A roofing contractor working around Ballston Spa is really covering two markets. The village is old, with the steeper pitches and detailed flashing that come with Victorian housing. The towns around it are new, with conventional subdivision roofs reaching their first or second replacement. Both are routine work for us, but they are not the same job.

A historic village with new subdivisions around it

Ballston Spa is really two roofing markets sitting next to each other.

The village itself is old. Victorian and turn-of-the-century houses line the core streets, with steeper pitches, decorative detail, porch roofs and masonry chimneys that were built long before anyone thought about ice and water shield.

Around it, Milton, Malta, Ballston Lake and Burnt Hills have filled in with subdivision housing over recent decades. Those are conventional roofs on conventional houses, and the work is mostly first and second replacements.

What we do most around Ballston Spa

• Replacements and repairs on village Victorians, with the flashing work those require
• Porch and lower roof detailing, a frequent leak point on older village homes
• Chimney flashing on original masonry
• Subdivision replacements in Milton, Malta, Ballston Lake and Burnt Hills
• Ventilation improvements where attic insulation has been added over the years
• Ice dam repairs at eaves and in valleys

Porch roofs and lower slopes

On an older village house, the porch roof is often the first thing to give trouble.

Porch roofs tend to be shallow, sometimes very shallow, and they meet the main wall of the house along their upper edge. That combination is demanding. A shallow pitch sheds water slowly, and the wall junction needs flashing that is properly integrated rather than sealed on the surface.

Where the pitch is too low for shingles, which is more common than people expect, the right answer is a membrane rather than trying to make shingles work on a slope they were not designed for.

Newer houses, older ventilation habits

The subdivision housing around Malta and Ballston Lake has a recurring pattern: attic insulation topped up at some point, soffit intake never checked, and ice at the gutter every winter since.

When a roof on one of these houses comes off, that is the moment to sort it out. Clearing the intake, confirming a path to the ridge and laying ice and water shield properly at the eaves costs very little while the deck is exposed, and it is the difference between fixing the problem and re-roofing over it.

Across the area

We cover the Village of Ballston Spa, Milton, Malta, Ballston Lake, Burnt Hills and Charlton.

Winter at the eaves

The village streets and the newer neighbourhoods share one winter problem. Snow sits, attic heat melts it from beneath, and the meltwater refreezes where the roof passes over the cold exterior wall. On older houses the eaves detail was never designed for it; on newer ones the ventilation has usually been compromised by added insulation. Either way the fix happens while the roof is off, not after.

Neighborhoods we cover

• Village of Ballston Spa
• Milton
• Malta
• Ballston Lake
• Burnt Hills
• Charlton