Elizabeth doesn't have one kind of roof. In Elmora and Westminster you'll find single-family homes from the first half of the last century with full pitched roofs and real yards. In Peterstown, Elizabethport and around Midtown it's more two- and three-family frame houses close to the sidewalk, mixed with brick buildings that have flat roofs. The city's master plan puts about a quarter of its housing units in two-family houses. As roofers in Elizabeth, NJ, we work on the pitched roofs: roof replacement and new roof installation on shingle-roofed houses, along with gutters and gutter guards.
The common thread is age. Close to 60 percent of Elizabeth's housing was built before 1960, and many of those roofs have been covered over at least once, some twice. New Jersey enforces the International Residential Code, which doesn't allow a new shingle layer over a roof that already has two, so on most older homes the job starts with a full tear-off. That's when we find out what the deck looks like, replace boards that have gone soft, and lay ice-and-water shield along the eaves before new underlayment and shingles go on.
Practical things decide how a job goes here. On two- and three-family houses, tenants need notice and a clear way in and out while work goes on overhead. Driveways are narrow or shared, so the dumpster may end up on the street, and the city issues dumpster permits for that. Elizabeth is the Union County seat, but roofing questions go to the city's own construction office, not the county. If you're weighing whether it's time, our roof replacement page covers what's involved.
Around Elizabeth
We regularly work near:
- 📍Union County Courthouse
- 📍The Mills at Jersey Gardens
- 📍Warinanco Park
- 📍Boxwood Hall
Roofing Company in Elizabeth — Local Notes
- •Flat roofs on brick buildings and storefronts are membrane work, which isn't our core. Pitched shingle roofs on houses are.
- •Full tear-off is the norm on older frame houses here; two or more existing layers rule out another overlay under the IRC.
- •Replacing the roof covering on a detached one- or two-family house needs no construction permit. Three-family houses, attached homes and structural work go through the City of Elizabeth Bureau of Construction, which also handles dumpster permits.
- •On two- and three-family homes, downspouts often empty onto shared driveways or right at the foundation. Rerouting them is part of a good gutter job.
Nearby cities we serve