Roof replacement in Solvay: what each estimate removes from a 1940s house

The median house in Solvay village dates from 1947, and more than nine in ten were built before 1980. Read that as a hint about age, not a fact about your shingles. Older housing like this may carry more than one layer on the roof and older boards under it.

Only a tear-off shows what is there. Ask the roofer how many layers they expect, and what happens to the price if the deck turns out soft.

If a neighbor reroofed recently, ask what the tear-off found. It will not be your roof, but a neighbor's story about the decking is worth more than a general warning. Ask your roofer when work could begin and what happens if a thaw or a storm gets there first.

Solvay's Village Hall has a code enforcement office of its own, apart from the Town of Geddes around it. Its published list of work that needs a building permit does not name roofing. The village asks anyone who is unsure to call.

So do not guess. Ask the roofer who contacts the village, what the answer was, and whether any fee falls on you. Put the answer in the written estimate. If the roofer says it never needs one, ask them to show you where the village says that.

The county is not the office to ask, since it issues no building permits. Any permit question for a Solvay house goes to the village.

If you are buying a Solvay house and the roof is near the end of its life, get the estimate before closing. The seller's papers may show when it was last done, and you can ask the village code office whether a permit was ever recorded.

The state residential code asks a replacement to take the old covering off down to the deck. It does not allow a new layer over a roof that already has two, or over one that is water soaked. A lower quote may simply leave the old roof in place.

Ask each roofer whether the price includes tear-off, deck repair by the sheet, an ice barrier along the eave and a drip edge. Write the answers next to each number. Any no means you are comparing two different jobs.

Get the chosen estimate as a written contract with the three business day cancel notice that New York requires. A deposit should go into an escrow account, and you can check the roofer's workers' compensation coverage in the state's public search.