Reroofing a Syracuse house: what the tear-off finds under the old shingles

The median house in the city was built in 1948, and about four in ten homes date from 1939 or earlier. It hints at age. It tells you nothing firm about this roof. It does suggest that a Syracuse house has had more years to collect extra layers, patched sheathing and old flashing than a newer suburb has.

Under the state residential code, a replacement removes the existing layers down to the deck. A new layer over two existing ones is not allowed, and neither is covering a roof that is soaked or past holding a new one. So the first thing a roofer should tell you is how many layers they found or expect.

If you know the history, say so. If a previous owner mentioned a second roof, or the shingles at the edge look thick, put it in your request. It changes the work, and it changes the estimate.

If you bought recently, the seller's papers or the city's permit records may show when the last roof went on. A date beats a guess, and a roofer can work from it.

Once the old covering comes off, the boards or sheets underneath either hold a nail or they do not. Nobody can read that from the sidewalk. A fair estimate says how deck repair is handled: a stated price for each sheet that has to be replaced, or an allowance, or nothing at all.

Ask which. A quote that is silent on the deck is the one that grows after the tear-off starts. Ask also whether the ice barrier along the eave and the drip edge are in the scope, because the code asks for both on shingle roofs where ice has formed along the eaves.

Read how each estimate words it, since two Syracuse quotes that look alike often differ on exactly these lines. A line that says deck boards are replaced as needed is not a price. A line that gives a figure per sheet, billed only if found and shown to you in a photo, is something you can hold the roofer to.

Syracuse issues its own roof permits. The city lists roof work among the jobs that need a permit, and you apply through the Central Permit Office. The county has no part in it.

Check whether your street is inside a preservation district or the house is a protected site. If it is, ask the Landmark Preservation Board whether a roof covering change needs a certificate of appropriateness, because the Board's own page does not say.

Ask the roofer who files for the permit and who pays the fee. The city checks permitted work after it is finished, so ask who books that visit. Get the answers in the estimate, not on the phone.

Before you sign anything, get the estimate as a written contract. New York requires one for home improvement work, with a notice that you have three business days to cancel, and it says a deposit goes into escrow or is backed by a bond.

Check the roofer's workers' compensation coverage in the state's public search, because New York issues no state roofing license and the county runs no program of its own.