Roofing in Farmington, CT: Repair & Replacement
How to decide between repairing and replacing a Farmington roof, with notes on the town’s two historic district commissions and its large stock of 1970s to 1990s homes.
Sunday to Friday
Repair a Farmington roof when the damage is limited and the shingles still have life; replace it when wear shows on every slope or the deck has softened. Homes in the village or Unionville local historic districts may need commission approval for material changes. We inspect at no charge and set out the cost of each route in writing.
Historic villages, then a building boom
Farmington’s Main Street is lined with colonial houses, some dating to the 1600s, and the village has been a National Register historic district since 1972. Hill-Stead, finished in 1901, and Miss Porter’s School, founded in 1843, are its best-known landmarks. Unionville, the mill village on the Farmington River in the northwest part of town, has 19th- and early 20th-century houses of its own.
Most of the town came later. Farmington’s population roughly doubled between 1960 and 1990, from about 10,800 to 20,600, and kept rising after that. Subdivisions, condominiums and larger custom homes from those decades now make up much of the housing, in East Farmington Heights and across the rest of town.
That gives Farmington an unusual spread of roofs, from historic houses where slate or wood may still survive to a large group of 1960s-to-1990s homes now on their original roof or their first replacement.
Two historic district commissions
Farmington has two separate commissions. The Farmington Historic District Commission oversees the village’s local historic district, created in the mid-1960s, while a Unionville Historic District Commission oversees several smaller districts established in Unionville in 2010. Which one applies depends on the address, so confirm with the town planning office before choosing a roofing material.
Even where no commission review is needed, a building permit may still be required for a replacement. Plan for both before you put the work on the calendar. When a commission is involved, it helps to arrive with specifics: the proposed material and color, how the ridge, valleys and edges will be finished, and photos of the roof as it is now.
Repair or replace?
Five quick questions for a rule-of-thumb answer.
Repair or replace: a guide by roof type
Typical Connecticut lifespans, and the signs that tip the decision. Shade, poor ventilation and storms can shorten any of them.
| Roof | Typical life | Repair when | Replace when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-tab asphalt | 15–20 years | Wind took a few tabs off a roof under 10 years old | Tabs are cracked and curled across the roof |
| Architectural asphalt | 20–30 years | One valley, boot or flashing has failed | Bald spots and granule loss on several slopes |
| Cedar shake | 20–40 years | A few shakes are split or missing | Shakes are thin, cupped and mossy everywhere |
| Slate | 75–100+ years | Individual pieces are cracked or have slipped | Nails are failing roof-wide and slates keep sliding out |
| EPDM flat roof | 20–30 years | A seam or a puncture leaks | The membrane is brittle, shrinking or ponding badly |
Slate and wood on the oldest houses
On a slate roof, the stone is rarely the problem. Nails rust through, copper or steel valleys wear thin, and slates slip one at a time, so a slate roof that leaks is usually a repair job rather than a replacement. Replacing individual slates and rebuilding a valley often costs a fraction of a new roof; see slate roof repair for what that work involves.
Wood roofs are different. Cedar shakes wear from the surface down, and once they are thin, cupped and split across the roof, patching stops paying off. On a house inside a historic district, that is the point to talk with the commission about matching wood or an approved alternative.
The 1980s and 1990s roof wave
Homes from Farmington’s boom years are either still on roofs 30 or more years old or on first replacements put on in the 2000s. Architectural shingles from that period are at or past their typical life, and many of these houses have complex roofs with dormers, skylights and long valleys.
On a roof like that, one failing valley or skylight can make the whole roof look worn out when it is not. Our inspection photos show each slope separately, so you can see whether a problem is local or general. For the wider picture, read repair or replace your roof and signs you need a new roof.
Condominium owners should check their association documents before arranging anything, since the roof is often the association’s responsibility rather than the owner’s.
Signs a repair will not be enough
If several of these apply, money spent on a repair will most likely be spent twice:
- Leaks in more than one room that are not near the same chimney or vent
- Brittle shingles that crack instead of bending
- Dark, soft or delaminating decking visible from the attic
- A second layer of shingles already on the roof
- Repeated repairs in different spots over the last few years
- Granules collecting below every downspout
- Flashing failing at every wall joint and chimney at once
From inspection to a finished Farmington roof
The first step is a call or a callback request. We visit without charge, look over the roof surface and the flashing, check the attic, and photograph the roof both from a drone and up on the surface.
Then you get those photos with a written price, and if repair and replacement are both reasonable, both are priced. For a house in one of the historic districts, the estimate names the proposed materials, which is useful to include with an application. We schedule the work only after your approval, cover gardens and walks during the job, and finish by clearing all debris and sending photos of the completed roof.
Chimneys and nearby towns
For chimney sweeping and repairs, see our Farmington chimney page. We also handle roofs in Avon, West Hartford and Bristol. Call (203) 779-6787 to set up the free inspection.
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Roofing help in Farmington
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