Roofing in Somerville: A Tight Borough at the Bottom of the Valley

The centre of Somerville sits at roughly 55 feet above sea level. Our own yard, sixteen miles east, sits at about 90. Somerville is downhill from us, in the Raritan valley, and it is the lowest ground of any town we serve.

That does not change your shingles. It changes what happens to the water after your shingles have done their job.

In September 2021 the remnants of Hurricane Ida put record levels of the Raritan through this part of Somerset County. Nobody who was here needs that explained. What is worth saying is that flooding is a ground problem and a roof is not part of it, and the two get quietly confused afterwards.

Here is the practical version. A roof of average size sheds a genuinely large volume of water in a heavy storm, and every drop of it arrives at your downspouts. If those downspouts empty a foot from the wall, your roof is putting all of that against your own foundation on ground that is already struggling. On low-lying Somerville properties we look at downspout count and where the discharge actually ends up before we look at anything else, because it is the cheapest thing on the list and it is the one most often wrong.

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.

Borough lots are small and the houses are near each other, and that makes a roofing job here a different kind of day from one out in the townships.

Three things we sort out before we schedule you rather than on the morning.

Where the container goes. If it will not fit on your property it has to sit on the street, and that is a conversation with the borough rather than something a crew decides at 7am. We have that conversation.

Your neighbour's property. On a tight lot the tear-off falls somewhere, and sometimes the nearest somewhere is next door. We sheet and protect what is on the boundary, and we tell your neighbour we are coming.

Access for the truck. Older borough streets with parking on both sides are not always as wide as they look on a map. It is better for everyone if we know that on the estimate visit.

None of this is complicated. It is just the part that goes wrong when a company that mostly works on acre lots turns up in a borough.

Somerville's downtown runs along Main, Division and High Streets, and Division Street itself was rebuilt as a pedestrian street after the borough earned its Transit Village designation in 2010. Those historic storefronts have roofs, and they are not shingle roofs.

Above a shop you are generally looking at a flat or low slope roof over occupied commercial space, often with no access except through the building or off the back. Different covering, different trade, different scheduling, because you cannot tear off over a business at lunchtime.

We do that work as well as houses. If you own or manage a building on one of those streets, the conversation starts with how we get up there and when the tenant can live with the noise.

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.

Somerville's Division of Code Enforcement is at 25 West End Avenue, on (908) 725-2300, and that office is generally open Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 4:30. They are the authority on your job. Checked August 2026.

One more thing worth knowing if you own an older property near the centre. Somerville has a proposed historic district covering Main, Division, High and parts of Bridge and Doughty Streets, alongside individually listed buildings including Borough Hall and the Public Library, built in 1888, and the county's 1909 courthouse. Proposed is not the same as designated, and we are not going to tell you a rule applies to you when it may not. If your address is in that area, ask the borough what its current status is before you choose a material.

My basement took water. Is my roof part of that?

Almost certainly not directly. Flooding comes from the ground. What your roof does control is where its own water goes, and downspouts that discharge close to the wall make a bad situation worse for free. That is worth checking and it is cheap to change.

Where will the dumpster go on a lot this size?

Either on your property or on the street, and if it is the street that needs arranging with the borough first. We work that out at the estimate rather than surprising you with it.

Do you do the flat roofs over the shops on Main and Division?

Yes. It is a different covering and a different trade from a house roof, and access and timing matter more than anything else. Call and we will come and look.

Do I need a permit to replace my roof in Somerville?

Not for a straightforward covering replacement on a detached one or two family house. Yes once sheathing or framing is replaced, and yes for commercial. The Code Enforcement office on West End Avenue decides on your job.

How far away are you?

About fifteen miles from our Edison office, a little over twenty minutes. Somerville is one of the further towns we cover, so we schedule it as a full day rather than a quick call-in.

Bridgewater wraps around you and Warren is up the hill to the north east. Both have their own page.

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.