Real answers to the questions homeowners ask about roofing, siding, chimney, gutters, and exterior work. Written by a licensed contractor who's seen the same problems play out in New York homes for a decade.
Featured Article
A water stain on the ceiling after rain is one of those problems that looks small and usually isn't. The stain shows up, it dries, and a month later it's back and a little bigger. Most homeowners assume there's a hole in the roof directly above it. That's almost never true. Water doesn't fall straight down once it gets past the roof surface.
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Problem
An ice dam forms because part of your roof is warm and part of it is cold. Heat escaping from the living space warms the underside of the roof deck, and snow on that warm section melts even when the air outside is well below freezing.
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FAQ
New York has a statewide building code, but permits are issued and enforced locally. The City of Albany, the Town of Poughkeepsie, and the Village of Rhinebeck each run their own building department with their own process, fees, and review timelines.
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FAQ
The decision isn't really about the leak in front of you. It's about the condition of everything around it: how old the roof is, what the deck underneath looks like, how many layers of material are up there, and whether the failure is isolated or the first of many.
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Decision Guide
Water doesn't get into a house through the middle of a wall or the middle of a roof. It gets in at transitions, which is exactly where responsibility gets murky when different companies did the work on either side. This is a decision guide, not a sales pitch.
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Decision Guide
In New York the exterior season is genuinely limited, and different trades have different windows. Paint needs surface temperature and dew point inside a range. Mortar needs temperature to cure or it never reaches strength. Concrete has to go below the frost line.
Read moreIf you're facing something specific we haven't covered yet, get in touch. A licensed contractor will walk through it with you, no cost, no obligation.
