01
Roofing
Shingle, slate, cedar, metal and rubber roofs across Montgomery and Bucks County, with free inspections, a $100 tune up, and storm damage answered 24 hours.
Chapter 01
What actually fails first on a Montgomery County roof
Nobody calls about the middle of the roof field. Almost every leak we get called out for in Willow Grove, Abington or Horsham starts in one of three places: a nail that has worked its way up through the shingle over a few winters and finally lets water track sideways under the course above it, the flashing where the roof meets a chimney or runs down into a valley where two planes meet, or the eaves after a Pennsylvania winter has frozen and thawed enough times to back ice up under the first course of shingles.
That third one, the ice dam, is the call that surprises homeowners most, because the stain shows up on a bedroom ceiling weeks after the storm that actually caused it. Snow melts off the warmer part of the roof, refreezes at the cold overhang, and the water pooling behind that dam has nowhere to go but sideways and up, under shingles that were never built to shed water running the wrong direction. It is a specific Montgomery County problem, not a universal one, which is why eave protection gets a real look on every inspection whether the roof is new or thirty years old.
Ardsley Bible Chapel in Ardsley, PA after Aronson Roofing and Siding completed the new roof and reinstalled the steeple
How a tear off runs on your house
A tear off starts before a single shingle comes off. Tarps and plywood go down over the landscaping, the gutters, and anything else on the ground a falling nail or a dropped bundle could damage, because a site left clean each evening matters as much as the roof itself. Then the crew strips the old roof all the way to the deck, not just the top layer, so nothing gets buried and covered back up for another twenty years.
That bare deck is the one point in the whole job where you can actually see what the old roof was hiding: soft plywood, rot around an old vent boot, a section that was never properly nailed the first time. All of it gets replaced before anything new goes down. Ice and water membrane goes in at the eaves and in every valley first, since those are the two places a roof around here floods from, and only then does the new system, whichever one was quoted, go on over it.
Chapter 03
Slate and cedar are their own trade
Slate and cedar do not behave like an asphalt roof, and most contractors who tear off shingles all week will not touch either one. A slate roof that is fifty or eighty years old is often still structurally sound with only a handful of cracked or slipped slates, and the honest answer is a repair, not a full tear off. The harder part is matching: quarries close, colors shift over decades, and finding slate that sits right next to a field that has weathered for that long takes more than ordering off a supplier's list.
Cedar has its own version of the same problem. It weathers unevenly depending on sun exposure and how well it was ventilated underneath, so a repair on the shaded north slope can look wrong next to cedar that has silvered for years on the south side. We will tell you honestly when a slate or cedar roof needs full replacement and when it just needs the right hands doing a repair, because talking every slate roof into a tear off is how a roof with another twenty years left in it gets thrown away early.
Aftercare: the free inspection, the tune up and 24 hour storm response
A roof inspection and an estimate are free, and Avi Aronson does that visit himself rather than sending someone who has never been up the ladder. If the roof just needs maintenance rather than a repair or a full replacement, we also run a $100 roofing and gutter tune up, a real look at the flashing, the fasteners and the gutters hanging off the same eaves.
Storm damage does not wait for office hours, so it is not treated that way. Call (267) 688-3163 any time, day or night, and describe what you can see from the ground. If water is actively coming into the house, the first job is making the roof safe, tarped and sealed against the weather, with the permanent repair quoted once the storm has passed and it is safe to be up there properly.
We are available 24 hours a day for emergency repairs. Ask about our $100 roofing and gutter tune-up the next time you call for a routine inspection, too.
Free roofing inspections and the $100 roofing and gutter tune up, on every roof we look at. Licensed and insured. Pennsylvania Contractor's License PA #048593. Call (267) 688-3163.
Five systems, one crew
Which roof, and why
Aronson Roofing and Siding has been providing superior quality roofing for over 30 years. We service all of Southeastern Pennsylvania for expert roofing repairs on every system below. Ask about our FREE roofing inspection services whenever you call.
Most of Montgomery and Bucks County is shingle, and that is still the fastest and most affordable full tear off. The other four systems below come up often enough, on an older house, a church, or a low slope addition, that it is worth knowing what each one actually is before a crew shows up with an opinion.
- Shingle
- GAF, CertainTeed, Owens Corning and Tamko systems. This is what most houses in Willow Grove, Abington and Horsham already have, and it is the fastest full tear off to run when a roof has genuinely reached the end of its life rather than needing a repair.
- Slate
- Repaired and matched far more often than replaced. A slate field that has weathered for fifty or eighty years usually just needs the handful of cracked or slipped pieces addressed, not a tear off, and matching an existing field is the part of the job that takes real judgment.
- Cedar
- Weathers unevenly depending on sun exposure, so a repair on a shaded slope has to be matched against cedar that has silvered for years on the side that gets full sun. We repair where a repair is honest and replace where it is not.
- Metal
- Standing seam and panel systems for a roof that needs to shed snow fast or run steep pitches without relying on shingle overlap alone. Fewer seams than a shingle roof, and the flashing detail at valleys and penetrations matters even more because there is less material forgiving a mistake.
- Rubber
- For the low slope sections a lot of houses and additions actually have, over a porch roof or a flat-roofed extension, where shingle was never the right material to begin with.
The roof is only one part of the envelope. If the siding and gutters need a look while a crew is already on site, or the windows, doors or trim are due, ask when you call. Either way, the fastest way to get a real answer is a free inspection: send us a message or call (267) 688-3163 directly.