Four seasons of pressure on a Westfield roof
Roofs in this part of New Jersey rarely fail from one cause. They get worn down by the calendar. Summer lays heat and ultraviolet on the shingles while pop-up thunderstorms test the flashing with wind and the occasional burst of hail. Fall buries the valleys and gutters in leaf litter from the heavy canopy that gives Westfield its character, and that wet debris holds moisture against the roof exactly where it does the most harm. Then winter arrives with the part of the year that punishes a roof hardest here, the relentless cycle of melt by day and refreeze by night that works at every seam and every fastener until something gives.
When the spring rains come, the roof has to prove itself all at once. Whatever the cold season loosened, a popped nail, a cracked boot, a flashing joint pried open by ice, gets found by the first stretch of steady rain. That is the entire case for getting eyes on a roof before the wet season rather than after, while the weak points can still be sealed in a dry window instead of discovered as a stain spreading across a bedroom ceiling. A Westfield roof checked in early fall heads off most of the trouble that a Westfield roof ignored will hand you in March.