Roofing Contractor in Hammonton, NJ

Pine, and what it does to a roof

The defining maintenance issue in Hammonton is organic debris, and pine needles are the worst kind. They fall steadily all year rather than in a single autumn drop, they mat together into a dense layer that holds water instead of draining, and they are thin enough to pass through most coarse gutter guards before blocking the downspout outlet.

• Needles matting in gutters and blocking downspouts year-round
• Valleys holding damp needle debris against the shingles
• Shaded slopes staying wet long after rain
• Moss and algae on north-facing aspects
• Limbs overhanging and abrading the roof surface

Downtown buildings with parapets and low-slope roofs

The commercial core has the building type that shore-town roofing sites never discuss: attached masonry buildings with flat or low-slope roofs behind parapet walls. They fail at the parapet terminations, the coping, the party wall junctions and the drainage outlets — not in the middle of the roof.

Agricultural buildings

Farm structures are roofs too, and they are usually the least maintained ones on a property. Exposed-fastener metal panels are common, and their weak point is the thousands of screws with rubber washers that seal each penetration. As panels expand and contract with temperature, screws back out and washers perish, and each becomes a small hole directly into the building.

Freeze-thaw and ice at the eaves

Inland winters here are colder than on the islands, and freeze-thaw cycling matters more. Where an attic is poorly ventilated, heat escaping into it melts snow on the roof which then refreezes at the colder eave, backing water up under the shingles. Ice and water membrane at the eaves and a properly ventilated attic are the two things that address it.