Roofing Contractors in Back Bay, MA

The mansard face: slate, flat-lock and standing seam

The steep face is what the district sees. Slates slip. Nail heads corrode through and drop a course. Boston sits at or below freezing about 92 days a year, but only about 23 stay frozen all day. That 69-day gap is the melt-refreeze cycle that chews through slate, mortar and soldered seams.

Under 780 CMR, slate can never be roofed over; it comes off. Most calls on Marlborough and Commonwealth are a dozen slates and a failed valley, and slate roof repair costs a fraction of a tear-off. Where the face is already metal, our metal roofing work matches the pan width and seam profile, because the commission will notice.

The flat deck behind it

Behind the mansard sits a nearly flat deck, boxed in by parapets on both party walls and draining to an internal leader instead of a gutter. That is where the leaks live. Water sits on an old lap seam, tracks a joist, and shows up on a fourth-floor ceiling. We strip to clean deck, correct the fall to the drain, and run flat roof membrane with welded seams.

Where the ice barrier goes on a mansard

Massachusetts requires an ice barrier from the lowest roof edge to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, and on slopes of 8:12 or greater at least 36 inches along the slope. A mansard face is far steeper than 8:12, so the 36-inch rule applies at the cornice. Boston's design ground snow load is 40 psf, from the 780 CMR Eighth Edition table.

Copper gutters over carved cornices

The gutter here is not trim. It is a copper trough carried on ornamented woodwork, and when a solder joint opens the water goes straight into the cornice. Paint failing in a vertical stripe down a cornice is a gutter symptom, and copper gutter work is the fix.

Approval comes before the permit

The Back Bay Architectural District was established in 1966 and expanded in 1974, 1979 and 1981. The Bay State Road/Back Bay West and Saint Botolph ACDs cover the flanks. Every visible exterior change goes to the Boston Landmarks Commission, and that approval must be obtained BEFORE Inspectional Services will issue a permit: slate type, metal profile, gutter material, skylights, deck rails. BLC is at 617-635-1935, and our walkthrough of historic district roof approval in Beacon Hill and Back Bay covers the packet. Then the reroof runs on the Boston ISD Short-Form Permit: $20 plus $10 per $1,000 of the estimate. We file it.

Getting a crew onto Newbury Street

No driveways. No side yards. Access is a street occupancy permit on Marlborough or Commonwealth, the public alley behind the block, or an interior stair to a roof hatch. On Newbury, retail hours decide working hours. Here the staging plan is the schedule.

We put the number in writing after we walk it. On the edges of the district we also cover roofing in Beacon Hill and South End roof repair.