Parsippany Elite Roofing has handled roofing in Franklin Lakes for more than 20 years, and most calls we take start in one of three ways: a stain spreading on a ceiling, a few shingles lying in the yard, or a home inspector’s note that the roof is near the end of its life. Our first job is to work out which situation is really in front of us before anyone talks about price.
On a leak, that means looking in the attic as well as across the shingles, because water often enters well uphill of the spot where it finally drips. Once the entry point is traced, we tell you plainly whether a repair will hold or whether the roof has reached replacement. Repair always comes first in that conversation, and replacement is raised only when the evidence on the roof and in the attic supports it.
When replacement is the answer, our written scope breaks out tear-off, decking, underlayment, flashing, ventilation and gutters as separate lines. That lets you set our number beside another contractor’s and compare item by item instead of guessing at one total. Every contract is written to New Jersey’s home improvement rules, including the three-day cancellation notice, so there is time to read it at home before anything is ordered.
Four School Roofs on One 2022 Ballot
What the board put before voters
In November 2021 the Board of Education of the Borough of Franklin Lakes adopted a resolution setting a special school election for January 25, 2022. The bond proposal reached every building in the borough’s own K-8 district: Franklin Avenue Middle School and the Colonial Road, High Mountain Road and Woodside Avenue elementary schools. Ramapo High School stands in the borough but belongs to the regional district, so it was not part of that ballot.
The resolution capped spending and borrowing at not more than $20,916,025. Roof replacement was the single item common to all four buildings, which says a good deal about where the district’s maintenance pressure had gathered. Every other line on the list, from windows to boilers, was attached to three of those same roofs.
What $20.9 million covered, school by school
The Commissioner of Education allocated the eligible costs building by building. Franklin Avenue Middle School was set at $6,461,325, High Mountain Road Elementary School at $5,965,700, Woodside Avenue Elementary School at $5,733,000 and Colonial Road Elementary School at $2,756,000. Colonial Road’s figure is the smallest by a wide margin, and the scope points to the reason: it was the only school where the proposal covered roofs alone.
The State of New Jersey also approved debt service aid equal to 40% of the annual debt service on the final eligible costs, under section 18A:7G-9 of the state’s school facilities law. That aid moves part of the repayment to the state, but it does not shrink the work itself. Four roofs still reached the ballot together, and three of them still carried windows and mechanical systems along with them.
The vote and the assessment behind it
A NorthJersey.com report put the result at 359 votes for and 117 against. The same report said a 2020 facility assessment had listed HVAC upgrades and boiler, window and roof replacements as urgent deferred maintenance. We have not read that assessment ourselves, but the pattern it describes is one we see on houses every season.
Deferred maintenance is the polite name for work that came due and got pushed back a year, then another. On a roof, each season of delay usually adds damage underneath the covering, so the eventual project grows in both scope and cost. The district’s list, with roofs sitting beside windows, boilers and ventilators, shows what that growth looks like when it finally gets addressed.
Looking for roofing closer to Oakland? See Roofing Services in Oakland.
When a Roof Job Pulls In Windows and Rooftop Units
Why the scope widened at three schools
At Franklin Avenue, High Mountain Road and Woodside Avenue, the proposal replaced roofs together with windows, unit ventilators and associated HVAC systems, and roof-top HVAC units, with boilers added at High Mountain Road. Roofs, openings and mechanical equipment were bundled into one proposal rather than three separate projects. That is a sensible approach once all of them are nearing the end of their service lives at the same time.
Roof-top units show why bundling makes sense. A new membrane cannot be finished properly around a curb that is about to be replaced, and an old unit pulled out after the roof goes on means cutting into brand-new work. Doing both together avoids paying twice for the same patch of roof and the same crane or lift day.
The same logic on a house
Houses have their own version of rooftop equipment: skylights, plumbing vents, bath and kitchen exhaust caps, and on some homes a solar array. Each one is a penetration that needs fresh flashing or a new boot, and each is cheapest to deal with while the roof is open. We list every one in the written scope, so nothing is discovered for the first time on tear-off day.
