Roof replacement in Hartford, CT

Hartford has one of the oldest housing stocks of any American city. A 2017 analysis of census data found that about two thirds of the city's homes were built before 1960, and about a third before 1940. Most of those houses are on their third, fourth or fifth roof, and many of them still have the original board decking, chimneys and cornices underneath.

Homes built before 1960

About two thirds

Homes built before 1940

About one third

Permit office

Building Inspection Division, Development Services

Signature building type

The brick Perfect Six

The houses, neighborhood by neighborhood

Frog Hollow and the South Green. This is Perfect Six country: three-story brick buildings with six apartments, most built in the first decade of the 1900s, often with double bow fronts and tall wooden porches. Their roofs are low-slope membranes behind a parapet and a sheet-metal cornice. See flat roof replacement for what that work involves.

Asylum Hill and Nook Farm. Large Victorians and later Colonial Revivals, some still under slate, many long since converted to asphalt. Mark Twain's house on Farmington Avenue is the neighborhood's landmark; its purple slate roofs were rebuilt during a 1999 restoration.

The West End. The West End North Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1985, saw its most intensive building in the first decade of the 20th century, and the houses along West Boulevard went up in the 1910s and 1920s, mostly as Colonial Revivals. Expect steep roofs, dormers, brick chimneys and, on some houses, slate.

Everywhere else. Two- and three-family houses fill much of the city, with a main roof plus back-porch roofs that are often low-slope. Replacing all of them together means the flashing between them is done once.

What makes a Hartford roof replacement different

• Tight lots. Dumpster placement, scaffolding over a neighbor's driveway and protecting the house next door all need planning. Ask the roofer whether a street-use permit is needed for a dumpster.
• Multiple roof types on one building. A pitched main roof, a flat rear section and porch roofs can each need a different material.
• Chimneys. Old brick chimneys often need new flashing, and sometimes repointing by a mason, before the roof goes on.
• Tenants. On rental buildings, top-floor tenants need notice about noise, attic access and any water shut-offs.

Getting it permitted

Hartford handles building permits through the Building Inspection Division of the Department of Development Services. Most roofers pull the permit as part of the job, but Connecticut's consumer protection department recommends agreeing in advance who will, and checking with the building official that it was actually issued. The permit answer walks through it.