The housing across the river
The Merrick and Memorial neighborhoods near the river have the older two-family and three-family homes, close together, with the flat porch roofs and brick chimneys that define this kind of housing across the valley. Up the hill in Tatham, Mittineague, and along Piper Road the houses are postwar and later, capes and ranches giving way to larger colonials and split-levels on bigger lots. Each has its own roofing pattern, and I have been on enough of them to know what to expect before I put the ladder up.
Roofs on the hill and roofs on the flat
The hillside neighborhoods are more exposed to wind, and wind-lifted shingles and lost ridge caps are a regular repair call after a storm. The riverside blocks are sheltered but damp, and the porch roofs and low-slope additions there are where the rubber work is. On replacements I use architectural shingles rated for the wind we get, nailed by hand in the nailing zone, with ice and water barrier extended well up the roof and across the valleys.
Ice dams on West Springfield capes
The capes in Tatham and Mittineague have the same shallow, under-ventilated attics as their cousins across the river, and the same February ceiling stains. The fix is air sealing the attic floor, insulating with baffles at the eaves, opening the soffits, running the bath fans through the roof, and raking the eaves after heavy storms. I do the whole package or the parts that make sense for the house.
Siding and trim repair
Along the river the older houses have wood clapboard, often under vinyl, and the rot underneath follows the usual pattern below windows and at the water table. The hillside colonials have vinyl or fiber cement and the trouble is more often at the roof-to-wall joints where step flashing and kickouts were skipped. I repair or replace siding on either, with the wall wrapped and every opening flashed before the new material goes on.
Decks, porches, and garages
Bigger lots up the hill mean decks, and the sloped lots mean deep footings on the downhill side and a ledger that has to be flashed properly against a wall that sees a lot of weather. Riverside porches get rebuilt from the columns up. Detached garages, common on the older lots, get new roofs, rebuilt headers, and sill repairs where the framing has been sitting in wet.
Working in West Springfield
Scoping visits, repairs, replacements, and carpentry all run on the same terms here as everywhere I work. I look at the roof from on top and from the attic, I write up what I found and what I recommend, and the crew that scoped the job does the job. West Springfield is on the plow route in winter as well, which means I see the icicles before they turn into leaks.