Cherry Hill Roofing provides roofing in Plymouth Township with more than 20 years in the trade behind every estimate. We start each visit by working out whether the roof in front of us can be repaired, and we say so plainly before a replacement price is ever on the table. That order matters whether the roof covers a split-level house or a large apartment building.
Many calls start with a leak, and we treat every one as a question of where the water actually enters. We look in the attic as well as on the roof, following stains and wet sheathing back to the source before anything is priced. A patch placed where the drip shows up, rather than where the water gets in, rarely holds for long.
Every estimate we write breaks the job into separate lines for tear-off, decking, underlayment, flashing, ventilation and gutters. That lets an owner set our number beside another contractor’s and compare them item by item instead of trusting two lump sums. The sections below cover what is particular about roof work in this township, from its large commercial roofs to its houses.
Plymouth Township’s Commercial and Low-Slope Roofs
Plymouth Township is a commercial township as much as a residential one. The Plymouth Meeting Mall has stood at 500 West Germantown Pike since it opened on October 10, 1966, with 948,000 square feet under roof across two floors. IKEA’s U.S. headquarters is here too, along with several large office parks and shopping centers clustered around the Mid-County Interchange, where the Turnpike meets I-476.
Low-Slope Roofs on Stores and Office Buildings
Buildings of that size and type are generally covered with low-slope roofs rather than steep shingled ones. We have not inspected the roofs of any particular building in Plymouth Meeting and won’t guess at them, but the systems commonly found on retail and office roofs are EPDM rubber membrane, TPO and PVC single-ply membranes, and torch-down SBS or APP modified bitumen.
A low-slope roof fails differently from a pitched one. Water moves slowly toward drains and scuppers instead of shedding off an edge, so a seam that has opened, a clogged drain or a punctured membrane around rooftop equipment can let water sit and find its way down. On a large roof, we walk the surface and check the deck and ceiling below before recommending anything.
Repairing a Membrane Before Replacing It
Owners and property managers of commercial buildings tend to hear the word replacement early. We hold it back until we know whether the existing membrane can be repaired, whether that means rewelding a TPO seam, patching an EPDM field or reflashing a curb around a rooftop unit. If repair is the honest answer, that is what we quote.
When a membrane has reached the end of its life, the written scope still separates each part of the job. Tear-off, insulation or decking, the new membrane, flashing at walls and curbs, and edge metal and gutters appear as their own lines. A building owner comparing bids can then see exactly where two numbers differ.
The Mall’s Planned Redevelopment
Plymouth Meeting Mall was the third fully enclosed mall in the Philadelphia area, designed by Victor Gruen & Associates for the Rouse Company. According to Wikipedia, Lubert-Adler plans to demolish and redevelop it as Plymouth Meeting Town Center, with construction listed for 2027 and 2028. The same article notes a 12-story office tower slated for conversion into at least 275 apartments.
That is a plan, not work under way, and we have no part in it. We mention it because it is a reminder that roof work here is not only about houses, and because the same questions apply to any large commercial building: what membrane is up there, how water reaches the drains, and whether repair still makes sense.
Looking for roofing closer to Upper Providence Township? See Roofing Services in Upper Providence Township.
Apartment and Condominium Buildings
Housing in the township includes a large share of multifamily buildings. Of 8,021 housing units counted in the Census Bureau’s 2024 five-year American Community Survey, 2,229 are in buildings of five or more units, and 1,151 of those are in buildings of 50 or more. About a third of occupied homes are rented.
Roofs Over Larger Apartment Buildings
Buildings with dozens of units often carry low-slope roofs covered with the same membranes found on offices and stores. That is an inference from the building type, not something we have checked on any particular complex, so the first step on any apartment roof is going up and confirming what is actually there.
Leaks on these roofs often show up in a top-floor unit or a stairwell, some distance from where the water got in. We trace them from the inside as well as from the roof surface, checking top-floor ceilings and the space under the deck where we can reach it, so the repair goes where the membrane actually failed.
Smaller Multifamily and Attached Homes
Not every multifamily building is a large complex. The same survey counts 361 units in buildings of five to nine units, 368 in buildings of 10 to 19, and 1,145 single-family attached homes. Smaller buildings and attached rows can carry pitched shingle roofs, sometimes joined to a low-slope section over a porch, an addition or a connecting roof.
