New Roof in Cicero: Get the Tear-Off Written Into the Contract

Cicero is a town, and its zoning page says roof installation or replacement needs no building permit when the job covers no more than two layers. That is the town's rule about paperwork. It says nothing about the roof you want, so your contract has to hold what a permit file might otherwise hold.

Ask the proposal to say who removes the old covering, how far down the removal goes and what happens when the deck turns out to be bad. The state rule is separate and applies in Cicero too. The town's two-layer wording is no leave to cover two layers.

A replacement removes the old roof to the deck, and a new layer is not allowed over two or more layers or over a water-soaked roof. If you are unsure whether your job fits the town's list, the zoning and planning page advises confirming with your contractor, so ask for that answer in writing.

The median Cicero home was built around 1980 by Census estimates, and about half the town's housing is older than that. Read that as a proxy. A house from around 1980 may well have had a first reroof by now, and housing of that age may still carry a second layer. It does not tell you what is on your roof.

Most Cicero homes are detached, so the decision is yours. You can learn a lot from the ground. Look at the shingle edge for stacked layers, and write down the year of the last reroof if you know it. When two quotes differ by a large amount, the first thing to compare is whether one of them removes the old layers and the other does not.

Ask for these lines in writing. Tear-off to the deck. A price per sheet for any deck boards that need replacing. An ice barrier from the eave edge well past the outside wall. A drip edge at the eaves. These are the parts of a roof that decide whether it fails at the overhang, which is where Syracuse roofs usually end.

Then check the roofer. New York issues no state roofing license and the county runs no program of its own, so use what is public: the state's workers' compensation coverage search, a written contract, and the three business days you have to cancel a home improvement contract.

The contract must also say a deposit goes into escrow or is backed by a bond. If a roofer will not put these in writing, that tells you what you need to know.