Camillus roofing: two kinds of housing, one decision about what is under the shingles

Camillus has two governments with the same name. There is a Village of Camillus, and there is a Town of Camillus around it, and the two keep separate code offices. Your address decides which one you are in. The roofing permit, where one is needed, comes from that office and never from the county.

The two kinds of housing are not the same age. The village is older, with a median house from the late 1950s and nearly one in three homes dating from before 1940. The town is younger, with a median in the mid 1960s and far fewer houses that old.

These are ACS estimates and proxies, not measurements of your roof. They still suggest the village is more likely to have older decking and more than one roof layer.

The town is mostly detached houses, nearly eight in ten. In the village, fewer than half are, and a little under half are owner-occupied. If you own a village two-family, you are the one a roofer will talk to. If you rent in one, report the stain to the owner in writing.

What to ask a Camillus roofer

Start with which office issues the permit. The Town takes applications through an online system with up to 10 business days for review, and its list does not name roofing as a category. The Village has its own forms. Ask the roofer which one your address falls under and what that office said, and put the answer in the written estimate.

Then ask about layers. The state residential code asks a replacement to take the old covering down to the deck and does not allow a new layer over a roof that already has two. A 1960s ranch may have been reroofed once. A village house from before 1940 may have been reroofed more often.

Then ask about the edge. In this part of Onondaga County, the temperature crosses freezing and back many times a year, and meltwater tends to back up at the eave. A ceiling that stains only in a thaw is usually an eave problem. A good estimate prices the edge on one line and the whole roof on another.

Last, remember what storms have done here. The county's storm record has golf-ball hail reported at Camillus in April 2011. That is a record, not a forecast. Photograph the yard and gutters after any storm, and ask what it did before you accept the word replacement.

Use the four pages below to find the job that matches. Then book a visit and compare what comes back in writing.