Where two roofs meet, or where a pitched roof runs into a wall, the flashing does most of the work. When we redo a roof, flashing at chimneys, walls, skylights and those transitions is replaced with new metal, not caulked over. On attached homes, we also look at how the roof ties into the neighbor’s, since water does not respect a property line.
Working Around Residents and Tenants
Roof work on an apartment building happens over people’s homes. We plan the schedule with the owner or manager so residents know which days crews will be overhead, and if solar panels are mounted on the roof, their removal and reinstallation is written into that schedule from the start rather than discovered on the day.
At the end of every work day, we clean the grounds, parking areas and gutters, and we run a magnet sweep for roofing nails. That matters more where many residents share one parking lot, since a stray nail there can end up in a tenant’s tire long after the crew has gone home.
Plymouth’s 1950s and 1960s Houses
Alongside the commercial buildings, Plymouth Township has a large stock of single-family houses with pitched roofs. The survey counts 4,189 detached single-family homes, about half of all housing units, along with 3,645 units of every type built between 1950 and 1969. Owners occupy 5,241 of the 7,839 occupied homes.
Choosing Shingle Color on Site
For a pitched roof on a house of this era, the usual replacement is architectural (laminated) shingles, from lines such as GAF Timberline HDZ, Owens Corning Duration or CertainTeed Landmark. We pick color against the brick, stone or siding on the actual house, holding samples up on site rather than choosing from a small printed swatch indoors.
The wind and fire ratings printed on the bundle matter more than the name. We will show you where a shingle carries an ASTM D3161 Class F or ASTM D7158 Class H wind rating and a Class A fire rating under ASTM E108, and whether an impact-rated UL 2218 Class 4 product is worth the added cost on your roof.
Decking, Ventilation and Gutters
On a full replacement, we do not know the condition of the decking until the old roof is off. If boards or sheets are damaged, we photograph them and show you before replacing anything, and the price per sheet is already set in the contract, so the final bill holds no surprise line.
We also check attic ventilation, pairing a ridge vent with soffit intake sized for net free area, and we replace drip edge at the eaves and rakes and pipe boots around plumbing vents. Seamless aluminum gutters and leaders are quoted as their own line, so you can keep sound gutters and only pay for the ones that need it.
Storm Damage and Your Claim
After a hard storm, we photograph what we find on the roof and in the attic and write it up so you can file your own insurance claim. If you ask, a member of our crew will meet the adjuster on site and walk the roof with them, pointing out the damage we documented.
Plymouth Township sits in the National Weather Service’s Eastern Montgomery forecast zone, covered by the Mount Holly office. Watching that zone’s warnings is a practical way to know when it is worth having a roof looked at, and a quick check after a wind event usually costs far less than a ceiling repaired months later.
When Plymouth Township Asks for a Roofing Permit
Plymouth Township has governed itself under a home rule charter since 1976, so it is no longer subject to the Pennsylvania Township Code, and its own Code Enforcement office handles residential permits. That office sits in the Township Building at 700 Belvoir Road in Plymouth Meeting and can be reached at 610-277-4100.
The 25 Percent Rule for Roof Repairs
The township’s Residential Code Package, revised in April 2022, lists replacement of existing roof material that does not exceed 25% of the total roof area within any 12-month period as an ordinary repair that does not need a permit. We measure the affected area before quoting a repair, so you know which side of that line the job falls on.
A full re-roof is a different matter. The same package states that any work not on its list requires the appropriate permit from Plymouth Township, so a whole-roof replacement on a house needs a permit here. The permit application asks for the cost of construction with a copy of the contract.
What the Township Reviews
The codes the township lists as enforced include the 2018 International Residential Code and the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code. Residential plan review is listed at 15 working days from a complete submission, so we build that window into the start date we give you instead of promising a crew next week.
The Residential Code Package is written for residential work. For a store, office or large apartment building, we confirm the permit requirements with Code Enforcement, at 610-277-4103 for code and zoning questions, before the job is scheduled. We would rather settle that with a phone call than have a crew stopped halfway through a job.
Starting With an Inspection
Whether the call is about a house off Germantown Pike or a low-slope roof over a commercial building, the first visit follows the same order. We look at the roof and the space beneath it, tell you whether a repair will hold, and only then talk about replacement if it is truly needed.
Anything we propose comes back to you as a written scope with each part of the job on its own line and the permit question already answered. That gives you something concrete to compare and to keep, whichever contractor you decide to hire. If the answer is a small repair, the scope will say that too.
- 20+ Years on Local Roofs
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- Itemized Written Scopes