Solar is the largest of these. When panels sit on a roof that needs replacing, we build the panel removal and reinstall into the schedule from the start, with the installer’s timing settled before materials are ordered. Skylights get their own question up front, whether to keep and reflash them or replace them, because the answer changes the flashing kit.
Where walls and windows meet the roof
Windows matter to a roofer wherever a wall rises out of a roof plane, such as a dormer face or a second-story wall above a porch roof. Step flashing, counter flashing and kick-out flashing at those junctions protect the wall framing as much as the roof. We replace that metal with the new roof rather than bending old flashing back over fresh shingles.
Chimneys receive the same treatment, with new step and counter flashing and, behind a wide chimney, a cricket that splits the water around it. If siding or windows are also due on the house, telling us early lets each trade sequence its work, so finished flashing is not pried loose a month after it was set.
Large Houses and the Cost of a Late Call
The housing stock in Franklin Lakes
Franklin Lakes is a borough of large single-family homes. Census survey estimates count 3,408 detached houses among 3,878 housing units and put the median at ten rooms per home. The median year built is 1982, so many roofs here are likely on at least their second covering, and the oldest houses may have been re-covered more than once.
Size changes the arithmetic of a roof. A big hipped or multi-gabled house has more valleys, more ridges and more wall junctions, and every one of them is a place where water can find a way in. It also means more square feet of decking that could turn out soft once the old shingles come off, which is where a fair contract earns its keep.
How deferred work grows on a house
The district’s experience translates directly to a house. A roof caught while the problem is a single cracked pipe boot or a lifted piece of flashing can often be repaired for a modest sum. Left for several winters, the same leak can soak decking, stain ceilings, wet insulation and rot fascia, and the job that follows is larger and costlier.
That is also the point where a roof starts pulling other work in with it. Rotted trim, saturated attic insulation and stained drywall become line items of their own, much as windows and HVAC joined the school roofs on one ballot. We would rather tell you honestly that a repair will buy several good years than watch a small problem grow into that list.
Decking found under the old roof
Nobody can see the decking until the shingles are off. When we find damaged sheathing, we photograph it and show you before any of it is replaced, and the per-sheet price is already written into the contract. You know what each sheet costs before tear-off begins, so a bad section becomes a known figure rather than a surprise on the final invoice.
On a house with a large roof area, that clause matters more than usual. A few sheets on a small ranch are a minor line; a soft stretch across a broad rear slope is not. Having the price fixed in advance keeps the decision in your hands, with the photos in front of you.
Planning a Franklin Lakes Roof Before It Turns Urgent
Ventilation, ice and the attic
Every replacement includes a check of attic ventilation, comparing soffit intake with ridge or roof exhaust. A roof that cannot breathe ages from underneath, baking the shingles in summer and building frost on the decking in winter. On large attics under complicated rooflines, intake is often the weak side, and correcting it during a re-roof costs far less than afterward.
Eaves that ice up get a self-adhering ice and water membrane along with the ventilation check, not just a fresh course of shingles. Ice dams form where attic heat melts snow that refreezes at the cold overhang, so the membrane and the airflow fix work as a pair rather than as separate upsells.
Wooded lots and the work day
Where a lot is wooded, limbs over a roof drop leaves into valleys and keep slopes shaded and damp. Our estimate names those conditions, including overhanging branches, leaf-packed valleys and mossy north faces, so they are planned for rather than found later. Clogged gutters are noted on the same sheet.
At the end of every work day the driveway, lawn and gutters are cleaned, and a magnet sweep goes across the yard for loose nails. Where the electric service drop crosses the roof, we coordinate with Rockland Electric, the Orange and Rockland company that serves Franklin Lakes, before anyone works near the line.
Storm damage and home sales
After a wind storm we photograph damage before anything is moved, then put tarps or temporary repairs on the same day. The photos and a written description go to you for your own claim, and if you ask, our crew will meet the adjuster on site. The claim itself stays between you and your insurer.
If the house is going on the market, we prepare a written roof condition report you can hand to the buyer’s inspector. It records what we saw on the slopes and in the attic, so both sides start from the same facts. Planning a roof a few years ahead, the way a facility assessment is meant to work, keeps replacement a choice rather than an emergency.
- 20+ Years on Local Roofs
- Itemized Written Scopes
- Same-Day Storm Tarping
