Roofing Services in Wilmington, DE

Wilmington Row Homes: Don’t Forget the Back

If you have a row home in Wilmington, the pitched roof in front is almost certainly fine. What worries us is the back. Most row homes have a flat or near-flat rear section — an addition or rear ell tacked on decades ago — and those sections fail quietly. A slow leak nobody notices until there’s a water stain on the ceiling, and by that point the decking has been wet for two or three years. There was a property on Monroe Street where the rear flat had been leaking for an estimated four to five years. The ceiling had been patched twice. The decking and framing underneath were not fine. What would have been a $4,000 flat roof replacement had become a $12,000 project.

For flat sections, we install 60-mil TPO — heat-welded seams that don’t rely on adhesive, white reflective surface for Wilmington’s humid summers. Installed cost on a typical row home flat section (400 to 700 sq ft) runs $4,500 to $8,000. Drainage is always part of the assessment: internal drains on older Wilmington row homes connect to cast iron pipes that can be 80–90 years old. We look at drain condition during every flat roof project. If the drain is failing, we say so during the estimate — not after we’ve torn the roof off.

Standard architectural shingle replacement in Wilmington runs $8,500 to $13,000. If your home is in Wawaset Park (321 homes built by DuPont between 1918 and 1929), exterior changes are restricted by the Wawaset Park Maintenance Corporation — many of those homes have original slate that should stay if it’s still sound. The Highlands has steep pitches and dormers; Trolley Square has Victorian-era rooflines with valleys that trap debris. New Castle County permits through the eApply portal — we pull the permit on every job.