DeWitt New Roof: Ask the Town Whether Your Job Counts as a Minor Repair

The Town of DeWitt asks for a permit to upgrade, alter or add fixed improvements unless the job is a minor repair, and Planning and Zoning answers questions. The page does not name roofing, so do not guess. A few replaced shingles sit on one side of that line and a tear-off on the other.

Call the Planning and Zoning office with a plain description of the job. Then put the answer in the contract: who applies for any permit and who pays for it.

Census estimates date the median DeWitt house to 1963, with roughly three in four built before 1980. Housing of this vintage commonly went up in clusters, and houses built together may reach roof age together. That is a proxy, and it is why your neighbors' quotes may be worth hearing about.

A house from 1963 is over 60 years old, so its shingles are commonly a later set. The question is how many sets. Look at the shingle edge for stacked layers and note it. If there are two, state code says the next roof comes off to the deck.

The most common reason two quotes differ is that one removes the old roof to the deck and the other covers it. The code bars a recover over two or more layers and over a water-soaked roof. Ask both roofers to say which applies to your roof and write it down.

Then compare the rest on the same lines: deck boards priced per sheet, an ice barrier at the eaves and a drip edge. Check the roofer's workers' compensation coverage in the state's public search, get a written contract and keep the three business days you have to cancel. If a deposit is asked for, it belongs in escrow.