What the coastal climate does to a Perth Amboy roof
Perth Amboy sits right on the water, and that location shapes how its roofs age in ways an inland town never sees. The salt air that drifts in off the Arthur Kill and the Raritan Bay is hard on metal, quietly corroding flashing, fasteners, and gutters at exactly the points a roof most needs to stay sealed. The humidity that comes with a waterfront summer keeps the shaded slopes damp and slow to dry, which is where moss and algae take hold and where the early decay of an asphalt roof tends to start.
Then winter flips the conditions entirely. New Jersey's freeze-and-thaw cycle is brutal on a roof: water works its way into a hairline crack or under a lifted shingle, freezes overnight, expands, and pries the gap a little wider, then thaws and seeps deeper before the next freeze repeats the process. Ice dams form at the eaves when attic heat melts snow that refreezes at the cold roof edge, backing water up under the shingles. A roof that looked fine in October can reveal a winter's worth of hidden damage by March, which is why we are so insistent on inspecting before the cold sets in, while there is still time to seal the brittle flashing or replace the failed boot before water ever finds it.