What You Are Allowed To Do Yourself, and What We Would Rather You Did

You can. Section 770(8) of the General Business Law exempts a property owner performing work on their own property from the roofing contractor rules, and there is no state or county roofing credential you would need to obtain first. What does not go away is the permit, the code, the asbestos question and gravity, and on a lot of Syracuse houses the repair that actually stops the leak is inside the attic rather than on the roof.

What the law asks of a contractor and not of you

Section 770(8) of the General Business Law defines a roofing contractor broadly, reaching nonresident contractors, independent contractors, day laborers and subcontractors, and then exempts property owners performing work on their own property. So the duties that sit on a roofer, the written contract naming the insurer and the policy limits, the insurance floor, the prohibitions on rebating a deductible or adjusting a claim, are duties owed to you rather than obligations you take on when you climb the ladder yourself. Nor is there a credential to obtain first: the Department of State's Division of Consumer Protection states that New York State does not license home improvement contractors, although some counties and municipalities do, and Onondaga is not one of them. One line worth knowing before you decide: a home improvement contract only falls under Article 36-A where the aggregate price exceeds five hundred dollars. A three hundred dollar patch by a handyman therefore sits outside the statutory contract protections entirely, which is an argument for either doing that job yourself or writing down what was agreed anyway.

The permit does not care who is holding the hammer

This is the single most common misunderstanding, and it costs money at resale rather than on the day. Under 19 NYCRR 1203.3(a)(1) a municipality in New York may exempt only eight listed categories of work from the building permit requirement, and roofing and roof covering replacement are not among them; the same Part lets a local government be more stringent than the state minimum, not less. The permit rule attaches to the work, not to the person doing it, so a homeowner tear-off in the City of Syracuse needs the same permit a contractor would pull, and the city lists Roof as a residential construction permit type in its own right with its own online application. Twelve miles north the answer flips: the Town of Cicero states that a building permit is not required for installing or replacing siding or roofing provided no more than two layers of roofing are to be covered. Same county, opposite answers, and the exemption there is written around the layer count. Call the office that covers your parcel before you order anything, ask in writing, and keep the reply.

The one protection you lose by running the job yourself

Here is the trade nobody mentions, and it is worth knowing before you commit. Under 12 NYCRR 56-5.1 an owner or an owner's agent must cause an asbestos survey to be conducted before demolition, renovation, remodeling or repair work on a building. Owners of one and two family dwellings are relieved of that requirement only where they contract for but do not direct or control the work. Read it twice: hire a firm and let them run the job and the relief applies, direct the crew yourself or do the work yourself and it does not. The post-1973 exemption will probably not rescue you either. Section 56-5.1(b) exempts structures whose original construction commenced on or after January 1, 1974, and with a median construction year of 1948 in the City of Syracuse and 1964 across Onondaga County, the majority of housing here predates that line. The material risk is real rather than theoretical: the EPA lists roofing and siding shingles among the products in which asbestos is found, and states that fibers may be released when asbestos containing material is disturbed during demolition, maintenance, repair or remodeling. The state's own position is that presumption runs against you until it is tested. The Department of Labor names cement siding and vermiculite attic insulation among materials presumed to contain asbestos in older homes and says only sampling and analysis can determine the content for certain. A sample costs very little against the cost of an uncontrolled tear-off in your own yard.

Lead, and why a rule about paid work still matters to you

The EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule applies to anyone who is paid to perform work that disturbs paint in housing built before 1978, with a minor repair exemption at six square feet or less of interior paint per room or 20 square feet or less on the exterior, and window replacement and demolition always covered regardless of area. The words to notice are anyone who is paid. Working on your own house, the rule does not reach you, and the lead does. Painted soffits, fascia and rake boards on a pre-1978 house pass twenty square feet of exterior paint very easily, which is why that work is a certification matter when a firm does it, and the dust lands in the same soil and the same open windows either way. So borrow the practices rather than ignoring them: plastic on the ground, no dry scraping or power sanding of painted trim, keep children and pregnant women away from the work area, and clean up wet. Note too that the City of Syracuse lists painting and siding as work requiring no permit but attaches a parenthetical instruction to alert the city if you are removing or disturbing asbestos or lead paint. No permit is not the same thing as no notification.

The work genuinely worth doing yourself

Some of the most useful roof work in this climate is not on the roof. Section R806 of the Residential Code of New York State requires ventilation of enclosed attics and enclosed rafter spaces and not less than one inch of clear space between the insulation and the roof sheathing where eave or cornice vents are installed. Insulation packed tight against the sheathing at the eave is the most common reason an otherwise sound Syracuse roof dams every winter, and clearing it and fitting baffles is a Saturday with a headlamp rather than a contract. The stakes are higher than a row of icicles: the New York State Department of Health lists ice dams and insufficient attic ventilation among the moisture sources that cause mold growth in homes, so this is an indoor air job as much as a roof job. Keeping valleys and gutters clear before the first snow belongs in the same category. And if you do take a small roof off yourself, there is a lawful destination for the debris: the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency states that asphalt roofing generated by residents and commercial entities can be delivered to its Rock Cut Road Drop-Off Site at 5808 Rock Cut Road, Jamesville. Check the current hours and charges with OCRRA before you load the trailer.

Where we would rather you stopped

Four places, and none of them is about capability. Height first. OSHA requires fall protection for employees engaged in roofing activities on low slope and steep roofs, and in residential construction wherever there are unprotected sides and edges six feet or more above lower levels. That standard binds employers rather than homeowners, but the six foot figure is a statement about what a fall does, and almost every two story roof in this city clears it. Second, the details that decide whether a roof works. Section R905.1.2 requires the ice barrier to run from the lowest edge of all roof surfaces to a point not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, which on a deep overhang is two courses rather than one, and Section R905.2.2 permits asphalt shingles only on slopes of 2 in 12 or greater with doubled underlayment from 2 in 12 up to 4 in 12. Getting either wrong produces a roof that looks finished and leaks. Third, layers. Section R908 bars a new covering over an existing one where there are already two applications, where the covering is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile, or where the existing roof is water soaked or too deteriorated to be an adequate base, and that is a code question rather than a preference. Fourth, anything structural. Under 19 NYCRR 1220.3(a) a site above 1,000 feet carries a ground snow load 2 pounds per square foot higher for every 100 feet of elevation above that, so a sagging deck on high ground south or east of the city is a design question, not a sheet of plywood. And mind the calendar: Syracuse normally gets 92.0 inches of snow between December and February and another 21.9 inches from March to May, so a do-it-yourself tear-off booked for early spring is a tear-off booked into snow. If after all that the honest answer is that your roof has years left and the problem is a blocked soffit, that is the answer, and you do not need us for it.