Roofing in Colonia NJ: Part of Woodbridge Township, Minutes From Our Yard

Colonia is an unincorporated community inside Woodbridge Township, in Middlesex County. It has its own name, its own ZIP code, 07067, its own schools and its own clear sense of itself, and it has no town hall, because it is not a municipality.

For a roof that has one practical consequence. Your mail says Colonia. Your property tax bill and, when you need one, your construction permit say Woodbridge Township. A contractor who does not work here regularly will file in the wrong place or tell you to.

The Garden State Parkway runs through the township, Rahway and Clark sit to the north in Union County, Iselin and Woodbridge proper are to the south and east, and Edison is immediately west. That last one is where our yard is.

We do three things to the outside of a house: the roof, the siding and the gutters. Doing them together means one crew, one schedule and one company answerable for the whole exterior instead of three companies blaming each other.

Our yard is at 1163 Inman Ave in Edison, and Inman Avenue carries east into Colonia. Straight line it is roughly three miles. In real traffic it is normally ten to fifteen minutes.

Of all the towns listed on this site, Colonia is the closest one to where the trucks are loaded in the morning. That does not change the price, and we will say so plainly: the price is the same everywhere we work. What it changes is how quickly somebody can come back and look at something, which is usually what you actually want.

Colonia grew up in the 1950s and 1960s as one of the big post-war suburbs of this corridor, so most of what stands here is split levels, colonials, capes and ranches on comfortable lots, with mature trees over a lot of them.

Two of those shapes are worth naming.

Split levels have more roof planes than their size suggests, and the places they leak are the joins: where a lower roof runs into an upper wall, where a valley collects everything from two planes at once, and where flashing was done once, quickly, thirty years ago. A tear off on a split level is mostly a flashing job with shingles on top of it.

Capes are the ventilation problem. The sloped upstairs ceiling leaves almost no room at the eave for insulation and airflow at the same time, which is why the upstairs cooks in August and ice sits at the gutter in January. New shingles do not fix that. Air does.

The mature trees are the other half of the story. Overhanging limbs mean debris in the gutters most of the year and shaded, slow drying north slopes that hold moss. Both shorten a roof quietly, without ever producing a dramatic leak.

Under New Jersey's construction code, replacing the roof covering on a detached one or two family home is treated as ordinary maintenance, which means no construction permit is required. That changes the moment sheathing, rafters or anything structural gets replaced. Then it is no longer ordinary maintenance and a permit is required.

Because Colonia is part of Woodbridge Township, the township construction office is the one that decides and the one that issues. We pull the permit when a job needs one. Rules and fees change, so they, not us, are the authority on your job.

Is Colonia its own town?

No, and this is the part that trips people up at permit time. Colonia is an unincorporated community inside Woodbridge Township, in Middlesex County. Your mail says Colonia 07067, your tax bill and your building permit say Woodbridge Township.

How close is your yard to Colonia?

Very close. Our yard is at 1163 Inman Ave in Edison, and Inman Avenue runs east straight into Colonia. It is about three miles in a straight line and usually ten to fifteen minutes of driving. Colonia is the nearest of the towns on this site to the yard.

Who issues the roofing permit for a Colonia address?

Woodbridge Township, because Colonia is part of it. Replacing only the roof covering on a detached one or two family house is ordinary maintenance under New Jersey code and normally needs no permit. Once sheathing or framing is replaced it does, and the township construction office is the authority on your job.

My house is a split level. Is that harder?

Harder to get right, not harder to price. A split level has more roof planes than its footprint suggests, and almost everything that leaks on one leaks where two planes or a roof and a wall meet. That is a flashing job, and it is the part a cheap quote leaves out.

Is it cheaper because I am close to your yard?

No. The price is the same everywhere we work. Being close changes how fast we can come back with more material or look at a small leak, not what the job costs.

Edison is immediately west of you and has its own page, and every town we work in is listed in one place.

Book an estimate and somebody comes out, gets on the roof, and writes down what is actually up there. You get the price in writing before you decide anything, and the visit costs you nothing either way.

A&J Professional Services, 1163 Inman Ave Ste 101, Edison NJ 08820. Call (908) 432-7081.