Somerset County runs from historic Somerville and Bound Brook to large newer homes in Bridgewater, Hillsborough and Bernards, with complex multi-gable rooflines and heavy tree cover.
Somerset County is dominated by two housing types that fail in completely different ways. The first is the newer, larger home — Bridgewater, Hillsborough, Branchburg, Bernards and Montgomery are full of 1990s-and-later houses with multiple gables, front-facing dormers, long valleys, several skylights and a garage wing tied into the main roof. Complexity like that means the flashing and valley work carries the roof, and the accessories fail long before the field.
The second is the older core: Somerville, Bound Brook, Raritan and Manville, with early-1900s homes, porches tied into main roofs, original chimney flashing and, in the low-lying parts near the Raritan, a long history of water problems that make owners understandably sensitive about any new leak.
Tree cover is a factor across the county. Debris in valleys and gutters is the single most preventable cause of the leaks we get called for here, and on shaded slopes algae-resistant shingles are worth specifying rather than treating as an upgrade.
The Somerset County building stock we work on
Large 1990s-and-later homes in Bridgewater, Hillsborough and Bernards with multi-gable rooflines and skylights
Garage wings and bump-outs tied into the main roof, creating valleys and roof-to-wall intersections
Early-1900s homes in Somerville, Bound Brook, Raritan and Manville with porches and original flashing
Mature tree canopy loading valleys and gutters throughout the county
Rolling terrain and larger lots, which makes staging straightforward on most jobs
Roof problems we find most often in Somerset County
Valley and dead-valley failure
Complex roofs concentrate a lot of water in a few valleys. Debris plus volume wears them out first, and a woven shingle valley fails sooner than open metal.
Skylight leaks
Older skylights without a proper flashing kit, or reused during a previous re-roof. Reflashing or replacing at re-roof time is far cheaper than the ceiling repair.
Porch tie-ins on older homes
Where a low-slope porch roof meets the main wall and roof. On the county's older stock, this is the leak we trace most often.
Gutter and debris backup
Packed gutters push water back under the drip edge and rot the fascia and eave. Most of this damage is entirely preventable.
Communities we cover in Somerset County
Each community below has its own page with local detail. City pages keep their original addresses from the current Done Rite site — this county hub adds hierarchy without moving a single existing URL.
Somerset County permits are issued by each municipality, with historic considerations in parts of Somerville and the older boroughs. We confirm the requirement for the address before scheduling.
Warranty, licensing and credentials
Done Rite Roofers is a GAF Certified roofing contractor licensed in New Jersey (HIC #13VH12674100), Pennsylvania (#PA192943) and Connecticut (#HIC.0698708), carrying $2 million in insurance plus bond. Workmanship in Somerset County is backed by our 25-year workmanship warranty, alongside the manufacturer's separate material coverage.
Reviewed by
Technical accuracy of this page is reviewed by Done Rite's lead roofing estimator, based on ten years of roof repair and replacement work across New Jersey.
Answers
Somerset County roofing questions
Coverage
Explore our Central New Jersey coverage
Tap any county to open its roofing page, and tap a city marker where we have a dedicated community page. Boundaries are real county lines, and every county shown has a live page on this site.
Bergen County is home base — the Done Rite office is in Garfield. Local housing stock is dominated by pre-war and post-war homes carrying multiple shingle layers, with rear additions creating pitched-to-flat transitions.
Every county and community listed here has its own page on this site. Duplicate legacy URLs are kept reachable but deliberately left out of this index.
Real projects
Recent New Jersey roof projects
A look at recent New Jersey roofs we have worked on: the town, the roof system, the problem the homeowner called about and how we solved it.
Ventnor City, NJ · Atlantic County
Architectural asphalt full replacement
Problem
Recurring second-floor ceiling stain traced to failed original chimney counter-flashing on an early-1900s barrier-island home, with two existing shingle layers and soft decking at the north valley.
Solution
Full tear-off of both layers, decking replacement at the valley, ice-and-water shield at eaves and valleys, rebuilt chimney step and counter flashing, new open metal valley, balanced soffit intake with ridge exhaust.
Ponding water on a row-home roof with a clogged interior drain and shrunken seams at the parapet termination, leaking into the top-floor rear bedroom.
Solution
Tear-off to deck, tapered insulation to re-establish slope toward the drain, heat-welded TPO membrane, new drain assembly and clamping ring, fully terminated and coped parapet.
Storm-torn shingles across the rear slope of a two-family with active water entering the second-floor hallway during a nor'easter.
Solution
Same-visit tarping and water diversion, photo documentation for the insurance claim, then permanent slope repair with new underlayment, matched shingle courses and replaced pipe boots.
