Paragon Exteriors is a licensed, insured roofing and exteriors contractor (NJ HIC #13VH13814500) serving Rumson, NJ — roof replacement, roof repair, cedar and designer shingle work, siding, windows, and gutters. Most Rumson architectural-shingle replacements run $12,000–$30,000, and most asphalt roofs are torn off and finished in a single day. Estimates are free and itemized: 848-633-6440.
A peninsula with salt air on three sides
Rumson sits between two rivers with the Atlantic a few hundred yards past the Sea Bright bridge. The Navesink works on north-facing roofs, the Shrewsbury on the Black Point side, and nor’easters push wind-driven rain horizontally across both. On most houses the shingles aren’t what fails first — it’s the metal. Step flashing, valley metal, and fasteners corrode quietly in salt air, and Rumson’s estate roofs have more of all three: valleys, dormers, turrets, and chimney after chimney. When we inspect here, we spend as much time on the flashing as on the shingle field, because that’s where the water actually gets in.
Riverfront homes along the Navesink and in Black Point also remember Sandy. If yours was repaired or raised afterward, the roof deserves a fresh look — elevated houses catch measurably more wind than they did at their old height.
What’s on the roofs here
Three distinct generations of housing share this borough, and they fail differently:
- Rumson Road and Bellevue Avenue estates — turn-of-the-century summer houses with cedar shake, slate, and complicated geometry. The roof systems are beautiful and unforgiving; a botched repair on one of these is visible from the street.
- Oceanic — the borough’s original village near the Oceanic Bridge and Victory Park: older colonials, capes, and Victorians on tighter lots, many on their third or fourth roof cycle.
- Teardown new construction — Rumson rebuilds constantly. Some of it was built fast, and we’re regularly the second roofer on a fifteen-year-old “new” house whose builder-grade flashing has already given up.
Cedar shake and the estate roof question
Rumson is one of the few Shore towns where cedar is still a living tradition, and the honest conversation goes three ways. Keep cedar and accept the maintenance rhythm it demands. Move to a designer asphalt shingle that carries the shake or slate profile at a fraction of the upkeep. Or go synthetic shake or slate — the closest look with the longest life, at a premium price.
| Roof system | Typical Rumson range | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Architectural asphalt, 130 mph rated | $12,000 – $30,000 | Best value; excellent in coastal wind |
| Designer/luxury asphalt (shake or slate profile) | $18,000 – $45,000 | Estate look, asphalt maintenance |
| Cedar shake | Roughly 2.5–3× asphalt | Authentic; needs periodic care |
| Synthetic shake/slate | Roughly 2–3× asphalt | Longest life, closest match to the originals |
We’ll price whichever direction fits the house, and our guide to Jersey Shore shingles covers the wind-rating details that matter within sight of salt water.
What Rumson calls us for
Roof replacement in Rumson is the core of it — full tear-off, deck inspection, coastal fastening spec. Beyond that: roof repairs after river-driven wind events, gutters sized for big roof planes, siding that holds color in salt air, and windows for drafty pre-war openings. On estate-scale projects we fly drone documentation before and after, so you can inspect every ridge and valley of the finished work without leaving the ground. Franchi, one of our two partners, spent four decades running major construction — including foreman work on the Borgata in Atlantic City — so large, complex roofs don’t rattle us.
Nor’easter season is its own subject here; our coastal storm-protection guide explains what a Rumson roof should have before October.
Nearby, across both bridges
We work the whole Two River area: Fair Haven and Little Silver next door, Red Bank up the Navesink, and Middletown across the Oceanic Bridge — often the same week we’re on a Rumson roof.
