Metacomet Roofing

Roofing contractors in central Connecticut

Snow sits on a roof here for weeks at a stretch, and much of the framing underneath it was cut long before anyone designed for that. Both belong in the conversation.

Where the two prices part company

Ask whether a cricket is going in behind the chimney. It is a small wedge of roof that sends snow and water around the stack instead of letting it bank against it, and on a wide chimney it is not optional. It is also exactly the sort of thing that quietly fails to appear on the cheaper of two quotes.

Then the eaves. A roof losing heat from the attic melts the snow lying on it from underneath, and that water runs down to the cold edge and stops there. So the two useful questions are how far up the slope the ice-and-water shield goes, and whether the ventilation is being corrected rather than reinstalled. They are the same problem asked from both ends.

Everything else is standard and still worth hearing out loud: new flashing rather than sealed-up old flashing, and a price per sheet for decking with a count attached to it.

Snow does not test a roof evenly. It leans hardest on the eave, the valley and the chimney. Six of them, numbered. Five are places where the roof meets something else.
Garage Point 1: ridge caps 1 Ridge caps: thin, exposed, first to lift Point 2: the field of the roof 2 The field, one layer or two Point 3: valleys 3 Valleys: leaves, then snow on top Point 4: flashing 4 Flashing at chimney and saddle Point 5: vent boot 5 Vent boot Point 6: eaves and ice dams 6 Eaves, where the porch roof meets the wall
  1. 1 Ridge caps. Thin, exposed, and worked loose by a winter of freezing and thawing.
  2. 2 The field. One layer or two, and the answer changes what a tear-off costs.
  3. 3 Valleys. Leaves mat where two slopes drain as one, and snow sits on top of them.
  4. 4 Flashing. Old masonry chimneys, and the saddle behind them that should shed snow.
  5. 5 The vent boot. A collar that goes brittle in the cold and splits without warning.
  6. 6 Eaves and ice dams. Where escaping attic heat melts snow that refreezes at the edge.

The work

Why roofs fail in this region

Winter does the damage here, and it does it slowly. Snow load, the melt line that heat loss draws across the roof, the missing cricket behind the chimney, the ridge vent that snow silences. Four of the six causes on this site are the same season seen from four angles. The other two are age: framing from before 1900, and a north slope that holds moss because it never sees the sun.

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