Porch-front rowhouse roof replacement in Petworth (20011)

Porch roofs catch everything that drains off the front of the house, and their pitch is barely there. On blocks around Upshur, Taylor and Shepherd Streets, we often find porch roofs with four or five layers of roll roofing and a gutter that sags at one corner. Water ponds in the low spot, the top layer cracks, and the leak shows up as a stain on the porch ceiling beadboard.

The fix depends on what is underneath. When the decking is sound, we strip the old layers, set a new base sheet and finish with a granulated modified bitumen cap that matches the look of the street. When the boards are soft, we replace them and sometimes add tapered strips so water actually reaches the gutter.

The joint where the porch roof meets the brick front wall is the other weak spot. Old tar patches there trap water instead of shedding it. We cut a reglet into the mortar joint and set a new metal counterflashing so the membrane tucks underneath it.

Petworth rowhouses share party walls and, on many blocks, one continuous roof line from end to end. When we replace your section, we cut a clean edge at each party wall, tie into the neighbor's roof with a lapped membrane and seal the seam so the two systems act as one. We talk to the neighbor on each side before we start, because our tear-off reaches their side of the wall by a few inches.

Most houses here drain to the rear, toward the alley, through a single scupper and downspout. That scupper is often undersized or rusted shut. As part of a full flat roof replacement we rebuild the scupper box, check the slope across the deck and add a second drain point where water has been standing.

DC energy rules push a reflective membrane on low-slope replacements, so we usually install white TPO or a light granulated cap. Our page on TPO roofing covers how we weld the seams and detail the edges.

Many Petworth rows have a short decorative mansard across the front, often red clay tile or slate set over a steep wood frame. Those strips look solid from the sidewalk, but broken tiles and failed nails at the top course let water into the front wall cavity. We reset slipped pieces, swap cracked ones with salvaged tile and reflash the transition where the strip meets the flat roof behind it.

Grant Circle and Sherman Circle frame some of the most intact blocks, and owners there tend to want the original front kept. We price repairs and full replacement side by side so you can decide with real numbers in hand.

Most Petworth blocks have paved rear alleys wide enough for a pickup and a trailer, which keeps roll goods and debris off Georgia Avenue and away from the front porches. We load the roof from the alley side with a hoist and lower tear-off into a covered trailer, then sweep the alley and check gutters for nails before we leave.