Exterior Contractor Serving Dumont, NJ

On Dumont’s 1940s-60s housing stock, the honest answer is that most roofs we inspect are past the repair threshold. The question is whether you’re looking at a targeted fix for a specific failure point or a roof that’s uniformly at end of life. We walk every elevation, check the granule load in the gutters, inspect every flashing, and look at the attic from inside. If the shingles are curling across the whole plane and the flashings are failing in multiple places, replacement is the honest call. If it’s one flashing and one section of damaged shingles, we scope the repair. We give you the straight assessment — no pressure either way.

On Dumont’s mid-century homes, south-side buckling on aluminum siding is almost always thermal expansion — the panels are expanding in the afternoon sun and have nowhere to go because the original installation is 50 years old and the locking channels are compromised. It can also indicate that moisture has gotten behind the panel and is affecting the substrate. We open it up and look. If it’s just the aluminum at end of life over sound sheathing, it’s a clean re-side. If there’s sheathing damage, we include that in the scope before any new material goes on.

Clean gutters that still overflow are undersized for the roof area they drain. This is the standard situation on Dumont’s ranches and colonials — the 4-inch gutters installed in the original construction work fine for light rain but overflow during any real storm event. Cleaning doesn’t fix a capacity problem. We calculate the correct size based on your roof area and pitch, fabricate seamless aluminum on-site, and install with proper hidden hangers. Before the new gutters go up, we probe the fascia — because if the old gutters have been overflowing for years, the fascia is usually compromised behind the gutter lip.

Probably yes. First-generation vinyl replacement windows from the late 80s and 90s have a lifespan of roughly 25-30 years in NJ’s climate, and most of them are at or past that point now. The signs to look for: fogging between panes that doesn’t clear, drafts around the frame that weren’t there before, difficulty operating the sash, and condensation on the interior glass in winter. We measure every opening individually and give you a written scope across brands. On a Dumont colonial with 15-20 windows, the energy performance improvement from modern glass and frame technology is significant.

Cold air infiltration around an entry door on a Dumont cape cod is almost always a combination of three things: weatherstripping that has compressed flat and stopped sealing, a threshold assembly that’s worn or damaged, and in many cases a door that has warped slightly and no longer closes square against the frame. If it’s an older wood or hollow steel door, replacement with a Therma-Tru or Provia fiberglass unit is the right answer — fiberglass doesn’t warp in NJ’s temperature swings and insulates far better than either material it’s replacing. We assess the frame condition first so the scope is right before anything is ordered.

Soft corner boards that are separating from the siding have been absorbing moisture at the caulk joint for long enough that the wood is compromised. The cause is almost always a failed caulk joint that was never re-sealed after it cracked — a common maintenance miss on Dumont’s older housing stock. The fix: remove the corner boards, assess the sheathing behind them for moisture damage, correct the flashing and back-priming, and install PVC corner boards that won’t absorb moisture on the same timeline as the wood they’re replacing. If the sheathing behind them is wet, that gets addressed before anything new goes on.