Roofing Contractor in Hummelstown, PA

Brownstone core, suburban edges

The in-town housing is old: brick and brownstone buildings with steep pitches, slate remnants, standing seam metal on porches and additions, and masonry chimneys that need real flashing rather than caulk.

Brownstone brings a specific consideration. It is a softer stone than granite and it weathers, which means chimney and wall flashing details cut into brownstone need care — cutting a reglet into deteriorated stone can do more harm than good, and sometimes the right answer is a surface-mounted counterflashing properly sealed rather than a cut-in that damages the masonry.

The newer development around the borough's edges is standard late-century and modern subdivision construction with the usual ventilation shortcomings.

• Eighteenth and nineteenth century brick and brownstone buildings
• Slate and standing seam metal on the historic stock
• Masonry flashing details requiring care on softer brownstone
• Newer subdivision housing toward Derry Township

Working around historic masonry

The most common mistake we see on Hummelstown's older buildings is flashing treated as a sealant problem. Roofing cement smeared where a masonry intersection needs metal fails within a couple of freeze-thaw seasons and leaves a stain on the stone that does not come off.

Our approach on these buildings is metal wherever a roof meets masonry — step flashing woven course by course, counterflashing either cut into a sound mortar joint or surface-mounted and properly terminated where the stone will not take a reglet, and copper rather than aluminum where the detail is visible.

On the newer housing at the edges of town, the work is more familiar: tear-off, ventilation correction, and an architectural shingle installed to the six-nail pattern.