Roofing Contractor in Susquehanna Township, PA

Four decades of housing in one township

The township's building history reads in layers. Estherton and the riverfront blocks north of the city line hold pre-war housing. The 1950s and 60s filled in around Progress and Edgemont with ranches, capes and split-levels. The 1980s and 90s pushed east with colonials, and infill has continued since.

Each layer has a signature failure. The pre-war stock has box gutters and original cornice work. The mid-century ranches have shallow pitches with minimal overhang, so wind-driven rain gets at the fascia. The 80s and 90s colonials almost universally have inadequate soffit intake feeding an oversized ridge vent, which is why so many of them are on their second roof already.

• Pre-war riverfront homes with box gutters and slate remnants
• Mid-century ranches with shallow pitch and minimal eave overhang
• 1980s–90s colonials with ridge vents and no functional intake
• Rockville-area properties exposed to river-valley wind

Rockville, Progress and the wind off the river

The Rockville end of the township sits right where the Susquehanna narrows under the Rockville Bridge, and properties on that exposed river frontage take a meaningfully different wind load than houses tucked into the Progress neighborhoods a few miles east.

We adjust specification accordingly. On exposed river-facing elevations we specify high-wind rated shingles nailed to the six-nail pattern, upgraded starter strip at the rakes, and ridge cap rated for the same wind speed as the field. It is a small cost difference at install and it is the difference between a roof that holds and a roof that unzips from the rake edge.

In the Progress corridor the work is different again — a lot of light commercial and mixed-use along US-22 with low-slope roofs, alongside the residential streets behind them. We handle both, which is convenient when a small business owner's building and house are three minutes apart.