Pawtuxet Roofing

Roofing contractors in Providence, Rhode Island

One of the oldest cities in the country, and the housing is the proof: nineteenth-century stock on tight lots, most of it altered at least once since.

What Providence roofs are dealing with

Two- and three-family houses across much of the city, on lots with no side yard, where the roof covers households that do not share a thermostat.

On the East Side the stock is older still and frequently carries a shallow rear section behind a steep front — a second roof needing a different product, and the one that usually fails first.

Nineteenth-century stock on tight lots, most of it altered at least once — cut into flats, dormered, or added onto at the back. Two- and three-family houses across much of the city, with separate heating under one roof.

Not sure how much life is left up there? The roof age check walks the envelope part by part, which matters more here than a single number for the whole roof.

Covering Pawtucket, Cranston, East Providence and the rest of Providence.

A roof here rarely gives out in the field. It gives out where the heat gets out. Which is why the useful question is not what the covering looks like, but what it runs into.
Rear ell Point 1: the ridge 1 Point 2: the field of the covering 2 Point 3: the valleys 3 Point 4: flashing at a shared wall 4 Point 5: a penetration 5 Point 6: the overhang 6
  1. 1 The ridge. One ridge over two households, and one of them pays to replace it.
  2. 2 The field. The part everyone looks at, and rarely the part that actually failed.
  3. 3 Valleys. Most of them were cut in later, when the house was divided into flats.
  4. 4 The chimney. Often two of them, and often neither one carries anything any more.
  5. 5 Penetrations. Two kitchens and two bathrooms mean twice the holes on the same roof.
  6. 6 The overhang. Where heat from a flat you do not control comes back down as ice.

When the work happens in Providence

Work runs from spring into late autumn, and on these lots the street is an extra constraint. Container placement and protection for the neighbours on both sides have to be arranged; in the denser wards that means a date rather than simply a van arriving.

What moves the price in Providence

The unknowns are underneath rather than on top: how many layers, and whether the boards are solid or spaced. Both should be priced before the roof is opened. And on a house with tenants, ask what the plan is for the ice at the eave — if the answer is only about the covering, the plan will not work.

On housing this old the price is settled underneath rather than on top. Five questions get there faster than comparing product brands, and if two or three quotes are already in hand, the quote comparison checklist puts them side by side:

  • Is the sheathing solid, or spaced boards that need a new surface first?
  • What is the per-sheet rate for decking, agreed before the roof is opened?
  • Is the shallow rear section specified separately from the front slope?
  • Is the flashing at a shared wall rebuilt, or sealed against the neighbour?
  • What happens to any sound copper that comes off the roof?

The work

Before you call anyone in Providence

A few questions come up on nearly every older roof around here, and the answers do not change from one city to the next, so they are written once, in the guides, with figures measured for this area:

Why roofs fail here

Six failures account for most of what gets reported in this valley, and each one has its own page. Where a stain appears inside is rarely above where the water came in.

Nearby

All areas covered