differently and on different schedules. The slate front might have another forty years in it and only need a dozen slates re-hung. The flat rear might be on its fourth membrane and leaking at every seam. Quoting one without the other is how homeowners end up surprised.

Party walls are the third factor. Your membrane meets your neighbor's at a shared wall, and if their termination fails, your ceiling can be the one that stains. We photograph those details for both parties whenever we work a shared wall.

• Slate and steep shingle front slopes, frequently original
• Low-slope rear sections over kitchens and additions
• Shared party walls where flashing protects two properties
• Original box gutters and cornice detail on the older blocks

Working the Third Street blocks

Access is the practical challenge in Midtown. Many blocks have no rear alley access, or an alley too narrow for a dumpster, which means material and debris go through the house or over the roof from a neighboring property.

We plan for that before the crew shows up: interior protection on stairs and floors, staged loading, and a debris plan that does not involve dropping shingles into a neighbor's yard. It is slower than a suburban tear-off and we price it honestly rather than discovering it on day one.

The other Midtown particular is that the neighborhood cares about how things look. A shingle patch on a slate front elevation is visible from the sidewalk and from every window across the street. When we repair slate here we match salvaged Pennsylvania slate for size, thickness and color, and we hang it with copper hooks rather than face-nailing it.