In Glen Ridge, 81 percent of homes were built before 1940. On a house that old, the siding on the walls today may not be the first, and what is underneath changes the job. We look before we price it.
NJ HIC 13VH13268400 · Licensed and insured · Free inspection · Open 24 hoursModern Home Roofing & Chimney replaces siding on houses across Essex County, NJ, including Glen Ridge, Maplewood, Nutley and West Orange. With 30 percent of homes in the county built before 1940, older wood siding or cement shingles may sit under what you see, so we lift a panel and look before anyone talks price. NJ HIC 13VH13268400.
In Glen Ridge, 81 percent of homes went up before 1940. In Montclair it is 59 percent and in Maplewood 55. Many houses from that time started out with wood clapboard or wood shingles, and since then they may have been covered over once or twice. Every layer has to come off, and we need to know what is at the bottom before we price it.
Some of those houses were covered in cement shingles along the way, and cement shingles can contain asbestos. We do not touch them. If we see them at the inspection, we tell you and refer you to a company that tests for asbestos and removes it.
Two-family houses are 13 percent of the county and 20 percent of Belleville. On those, the walls often run two full stories, and the work passes more than one front door. We plan the order of the walls with you and your tenant.
So we lift a panel and look before we put a price on an Essex County siding job.
Two houses with the same vinyl on the outside can be very different jobs. The difference is behind the panels, and on a house from before 1940 it can be two layers deep.
When the damage is a handful of panels on one wall and the wood behind them is fine, new siding on the whole house would be a waste. Siding repair
Most homes in these three towns predate 1940. Under the siding we expect older wood, sometimes a second layer, and sometimes cement shingles that we leave alone and refer out. Taking the walls down to the sheathing is slower here, and we tell you what we found before anything new goes up.
Livingston's median house dates to 1962, West Caldwell's to 1961 and North Caldwell's to 1965, and 81 percent or more of the homes in each are detached. There are usually fewer layers to take off. What we look at hardest is how the panels were hung and whether water has been getting behind them at the windows.
If the gutters have to come down for the new siding, it is a good time to decide on new ones. Gutter installation in Essex County
The wall under the old siding gets checked before anything new goes up. All seven steps are on the siding replacement page.
We walk all sides of the house, lift a panel in an out of the way spot to see what is under it, and photograph what we find.
Which walls, what goes on them and the price, on paper.
The old panels and trim come off down to the sheathing. If the wood is soft or rotted, you get photos and a price before we replace it.
The new vinyl panels and trim go up. We haul the old siding away, run a magnet over the lawn for nails and go over the walls with you.
On a one- or two-family house, no. New Jersey's construction code treats new siding on a one- or two-family house as ordinary maintenance, as long as the new siding is not polypropylene, so there is no permit and no notice to the town. Montclair has local historic districts, where exterior work needs a certificate of appropriateness, though repair or exact replacement that does not change how the house looks is exempt. We check with your town before we start, and any permit goes on the estimate.
If it is in Essex County, yes. We cover all 22 municipalities, from Belleville to West Orange. Put your ZIP code in the estimate form and we confirm it when we call you back.
Not on a one- or two-family house, attached or detached, unless the new siding is polypropylene. On a three- or four-family building, the town decides. In a Montclair historic district, a new siding material changes how the house looks, so it needs a certificate of appropriateness first.
We lift a panel in a spot where it will not show and look behind it. Old wood, cement shingles and bare sheathing each change how the job goes, so we find out at the inspection, not halfway through the work.
Cement shingles on older houses can contain asbestos. We do not touch them. If we see them at the inspection, we tell you and refer you to a company that tests for asbestos and removes it.
It depends on how much wall there is, how many old layers come off, how much sheathing is soft, and the trim around the windows and doors. A tall two-family house and a one-story house are different jobs. We do not quote over the phone. You get a written price after the inspection.
Call us, but check with your association first. In most condos the roof and the siding belong to the association, and the board hires the contractor. Townhouses vary. Your association documents say who owns what.
Send your town and what bothers you about the siding. We call you back shortly. The inspection is free, and you get photos of what is behind the panels along with a written price.
Or call 732-682-9251
