Marine Park was built out mostly between the late 1920s and the early 1960s, after the park went in and developers filled the streets around it. A big share of what went up is brick: semi-detached pairs and short attached rows with a driveway down the side and a garage out back. From the sidewalk it looks like two houses. From the roof it is one surface, and the property line runs straight across the middle of it. That line is where most of our Marine Park leak calls start.
Here is how it usually goes. One owner reroofs with torch-down. The neighbor waits a few years and puts on a coating, or a white TPO roof. The two systems meet at the party line, and TPO and torch-down do not bond to each other, so that joint needs a proper transition strip. What it usually gets is a trowel of roofing cement. Water finds it, runs along the deck and comes through the ceiling on whichever side sits lower. So the owner with the newer roof calls us about a leak that is really coming in at the seam. We look at both halves before we quote, and fixing the seam is a much smaller bill than replacing your half because of it.
The rest of the stock is its own mix. Tudor style brick houses, each with a steep front slope and a flat roof behind it, Cape Cods and detached frame houses, and postwar bungalows, a lot of which have been added onto since. On the Tudors the front slope is what everybody sees and the flat roof behind it is what wears out first. We see plenty where the front was redone for looks and the back was patched one more time.
Then there are the trees. These are old blocks with big street trees, and every fall they fill the gutters, the leaders and the single small drain on a semi-detached flat roof. A flat roof with a blocked drain holds water for days after a storm, and standing water is what shortens a roof here more than age does. We work Gerritsen Avenue, Avenue S, Avenue T, Quentin Road, Fillmore Avenue and Kings Highway, plus Burnett, Coleman, Hendrickson and Stuart Streets and East 33rd through East 38th.
What we actually see in 11234 and 11229: leaks at the seam where two neighbors' roofs meet, torch-down and TPO joined with roofing cement instead of a transition, flat roof drains packed with leaves and holding water, patched flat roofs behind Tudor fronts, and roll roofing on detached garages that is older than the house roof.
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Q: My half of the roof is only a few years old. Why is my ceiling leaking?
A: On a semi-detached or attached house, start at the line where your roof meets your neighbor's. If the two sides were done at different times with different materials, that seam is a common entry point, and water runs along the deck to whichever side is lower. A new roof on your half does not protect you from an old seam at its edge. We check both sides of the line before we tell you what is wrong.
Q: Do I need my neighbor's okay to fix the seam?
A: To do it properly we need to work on both sides of the line, because the flashing has to lap onto both roofs. Most neighbors agree once they understand the same leak can end up in their house. We are happy to walk them through it. If they will not allow it, we can seal it from your side only, but we will tell you straight that it is the weaker repair.
Q: What does a new flat roof cost on a Marine Park semi-detached house?
A: A full tear-off and new modified bitumen roof on one half of a typical pair, usually 700 to 1,000 square feet, generally runs about $7,500 to $13,000. It goes up if there are extra layers to strip, rotted decking to replace, or if you switch to TPO. We price it after we have been up on the roof, not over the phone.
Q: My house has a Tudor front. Is that roof any different?
A: It is two roofs. The steep front slope is shingle, sometimes slate, and it tends to last. The flat roof behind it takes the weather and wears out first. If the front is sound we will not tell you to replace it just because it looks tired. We would rather put the money into the flat section where the water is actually getting in.
Q: Can you redo the roof on my detached garage?
A: Yes. Most garages behind the houses here have a low-slope roof covered in roll roofing, and it is often older than the roof on the house. If the deck is solid it is usually done in a day. If the rafters have rotted from years of leaking, we show you before we start, not halfway through.
Q: Which ZIP is Marine Park, and do you cover the areas around it?
A: Marine Park is split between 11234 and 11229. We cover both, plus Gerritsen Beach, Mill Basin, Flatlands, Midwood and Sheepshead Bay. For an active leak call (516) 713-9199 and we will get someone out the same day to contain it.
MLM Construction Group works out of 1717 Avenue P in Brooklyn, NY 11229. Marine Park is inside our regular service area, so estimates and emergency calls there are handled by the same crew, not subcontracted out.
Unlike competitors who specialize in only one trade, MLM Construction Group handles roofing, stucco, EIFS, and gutters. One contractor for your entire exterior.
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