Roofing Contractors in Danvers, MA

Fifty psf: the number Peabody does not have

The Eighth Edition of 780 CMR sets snow load by municipality. Danvers, Topsfield, Boxford and Ipswich sit at 50 psf. Cross Route 128 into Peabody and it drops to 40. Twenty-five percent is no rounding error when wet February snow sits on 2x6 rafters sized in 1958. It shows up as a sagging ridge line. Confirm the number with the Danvers Building Department. Our explainer on how much snow a Massachusetts roof can hold covers the arithmetic.

Capes, ranches and splits

Most of our Danvers calls come off this stock. Gables at 4:12 to 8:12, 2x6 rafters, board or early plywood sheathing, usually one overlay already on. The story-and-a-half Cape is the worst ice-dam generator we have: bedrooms finished under the deck, insulation crammed to the eave, no intake path left. We correct that with attic ventilation and insulation work while we run new architectural asphalt shingles.

• Two layers of asphalt over the original 1950s shingle, nailed to board sheathing.
• Punky plank ends at the eave, where thirty winters of ice sat behind the gutter.
• Chimney flashing patched with roof cement, not counterflashed metal.
• A ridge vent cut with no soffit intake below it.

Antique roofs near Danvers Center and Salem Village

The old houses are a different trade. Hand-hewn rafters, board sheathing laid with gaps, steep pitches, huge central chimneys, no clean run for a ridge vent. Near the Rebecca Nurse Homestead and Glen Magna Farms we fasten into sound wood and cut no vent the frame will not take.

Slate here can never be roofed over. Under 780 CMR it comes off, along with clay tile, cement tile and wood shake. Most antique calls turn out to be failed valley metal and a dozen slipped tiles, and slate roof repair costs a fraction of a tear-off. Chimney flashing repair is most of the rest.

Ice barrier and permits

R905.1.2 requires an ice barrier from the roof edge to not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, and 36 inches along the slope on pitches of 8:12 or greater. On a low Danvers cape we run past that minimum. Permits go through the Danvers Building Department. We pull them and file the liability certificate and workers' compensation affidavit.

Price moves with square footage, pitch, bad sheathing, and how many layers we strip. We put it in writing after we walk it. We roof Peabody and Beverly every week, but Danvers is the town we reach with a tarp in ten minutes at nine at night.