Roofing Contractors in Johnstown, PA
Lester’s Roofing & Carpentry works on roofs throughout Johnstown and the surrounding boroughs and townships of Cambria County. We handle commercial, industrial, agricultural and residential roofing: leak tracing and repair, flat roof work, metal roof repair, restoration coatings and full replacements.
We are based in Rossiter, Indiana County, and we have been roofing in this part of Pennsylvania for over 16 years. We are a certified Conklin Roofing Systems contractor and a registered Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor, HIC #PA042939.
Call 814-952-2469 for a free roof inspection in Johnstown.
Roofing Services in Johnstown
- Roof leak repair. Tracing water back to where it is actually getting in, which on a flat roof can be a long way from the stain in the ceiling.
- Flat and low-slope roofing. EPDM, TPO and modified bitumen, plus the parapet, scupper and drain details that surround them.
- Roof restoration and coatings. Renewing a sound roof in place rather than tearing it off, where the deck and insulation allow it.
- Metal roof repair and coating. Fasteners, seams, ridge and flashing work on industrial and agricultural buildings.
- Roof replacement. For when restoration is not the right answer, and we will tell you when it is not.
- Roof maintenance. Scheduled inspections, drain clearing and minor repairs, with the written records a warranty needs.
- Residential roofing. Repairs, shingle work, valley and flashing work, and metal roof installation on homes.
- Free roof inspections. On any building type.
Why Johnstown Roofs Drain Differently
Most roofing advice assumes water runs off the edge of a roof into a gutter. Across a great deal of Johnstown, that is not what happens, and it is the single most useful thing to understand about roofs in this city.
Downtown Johnstown and the older commercial streets are built the way industrial cities were built in the late 1800s: flat or low-slope roofs, buildings attached to their neighbors, and a parapet wall running up around the edge of the roof. A parapet is a wall. It does not let water off the roof. It holds it on.
So the water has to leave deliberately, through one of two things. An internal drain in the field of the roof, which takes water down through a pipe inside the building. Or a scupper, an opening cut through the parapet that lets water out to a downspout on the outside.
Both are single points of failure, and that is the problem.
On a sloped roof with gutters, a blocked gutter is a nuisance. Water overflows the edge and runs down the wall. On a parapet roof, a blocked drain has nowhere to overflow to. The parapet holds the water in, and the roof becomes a shallow pool.
That matters more than it sounds. Water weighs a little over five pounds per square foot per inch of depth. A roof holding three inches across a large area is carrying a load nobody designed it for. And standing water finds every seam and lap that was built to shed running water rather than hold still water, which is how a roof that was watertight in September starts leaking in November.
Then it freezes. Ice expands, opens the seam a little further, thaws, and does it again.
What this means practically. If you own a flat-roofed building in Johnstown, clearing the drains and scuppers twice a year is the highest-value thing you can do for that roof, and it costs almost nothing. It is also the first thing we check when we are called to a leak, because a surprising proportion of the time that is the whole answer.
When the Roof Crosses a Property Line
The other consequence of a downtown built as a continuous streetscape is that roofs do not always stop where your building does.
On a row of attached buildings, the roof runs across from one to the next, separated by a party wall that may or may not extend up through the roof surface. Where it does, there is flashing where your roof meets that wall, and that flashing is a shared problem. Where it does not, the roof membrane simply continues, and so does any water travelling under it.
This produces a situation we see regularly in Johnstown and almost nowhere rural: water entering through the neighboring building and appearing in yours. The owner with the leak is not always the owner with the failure, and the stain on your ceiling may be the result of a roof you have no right to stand on.
There is no roofing trick that solves this. What helps is knowing it early. If your building shares a wall, an inspection should include the condition of that junction, and it is worth understanding before a leak turns into a conversation with a neighbor about who pays. We will document what we find and give you photographs, which is usually what makes that conversation straightforward rather than a dispute.
The Valley and the Hillsides
Johnstown sits in a bowl where the Stonycreek and the Little Conemaugh meet, with the ground rising steeply on every side. The Inclined Plane exists because the grade up Yoder Hill to Westmont is too steep to drive comfortably. That topography splits the city into two different roofing environments.
On the valley floor, air is still and damp. Cold air and moisture settle into the bowl and sit there, so roof surfaces stay wet longer after rain and frost lingers later into the morning. Persistent damp is what grows algae and moss on shaded slopes, and more time spent crossing the freezing point is what widens small openings.
Up on the hills, in Westmont, Southmont, Moxham, Dale and Geistown, buildings are more exposed. Wind loads are higher, which means edges, ridges and the first courses above the eave take more punishment, and snow tends to drift rather than lie evenly.
It is a small city with two genuinely different sets of conditions in it, and the right answer for a building downtown is often not the right answer for one three hundred feet higher up.
Recent Work in Johnstown
An older home on one of the hillside streets described above, re-roofed in standing seam metal after the original covering reached the end of its life. The same angle before and after shows what actually changes.
Before. The original covering at the end of its service life.
After. Standing seam metal, carried across the lower rear extensions as well.
A Church Roof in Cambria City
Cambria City is the part of Johnstown built by the immigrant congregations who came for the mills, and it left the neighborhood with a density of large churches you will not find in many towns this size. They are among the most demanding buildings in the city to roof, and among the most worth doing properly.
In June 2024 we installed a new metal roof at Resurrection Roman Catholic Parish in Cambria City. The Tribune-Democrat sent a photographer while the crew was on the roof and ran the picture on its front page.
New metal roofing going on at Resurrection Roman Catholic Parish, June 2024. The Tribune-Democrat photographed the installation.
