A roofing contractor across Rotterdam

Rotterdam spreads out along the Mohawk and the Route 7 corridor, and the roofing splits accordingly.

Most of the housing is postwar, Capes and ranches built in the decades after the war, with simple rooflines and shallow attics. Around Rotterdam Junction and out toward Pattersonville the housing is older, with steeper pitches and more original detail.

Along Route 7 and Curry Road there is commercial property with flat and low-slope roofs.

What we do most in Rotterdam

• Replacements on postwar Capes and ranches
• Metal roof repairs, which come up frequently here
• Commercial flat roofing along Route 7 and Curry Road
• Ventilation corrections on shallow attics
• Ice dam repairs

Metal roof repairs

We get called to more metal roof problems in Rotterdam than in most surrounding towns, and the diagnosis is usually the same.

The panels are fine. The fasteners have aged, or a flashing detail at a penetration or a roof-to-wall junction has failed, or an end lap has opened up. Exposed fastener systems in particular rely on rubber washers that harden and shrink over years of expansion and contraction.

All of that is repairable. Re-fastening a metal roof with new washers and correcting the details that have failed is a fraction of the cost of replacing it, and on a sound panel roof it is the right answer.

Shallow attics and ventilation

A postwar ranch has a low attic volume and, very often, soffit intake that has been blocked by insulation added later.

Without intake, a ridge vent does nothing. Air cannot exhaust if it cannot enter. That is the single most common ventilation fault we find, and it is straightforward to correct while a roof is off.

Repair before replacement

A fair amount of what we are asked to quote in Rotterdam turns out not to need a replacement. A metal roof with aged fasteners, a failed detail at a penetration, or a single flashing junction letting water in is a repair, and pricing it as a replacement would be the easy thing to do rather than the right one.

We will tell you which one you are looking at and show you the photographs behind it. If the roof has years left, that is what we will say.

Ice dams are the other recurring winter issue, and on a shallow ranch roof they are especially unforgiving. There is less pitch to move meltwater away and less attic volume to buffer the temperature, so a small amount of escaping heat does more damage than it would on a steeper house. Correcting the intake and running ice and water shield well up from the eave is what actually fixes it.

Around Rotterdam

We cover Rotterdam Junction, the Curry Road area, the Route 7 corridor, the Mohonasen area and Pattersonville.

Neighborhoods we cover

• Rotterdam Junction
• Curry Road area
• Route 7 corridor
• Mohonasen area
• Pattersonville