Roofing in Harrison, NJ: Two-Family Houses and Combined Sewers

Call (862) 418-5296

Sports Illustrated Stadium, Raymond J. McDonough Riverside Park and Library Park are the places the town's own website puts up front. Around them, Harrison fits 10,062 homes into 1.211 square miles of land.

Only 615 of those homes are detached single-family houses. About 3,700 sit in buildings of two to four units, and 3,662 are in buildings of 50 units or more. A roof here often covers several households.

Small checks worth making in Harrison

In a two- or three-family house, check every floor's ceilings. A stain that follows the weather points to the roof, and one that never does points to plumbing.
Photograph the roofline from the sidewalk and from the back, with the date saved on each file. A record from before and after a storm is worth more than a memory.
Find out where each downspout ends. Much of the town drains to combined sewers, and a downspout that dumps onto the sidewalk or into a drain is a thing to mention on the phone.
If the house has an attic hatch, photograph the insulation and the underside of the roof boards. Pictures like that make the phone call shorter.
When a stain grows after the second rain, or a shingle turns up on the sidewalk, call (862) 418-5296 and name the floor and the wall where you saw it.

Three worries that fit Harrison's housing

Shared roofs. With about 3,700 homes in buildings of two to four units, one roof usually covers more than one household. Whoever notices the stain upstairs may be a tenant with no say over the roof, and dated photos from every floor give the owner something to act on.

Older houses. About 2,000 Harrison homes date from 1939 or before, per the Census Bureau (plus or minus 394), and the 2020 master plan puts roughly 38 percent of the town's homes ahead of 1960. A house of that age may carry old layers of roofing, and a roofer will want to see what is up there.

Water with nowhere to go. In a heavy rain, gutters and downspouts overflow into streets that already feed combined sewers. PSE&G adds one more reason to stay indoors after a storm: treat any downed wire as live.

The town office

Harrison's Construction & Engineering office is at 401 Warren Street, 2nd floor. The office opens at 8:00 and closes at 4:30 on weekdays, and the phone is 973-268-2446. Applications for permits and requests for inspections go through an online portal run by SDL, and first-time users create a username and password.

The town's FAQ names the Construction Permit Application Jacket (Form UCC F-100). It says documents are signed and sealed by contractors holding a state license, except for owner-occupied one-family houses. Payment is by check, money order or cash. The town's pages say nothing specific about roofing or contractor requirements, so ask the office whether a given job needs paperwork. State rules are on checking a contractor.

Short answers

Does Harrison publish any roofing rules?

The Construction & Engineering page lists no roofing rules, contractor requirements or fees. It says applications for permits and requests for inspections run through the SDL portal. The office at 973-268-2446 can answer for a specific job.

How many Harrison homes are rented?

The town's 2020 master plan reports that 69.5 percent of occupied Harrison homes were rented in the 2010 Census. With that many renters, a dated photo to the landlord or property manager is often the first move on a roof problem.

Who can call from Harrison?

Anyone who owns a Harrison roof, or manages one for an owner, can call (862) 418-5296. If you rent, tell your landlord or property manager first, with a dated photo; repairs are arranged and approved at their end.

Calls from just over the line

The contractor who takes Harrison's calls also covers Kearny roofing, East Newark roofing and Newark roofing. Each has its own weather notes and housing numbers.

The town overview sets the four side by side.

What the year does to a roof here

Ida's remnants left Newark Airport with 8.44 inches across the first two days of September 2021, and a single hour of it dropped 3.65. Back in town, the 2020 master plan counts six active combined-sewer overflows into the Passaic, puts the PATH station and the public-works facility inside mapped flood zones, and tallies three repetitive-loss properties.

Roofs and gutters take that rain first. Streets and sewers take whatever they pass down. Newark Airport is the weather station behind these figures, so a street in Harrison can see something different.

Ready to describe the roof?

Ready for the call: the street address, where the damage shows and a guess at the roof's age. Dial (862) 418-5296. Renters: the dated photo goes to your landlord or property manager at the outset. Covered: Harrison, Kearny, East Newark and Newark.

Call (862) 418-5296