Forest Hills is really two roofing markets on one ZIP code, and they have almost nothing in common. Inside Forest Hills Gardens you have steep slate and clay tile on houses that went up between 1909 and the late 1920s. Along Queens Boulevard, Yellowstone and 108th Street you have prewar co-ops with flat roofs, parapets, bulkheads and a board that has to approve the work. We do both, but they are different jobs with different timelines and different people signing off.
If you are inside the Gardens, the first thing to know is that the streets are private and the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation reviews exterior work. That is not the Landmarks Commission and it does not run on the same schedule. Colour, profile and material all matter to them, so we price the job assuming your slate has to be matched rather than replaced with whatever is cheapest. Most of the original roofs here are now past a hundred years old. On a lot of them the slate is still sound and the copper flashing, the valleys and the nails are what have failed.
Outside the Gardens the housing is different again. Cord Meyer detached homes, semi attached brick row houses, and the Austin Street and Continental Avenue corridor. Steep Tudor pitches on Burns Street, Greenway North and Greenway South throw a specific problem after a hard winter, which is ice damming at the eave. Water backs up under the shingles above a warm attic and shows up as a stain on a bedroom ceiling in March, long after the ice is gone.
What we actually see in 11375: century old slate where the nails and flashing failed before the slate did, cracked clay tile at hips and ridges, ice dam damage at the eaves of steep Tudor pitches, stucco cracking on gable ends and half timber infill, and prewar co-op flat roofs where the parapet coping is letting water in from the top.
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Q: Do I need Forest Hills Gardens Corporation approval to replace my roof?
A: If your house is inside the Gardens, almost certainly yes. The streets there are private and the Corporation reviews exterior work, including roof colour, material and profile. It is a separate process from a NYC DOB permit and it runs on its own schedule, so build a few weeks into your plan. We put the material and colour in writing up front so you have something to submit rather than a verbal description.
Q: My slate is over a hundred years old. Does all of it have to go?
A: Often not. On the original Gardens houses we usually find that the slate itself is still sound and what failed is everything around it. The nails have rusted through, the copper valleys are worn, the flashing at the chimney has opened up. In that case we salvage the good slate, replace the underlayment, valleys and flashing, and set the slate back with new pieces only where something broke. A full slate tear off on a house like that runs well into six figures, so it is worth finding out which situation you are in first.
Q: We are a co-op on Queens Boulevard. How does this work with the board?
A: The same way it works for every prewar building here. We inspect, document the condition with photographs, and give you a scope written so the board and the managing agent can compare it against other bids line by line rather than guessing. We are used to three bid processes and to scheduling around shareholders. We can also phase the work if the building wants to spread the cost across two budget years.
Q: Why do I get a ceiling stain in March when the roof was fine all winter?
A: That is an ice dam, and the steep Tudor pitches around Burns Street and the Greenways are prone to it. Heat escaping into the attic melts snow up on the slope, the water runs down to the cold eave and refreezes, and the ice pushes water back up under the roof covering. The stain shows up weeks later. Fixing the roof surface alone does not solve it. The real fix is ventilation, insulation at the attic floor and proper protection at the eave.
Q: Can you match the tile and slate colour on my block?
A: Yes, and in the Gardens you generally have to. We source salvaged and new stock to match the existing colour and profile, and we will bring samples to hold against the roof before anything is ordered. If an exact match no longer exists we tell you that instead of ordering the closest thing and hoping nobody notices.
Q: Do you handle the stucco and half timber on the gables too?
A: Yes. Most roofers here will do your roof and leave the gable to somebody else, which means two contractors, two mobilisations and a seam between them where nobody takes responsibility. We do the roof, the stucco, the half timber infill and the gutters as one scope.
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