Compare roofing quotes line by line, not by the total

A large share of houses between the Bergen line and the bay carry two courses of shingle, the second laid over the first some time in the eighties or nineties. Stripping two is close to double the labor and double the dumpster of stripping one. A quote priced for one layer on a two-layer roof is not a lower price; it is an incomplete one.

Under a second layer nobody has seen the deck in decades. On the pre-war blocks it is plank, on the post-war ranches it is early plywood, and either can have soft runs along the eaves. A price per sheet and a count the contractor is assuming turns that into a bounded figure. Silence turns it into a number decided on the day.

Felt and synthetic underlayment are different materials at different prices, and only one of them tolerates being left exposed while a crew waits out a wet afternoon. "Underlayment included" answers nothing. Ask which product, by name.

Winters here cross the freezing line dozens of times, and ice at the eaves is the ordinary result. Whether the membrane runs the eaves only, the valleys as well, around the chimney and every vent, or the minimum the town inspector will accept, each is a different roll count and a different number of hours.

At a brick chimney or where a Cape's dormer meets the main slope, re-using the old step flashing and running a bead of sealant over it is quicker and cheaper on the day. It is also the single most common reason a roof installed three winters ago is now staining a bedroom ceiling.

The masonry chimneys on this housing stock need counterflashing let into the mortar joint, not caulked to the face of the brick. That is a separate trade from the field of the roof, and it is routinely absent from a headline price, then presented later as a change order.

The knee-wall attics behind the upstairs bedrooms of a Cape or a split-level cannot breathe on their own, and reinstalling the vents that were there does nothing about that. Adding intake at the soffit and exhaust at the ridge is real work with a real price, and a quote should say which of the two it is doing.

The metal at the eave and the starter strip under the first course are where ice sits every February. Both are cheap, both are easy to leave out of a quote, and both are where the failure starts when they are missing.

On the older houses in Hackensack or Westfield the gutter may be built into the roofline itself, which is specialist work some crews will not touch. On everything newer the question is whether the aluminum comes down and goes back up, gets replaced, or gets worked around and dented. The quote should say.

Every municipality here issues its own permit and sends its own inspector, and the fee and the wait vary from one town to the next. Whether the contractor pulls it, bills it separately or leaves it to you are three different arrangements at three different prices.

The shingle manufacturer stands behind the shingle. Somebody has to stand behind the installation, and installation is what fails first on these roofs. A material warranty with no stated labor warranty leaves the expensive half uncovered.

On a Newark two-family with a shared driveway or a Jersey City lot with no yard at all, where the container sits is a negotiation with the neighbors. Add a magnet sweep for nails and protection for whatever is planted below the eaves. Small items, and the source of most disputes after the crew has left.