Roofing in Manayunk, Philadelphia

Pennsylvania registers home improvement contractors through the Attorney General, and in Philadelphia a registered contractor also needs a Commercial Activity License to work on a one- or two-family home. Ask for both numbers on the quote. Then ask how many layers they found, how the deck is priced, how much comes off each day, and whether you will see the bare deck before it is covered.

Replacing a 1,000-square-foot flat roof in Philadelphia is estimated at $3,000 to $12,000, with materials at about $4 to $12 a square foot. Most back roofs on row homes and twins are smaller than that. What moves the price most is how many old layers are on it, because every one has to come off and leave the site before the new roof goes down.

In Philadelphia, yes. A re-roof needs a permit from the Department of Licenses and Inspections, and replacing the roof covering is an EZ permit, with no plans, when the job follows the city's EZ standard. A building on the city's historic register goes to the Historical Commission first. The contractor doing the work normally pulls the permit, and it should be named in the quote.

For a Roxborough twin or single in asphalt shingle, it is well above the estimated $7,000 to $11,000, and above the citywide $9,000 to $16,500 for architectural shingle, so ask what is driving it. Several layers to strip, a large share of the deck replaced, or a big Wissahickon Victorian with many valleys can all push a number up. The itemized layer count, deck rate and permit settle it, not the total.