An old borough with a college in it and a great deal of newer housing around it. The two halves reach replacement age on completely different clocks.
What Elizabethtown roofs are dealing with
The core is nineteenth-century brick on small lots, much of it re-covered more than once and carrying more layers than anyone remembers.
The developments to the north and east went up within a few years of each other, which means whole streets come due together.
A nineteenth-century brick core, much of it re-covered more than once, next to a large amount of housing built within a few years of itself. The first has unknown layers underneath; the second has a known build date and a predictable clock.
Not sure how much life is left up there? The roof age check walks the envelope part by part — which matters more here than a single number, because on metal the panel and the things holding it down age on different clocks.
Covering Mount Joy, Hummelstown, Hershey and the rest of Elizabethtown.
- 1 The ridge cap. On metal it is a separate piece with closures under it. Blown snow finds the joint that was never closed.
- 2 The seams. A standing-seam roof lives at its seams and clips, not at its surface. The panel outlasts what holds it.
- 3 The valley. One channel taking what two slopes shed — and on the north side, holding snow long after the field is clear.
- 4 Where the ell meets the wall. A lower wing dying into the main house. Two roofs, one wall, and nobody sure whose seam it is.
- 5 The fasteners. Exposed screws through the panel, each with a rubber washer. The washers age; the screws work loose.
- 6 The eave. Drip edge, gutter, and the question every metal roof asks: where does a slab of snow go when it lets go?
When the work happens in Elizabethtown
Straightforward in the newer parts: driveways, room to work, no permit for the container. In the borough core it is the older story of narrow lots and neighbours on both sides, which is a scheduling question more than a weather one.
What moves the price in Elizabethtown
In the core, the unknown is the number of layers and the state of the boards underneath — both should be priced before the roof is opened rather than discovered on day one. In the developments the lever is timing: a quote taken before the street starts replacing is a quote with a start date attached.
On housing this old the price is settled underneath rather than on top. Five questions get there faster than comparing product brands, and if two or three quotes are already in hand, the quote comparison checklist puts them side by side:
- What is on the roof now, and does all of it have to come off?
- Is the sheathing solid, or spaced boards that need a new surface first?
- What is the per-sheet rate for decking, agreed before the roof is opened?
- Is the back wing specified separately from the front slope?
- Where does the snow go when it lets go, and what sits under that eave?
The work
Before you call anyone in Elizabethtown
A few questions come up on nearly every property in this valley, and the answers do not change from one borough to the next, so they are written once, in the guides — written for a market where the covering is as likely to be metal as shingle:
Why roofs struggle here
Six failures account for most of what gets reported in these three counties, and each one has its own page. Where a stain shows up inside is rarely below where the water came in.