Greenpoint is mostly nineteenth century. Two and three story wood frame row houses from the 1850s through the 1890s, brick tenements with stores underneath along Manhattan Avenue and Nassau Avenue, and a landmarked core around Milton, Noble and Kent Streets that has been the Greenpoint Historic District since 1982. A lot of the frame houses have been covered over the years in asphalt siding, aluminum or vinyl. Along the waterfront the new towers are a different trade altogether.
On a typical frame house here the roof is low-slope and pitches from the front cornice down to the back wall. Every drop of water on it leaves through one gutter and one leader at the rear. When that gutter fills with leaves or the leader freezes, the whole roof backs up at the rear edge. Water runs back under the roofing and into the top floor back room, and in January it freezes into a ridge of ice that works a little further in every night. Owners tend to patch the front because that is the part they can see from the sidewalk. The problem is at the back.
The second thing we find is rot hidden behind the wrap. When a house got aluminum or vinyl siding, the roof edge usually got wrapped in aluminum too. Behind it, at the rear eave, the fascia board and the ends of the rafters rot out quietly for years. Nobody knows until the gutter is replaced and there is nothing solid left to fasten it to. We open the edge, replace the rotted wood, and only then hang a new gutter, usually a larger one than was there before.
Frame houses also change how a roof gets installed. These houses stand wall to wall, with wood cornices and wood siding right at the roof line, so we do not run an open torch against wood. Near the cornice and the siding we switch to self-adhered or cold applied membrane, and we keep a fire watch on the roof after any torch work elsewhere. Inside the historic district, roof work generally needs a Landmarks permit, and anything visible from the street gets the closest review. We work Manhattan Avenue, Franklin Street, Kent Street, Milton Street, Noble Street, Java Street, India Street, Greenpoint Avenue, Nassau Avenue, Norman Avenue, Driggs Avenue and McGuinness Boulevard.
What we actually see in 11222: rear gutters and leaders too small for the whole roof draining into them, ice backing up at the back edge every winter, fascia and rafter ends rotted behind aluminum wrap, patched fronts on roofs that leak at the rear, and old torch-down meeting wood cornices with no proper edge detail.
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Q: Why does the leak show up in my back bedroom and not the front?
A: Because on most Greenpoint frame houses the roof slopes to the back, and the rear edge is where all the water collects. A clogged rear gutter, a frozen leader or a failed edge detail there sends water under the roofing and into the back room. We check the rear gutter, the leader and the edge first, before we look anywhere else.
Q: My back gutter overflows every time it rains hard. Is it the wrong size?
A: Often, yes. A single rear gutter is carrying the whole roof, and a lot of the ones we see here are the smallest residential size with one narrow leader. Going to a six inch gutter with a larger leader, and making sure the leader runs clear to the ground, usually stops the overflow. If the fascia behind it is rotted we fix that first, or the new gutter will pull away.
Q: Do you use a torch on a wood frame house?
A: Not against the wood. Torch applied roofing is fine out in the middle of a roof deck, but near wood cornices, wood siding and the edges of a frame house we switch to self-adhered or cold applied membrane. When there is any torch work on a job, someone stays on the roof afterwards to watch for smoldering before the crew leaves.
Q: What does a new roof cost on a Greenpoint frame house?
A: A tear-off and new roof on a typical two or three story frame row house, usually 700 to 1,000 square feet, generally runs about $7,500 to $14,000. Replacing rotted fascia and rafter ends, extra layers to strip, or a new rear gutter and leader add to that. We price it after we have been on the roof and looked at the rear edge.
Q: Can you fix the rotted wood at the roof edge without redoing all my siding?
A: Usually, yes. We remove the aluminum wrap at the eave, replace the rotted fascia and any bad rafter ends, and close it back up with new trim. The siding on the walls stays. If the rot has run down behind the siding, we show you how far before we go any further.
Q: Which areas near Greenpoint do you cover?
A: All of 11222, plus Williamsburg, Bushwick, East Williamsburg and Long Island City across Newtown Creek. For an active leak call (516) 713-9199 and we will get someone out to contain it.
MLM Construction Group works out of 1717 Avenue P in Brooklyn, NY 11229. Greenpoint is inside our regular service area, so estimates and emergency calls there are handled by the same crew, not subcontracted out.
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