Why metal suits a building like this
A church roof is tall, steep, large and complicated all at once, and that combination changes the job.
The details outnumber the field. Valleys, changes of pitch, dormers, transepts and the junctions around a tower are where the work and the risk actually sit. On a building like this, getting the flat areas right is the straightforward part.
Access is a real part of the cost. Height and pitch mean staging, fall protection and a slower pace, and any estimate that does not account for that has not been thought through.
Snow has somewhere to go. A steep metal roof sheds rather than holding load, which matters over entrances, walkways and the doors a congregation uses twice a week in winter.
The timescale fits the owner. A parish plans in decades. When the relevant number is cost per year of service rather than cost today, metal usually wins the argument on its own.
Working with a parish or congregation
Church roofs are decided differently from commercial ones. The money is raised rather than budgeted, the decision goes through a committee or a diocese, and the building usually has to stay in use while the work happens.
What that means in practice is that the documentation matters. An inspection report with photographs can be handed round a committee and read by people who will never climb a ladder, and work gets scheduled around services rather than the other way round. We are used to working that way, on churches, halls and other buildings that belong to a congregation rather than a company.
Commercial and Industrial Roofing in Johnstown
Johnstown was built around heavy industry, and the building stock still reflects it. Large low-slope roofs on former mill and works buildings, warehouses and distribution space, workshops and light industrial units, much of it repurposed and a good deal of it carrying roofs that are well past their original design life.
Two things come up constantly on buildings like these.
Scale changes the economics. On a roof measured in tens of thousands of square feet, a tear-off is an enormous number, and it means the building is open to the weather in sections while the work is done. Where the deck and structure are sound and the insulation is dry, a restoration is done on top of an intact roof, so the building stays covered and keeps operating. That is often the difference between a roof that gets fixed and a roof that gets patched for another five years.
Metal fails at the fasteners. Exposed-fastener metal roofs almost never fail in the panels. The rubber washers on the screws harden and shrink through years of heat and cold until they stop sealing, while the panels expand and contract and work the screws loose. Several leaks appearing across one or two seasons is the signature of worn-out fasteners rather than a worn-out roof, and that is repairable.
More on our industrial roofing, warehouse roofing, metal roof repair and metal roof coatings pages.
Areas We Serve Around Johnstown
We cover the city and the surrounding communities, including Westmont, Southmont, Moxham, Dale, Geistown, Richland, Ferndale, Brownstown, East Conemaugh, Conemaugh, Franklin, Daisytown, Tire Hill, Davidsville and Hollsopple. Johnstown is central to our Cambria County work, and we are regularly in Windber, Nanty Glo and Portage, and across the rest of Cambria County.
Free Roof Inspections in Johnstown
We provide free roof inspections on commercial buildings, industrial units, farm buildings and homes throughout Johnstown and Cambria County.
On a flat roof the inspection covers the membrane, every penetration and curb, the parapet and its flashing, the scuppers and internal drains, and the condition of the insulation underneath. On a sloped roof it covers the valleys, flashings, fasteners and the state of the covering.
You get a written report with photographs and a price based on what we found, including a straight answer on whether the roof needs replacing or can be restored.
Call 814-952-2469 or get in touch.
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Johnstown Roofing FAQs
Water is pooling on my flat roof. How serious is that?
Water still sitting there two days after the rain stopped is worth acting on. A little residual water in a low spot is normal. Persistent ponding is not, because it loads seams that were built to shed water rather than hold it, it collects dirt and growth, and in winter it freezes and expands. On a parapet roof the first thing to check is whether the drains and scuppers are actually clear, which is often the entire problem and costs nothing to fix.
Can a commercial roof be coated instead of replaced?
Where the deck and structure are sound and the insulation is dry, usually yes, and on a large building the savings are substantial because there is no tear-off, no disposal and no day when the building is open to the weather. The failed details get properly repaired first rather than coated over. Where a Conklin restoration system is suitable, it carries a 20-year non-prorated manufacturer warranty, with the option to renew for a further 20 years, subject to the system installed and its renewal requirements. Lester’s Roofing & Carpentry also provides its own 3-year contractor workmanship warranty.
Do you install metal roofing in Johnstown?
Yes, on homes, farm buildings and commercial properties, and we repair and coat existing metal roofs as well. On an older metal roof it is worth having someone look before assuming it needs replacing, because the common failure is the fastener line rather than the panels, and a roof with sound metal can usually be repaired and coated for a fraction of the cost of a new one.
How do I know whether to repair or replace my roof?
The honest answer is that it depends on the deck, the insulation and how much of the roof has actually failed, none of which you can judge from the ground. As a rough guide: several leaks appearing across one or two seasons usually points at a system reaching the end of its life or a fastener problem, while one leak in one place is usually a specific detail that has failed. Wet insulation is the thing that most often pushes a roof from repairable to replacement, because covering it traps the moisture. We will tell you which one you have and why.
My building shares a wall with the one next door. Whose roof is the leak?
Not always yours. On attached buildings the roof continues across the party wall, and water entering through your neighbor’s roof can travel under the membrane and appear inside your building. This is common in downtown Johnstown. An inspection should cover that junction, and if the source turns out to be on the other side of the wall, you get photographs and a written report showing exactly that.
When is the best time to have a roof looked at?
Fall, before the weather turns, and spring after it. A small repair done in October is a very different job from the same repair after a winter of freeze and thaw has worked on it. Snow and ice expose weak seams, flashing and drainage, and those usually show up as leaks during a thaw rather than during the snowfall itself, by which point the water has already been inside for a while.