Company-built row houses in the Roebling village section of Florence Township, New Jersey

Florence Township · Burlington County

Roofing Contractors in Florence Township, NJ

Residential and industrial roofing across Florence Township, including the Roebling village.

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Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Residential and commercial

Two kinds of roofing work in Florence Township

Florence Township has an industrial history that is still visible in its housing. The Florence Iron Works was established along the Delaware in 1857, and Roebling was built outright as a company town by John A. Roebling's Sons Company — its rows of company-built housing still standing and still occupied.

That gives the township an unusual combination: a large stock of closely set, consistent, historic worker housing; ordinary suburban development around it; and a substantial industrial and logistics building stock, all within ten square miles on the river.

The municipality

The township covers ten square miles along the Delaware, bordering Bordentown Township, Burlington Township, Mansfield and Springfield, with Bristol Township, Falls Township and Tullytown across the water in Pennsylvania. Florence and Roebling are its two census-designated communities; Bustleton, Dobbins, Florence Station and Hoffner's Tract are other localities. The township was incorporated in 1872 and named for Florence, Italy.

The building stock

Roebling's company-built row housing is the distinctive stock — closely set, consistent in design, sharing party walls and in many places continuous roof planes across several properties. Florence village holds older detached and semi-detached housing. Around them is later suburban development, and along the river and the highway corridors, industrial and warehouse building on very large low-slope roofs.

Commercial roofing

Low-slope roofs on commercial buildings

Commercial membrane roofs fail at seams, terminations, curbs, penetrations and drains — rarely in the middle of the field. Rooftop equipment and the lines added by other trades are the usual suspects.

Commercial roofing Flat and low-slope roofing

Continuous roof planes running across several attached properties in Roebling
Party wall junctions and coordination between separately owned houses
Very large industrial and warehouse low-slope roofs
Older village housing with layered coverings and unknown deck condition
River exposure on the township's western edge
Restricted access and staging on the closely built company-town streets

Roof repair

Repairs that come up most

Leaks at party wall junctions on Roebling row housing
Water tracking along continuous roof planes between properties
Blocked drains putting large areas of industrial roof under standing water
Multiple existing coverings on older village housing
Broken shingle seals on river-facing elevations

Replacement

Planning a replacement around an occupied building

Commercial replacement is sequenced so each section opened is made watertight the same day. On a house, it is a tear-off to the deck with flashing and ventilation rebuilt — not reused.

How roof replacement works

Drainage

Drains, scuppers, gutters and ponding

On the row housing, drainage is genuinely shared in character: water off one continuous roof plane must be handled without dumping it onto the neighbour's section or into the narrow gaps between buildings. On the industrial roofs the scale changes completely — enormous catchment areas draining to a limited number of points, where one blocked drain puts a large area under water.

Weather

Storms and seasonal load

River-facing parts of the township take wind and driven rain off open water; the inland areas are more sheltered. Summer thunderstorms deliver the short, intense rainfall that overwhelms drainage on very large industrial roofs, and those same storms break shingle seals on the exposed residential slopes.

Inspection

Twice-yearly for commercial, annually for homes

Most of the value on a commercial roof is keeping the drains clear and catching failed terminations and new penetrations. On houses, an annual look plus one after significant storms.

Roof inspection

Services

Roofing services in Florence Township

Roofing services throughout Florence Township, from Roebling's row housing to the industrial corridors.

All roofing services

Questions

Roofing questions from Florence Township

My house is part of a Roebling row. Can its roof be done on its own?

Usually, but it needs planning. Where a roof plane runs continuously across several attached properties, the termination against the neighbouring covering has to be detailed so it is weather-tight against a roof that is not being replaced. Cutting off at the party wall without that detail is how water ends up tracking sideways into the next house.

Water is coming in but the leak seems to start next door. Is that possible?

Yes, and on continuous-plane row housing it is common. Water entering at one point runs along the underside of the decking and can appear several properties away. That is why establishing the entry point rather than working straight up from the stain matters even more here than on a detached house.

Do you handle warehouse and industrial roofs?

Yes. Large low-slope roofs are their own discipline, dominated by drainage, seams, terminations and penetrations rather than by the field membrane. On a catchment that size, a single blocked drain can put a large area under standing water, which is why survey and maintenance matter more than on a small roof.

Is Roebling a separate town?

It is a community within Florence Township rather than a separate municipality — built as a company town by John A. Roebling's Sons Company. Its housing is genuinely distinct from the rest of the township, which is why it is worth treating separately when planning roofing work.

Nearby

Service areas near Florence Township

Flat Roof Drainage Problems Explained

On a low-slope roof, almost every membrane problem is really a drainage problem that has been going on for a while.

Asphalt shingles showing accelerated wear along the eaves of a roof

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When Is Roof Replacement Better Than Another Repair?

The honest answer usually turns on one distinction: whether the failure is in one place, or everywhere at once.

Roof timbers and rafters seen from inside a roof space