Kensington is mostly attached row houses, two family semi detached homes and small prewar apartment buildings, and the roofs here have one thing in common. Almost none of them are original and almost none of them are one layer. When we open a Kensington roof we usually find two or three layers of torch down and built up going back decades, because every owner in the chain went over the top instead of tearing off. That matters for two reasons. It adds weight the deck was never designed for, and it hides whatever is rotting underneath.
The other thing that shapes a job here is that a lot of these are two and three family houses with tenants in them. That is a scheduling problem before it is a roofing problem. We work around night shifts, we tell tenants in advance which days are loud, and we keep the sidewalk and the yard usable while the work is going on. If your tenant calls you every afternoon during a reroof, the contractor did that to you, not the roof.
We work Church Avenue, Fort Hamilton Parkway, Coney Island Avenue, McDonald Avenue and the streets running off Ocean Parkway. Our crews speak Bengali and Spanish, which in this neighborhood is not a marketing line, it is how the walkthrough actually gets done with the owner and with the tenants.
What we actually see in 11218: two and three layers of old torch down that need to come off rather than be covered again, interior drains clogged or set too high so water sits after every rain, chimney and parapet flashing that was tarred instead of rebuilt, and prewar apartment buildings that now need an annual parapet observation on file by December 31.
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Q: My roof already has two layers. Can you just go over it again?
A: We would rather not, and on most Kensington row houses the answer is no. NYC limits how many roof coverings you can stack, and beyond the code question a third layer adds weight to a deck that was sized in the 1930s. It also means nobody has looked at the sheathing in forty years. A tear off costs more on the day and less over the life of the roof, because you find the rot while it is still a sheet of plywood and not a ceiling.
Q: We have tenants upstairs. How disruptive is this?
A: Two to four days of real noise on a typical row house flat roof, concentrated in the tear off. We tell you and the tenants which days those are before we start, we keep the entry and the yard clear, and we do not leave debris overnight. If somebody in the building works nights, say so at the estimate and we will plan the loud phase around it.
Q: Do you have crews who speak Bengali or Spanish?
A: Yes, on site and not only over the phone. In Kensington that matters, because the person who can show you where the ceiling stained is often not the person who signed the contract. The walkthrough goes better when everybody in the building can take part in it.
Q: Water sits on my roof for days after it rains. Is that normal?
A: No. Standing water forty eight hours after rain means the drainage has failed, not that the roof is flat. Usually the interior drain is clogged, or it was set higher than the surrounding surface when somebody added a layer, so the water has nowhere to go. Fixing the drain is often cheaper than the roof work people assume they need.
Q: Our building has a parapet. Is there something we have to file?
A: If the parapet fronts a street or sidewalk, yes. NYC now requires an annual parapet observation on file by December 31, kept for six years. Detached one and two family houses are exempt. A lot of the small prewar apartment buildings in Kensington are not, and most owners here have not heard about it yet.
Q: How much does a flat roof cost on a Kensington row house?
A: For a standard tear off and new membrane on a typical row house we are usually in the range of about $9,000 to $18,000, depending on the square footage, how many layers come off and what the deck looks like once it is open. If the deck is sound and the drains are fine, expect the lower end. We give you the number in writing after we have been on the roof, not before.
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