Low slope roofing in Camillus: the porch roof that keeps leaking

Detached houses make up 78.7 percent of Camillus town's housing, and mobile homes are only 0.2 percent. So a low roof here is rarely a whole house. It is usually one piece: a porch, a breezeway, a garage link, a bay or a back room. When you call, point to that one piece.

Houses from 1950 to 1979 commonly pick up pieces like these over the years. The original roof was built to shed water. The later piece may have been shingled to match, even if it falls less. That is a proxy, and it does not tell us about your house. It tells you which part to point to when you call.

Try to describe the piece in plain words. Where is it? How wide is it? Does it meet a taller wall? Is there a gutter along the low edge? Those answers help the roofer prepare for the visit.

Shingles are allowed under the state code only when the slope is 2:12 or more, and double underlayment is required until the slope reaches 4:12. That is a statewide rule, not a Camillus rule. A porch roof in the village and yours in the town face the same line.

Below 2:12, the product has to change. Single-ply membrane roofing is designed to fall at least a quarter inch in 12 so it drains. Mineral roll roofing is barred below 1:12. Do not climb up to test this. Ask the roofer to measure the pitch and write the number on the proposal.

If the number is under 2:12, a patch is the wrong answer. A different product on that one section is the repair. Read more in our article on porch roofs that keep leaking.

Inside the Village of Camillus, buildings of five to 49 units hold 32.0 percent of the units. A roof over that many households may be flat or nearly flat. The code says a roof that does not slope to drain over its edges needs roof drains at each low point.

If you manage or live in a building like that, ask where the drains are and when someone last cleared them. Then send us the address, and we book the visit through the owner or manager. For a flashing leak on the same roof, see the Camillus flashing page.

Whatever the building, ask the roofer to list what moves the price of a low-roof fix. Usually it is the size of the piece, how its edges and wall joints are finished, the condition of the deck underneath, and how the water leaves it. You can compare proposals more easily when each one names these items than when it gives you a single line.