Riverton Borough · Burlington County
Roofing Contractors in Riverton, NJ
Roof repair, replacement and inspection for Riverton's Victorian riverfront housing.
Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A historic place
Riverton: the place and its buildings
Riverton was built on purpose. In the middle of the nineteenth century the Riverton Improvement Company bought 120 acres on the Delaware and laid out a planned community, with houses for its founders along the riverfront. What survives is one of the most architecturally coherent Victorian settlements in the region — sidewalks, gas lamps, and an 80-acre historic district listed since 1999.
Victorian roofs are the most complicated residential roofs anyone in this county is likely to own. Steep pitches, turrets and bays, decorative slate or shingle patterns, multiple dormers, deep porches with their own low-slope roofs, and masonry chimneys in quantity. Every one of those features is a junction, and junctions are where roofs leak.
Substantial Victorian housing predominates in the historic core: large detached homes with steep and complex roofs, turrets, bays, dormers, decorative detailing and deep wrap-around porches. Porch roofs are almost invariably at low slope. Chimneys are masonry and numerous, sheathing is typically plank, and metal accent roofs over bays and porches are a defining feature of the streetscape.
Leaks and flashing
Where older roofs here let water in
- Leaks at valleys on complex Victorian rooflines
- Failed flashing at dormer cheeks and bay junctions
- Repeated leaks on shingled low-slope porch roofs
- Chimney flashing sealed rather than rebuilt
- Water overshooting gutters where a valley discharges
- Deteriorating decorative metal accent roofs
Services
Roofing services in Riverton
Roof Repair
Leak tracing and targeted repairs for shingle, flat and tile roofs across Burlington County.
Flat Roofing
Low-slope membrane roofing on additions, porches, dormers and commercial buildings.
Metal Roofing
Standing seam and metal panel roofing, plus repairs to existing metal roofs and accents.
Roof Replacement
Full tear-off and rebuild of the roof system, from decking and underlayment through to ridge ventilation.
Roof replacement
Replacing a roof on an older building
On older housing a tear-off usually reveals more than one previous covering and often plank sheathing rather than plywood. A quotation should state its decking allowance, and chimney and wall flashing should be rebuilt rather than reused.
What a replacement includesExposure
Wind and weather
The riverfront houses take wind and driven rain off open water directly, while the streets behind are more sheltered. On roofs this complicated the field is rarely the problem — it is the concentrated flow through multiple valleys and the many flashing junctions that get found out during sustained autumn systems.
Drainage
Roof edges, gutters and where water goes
A large Victorian roof sheds a great deal of water through relatively few outlets, and the original arrangements were not designed for the short, intense summer downpours this region now sees. Porch roofs compound it by draining separately, often right beside the front wall. Valley discharge overshooting a gutter is a frequent finding, and it usually shows as erosion at one specific corner.
Street trees
Canopy and debris
Riverton's mature street trees are part of its character and they put a steady debris load onto some genuinely complicated rooflines. A Victorian roof can have five or six valleys, and each one is somewhere for leaves to collect and back water sideways under the courses either side. Clearing valleys here is considerably more important than clearing gutters.
Historic-property considerations
What changes the approach here
- Highly complex Victorian roof geometry with many valleys, hips and dormers
- Turret and bay roofs requiring specific, matched detailing
- Deep porch roofs at low slope, needing membrane rather than shingles
- Multiple masonry chimneys per house, each a complete flashing assembly
- An 80-acre listed district, so visible materials and profiles matter
- Decorative metalwork and accent roofs that should be repaired rather than replaced
- River exposure on the waterfront elevations
Questions
Roofing questions from Riverton
Is a Victorian roof more difficult than a modern one?
Considerably. Steep pitches, turrets, bays, multiple dormers and five or six valleys mean far more junctions per square foot than anything built since, and every junction is a potential leak. The field of the roof is usually the easy part. Anyone quoting a Victorian house as though it were a simple gable is not looking at it properly.
Can the decorative metal roof over my bay be repaired?
Usually yes, and on a house in the historic district that is generally the right approach. Re-fastening, replacing hardened washers and rebuilding a failed ridge or wall junction can add a great deal of life, and matching the existing profile and finish keeps the repair from becoming a permanent visual scar.
Does the historic district restrict what I can put on my roof?
It affects what is visible from the street — materials, profiles, colour and visible metalwork. The assembly beneath is not restricted and still has to be right. Anything visible is worth confirming against local requirements before ordering, since Riverton's district exists specifically because of its architecture and planning.
Why does my porch roof leak when the main roof is fine?
Because it is a different kind of roof. A deep Victorian porch roof is almost always at a slope too shallow for shingles, so water works back under the laps no matter how carefully the edges are sealed. It needs a membrane system, and the junction where it meets the house wall needs base flashing carried up properly rather than a bead of sealant.
Water pours over the gutter at one corner in every storm. Why there?
Almost certainly because a valley discharges at that point. On a Victorian roof a single valley can carry the drainage of a large part of the roof, moving fast enough to overshoot the gutter entirely. A larger outlet, a diverter or a repositioned downspout usually solves it.
Nearby
Service areas near Riverton
Further reading
6 min read
Why Roof Valleys Are Common Leak Areas
A valley may carry half a roof's drainage through a channel a few inches wide. It is the hardest-working part of the covering.
6 min read
How Flashing Protects Roof Penetrations
A roof is a continuous surface interrupted by holes. Flashing is the craft of making those interruptions shed water.
6 min read
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.
Ask about a roof in Riverton
Tell us about the roof. The municipality page you are on is recorded for context only — the property address you give is what we use.