Pittsburgh Exterior & Home Improvement Contractor

Ireland Contracting is a Pittsburgh exterior contractor headquartered just north of the city in Glenshaw. Since 1994 we have protected city and suburban homes across the North Hills, South Hills, and East End from heavy snow, wind, and freeze-thaw weather.

City housing is old housing

The median home inside the city limits was built in 1942, and close to half of Pittsburgh's houses went up before 1940. No other market we work in is anywhere near that old. What that means on a roof is steep pitches, dormers, multiple valleys, and chimneys, on brick and frame rowhouses, four-squares, Queen Annes, and the Tudor and Colonial Revival housing of the East End. Slate is still common on many pre-war homes, often with a layer of asphalt laid over it by a previous owner.

Houses like that reward someone looking underneath before quoting. Decking, flashing, and how many layers are already up there change the job more than the shingle you choose does, and none of it is visible from the driveway. Our inspection and estimate are free, and we would rather find the surprise before the tear-off than during it.

Hillsides, alleys, and access

Pittsburgh is built on ravines and hollows, and its neighborhoods come with retaining walls, stepped street access, rear alleys, and street parking instead of driveways. Getting material up to a Lawrenceville or South Side roof is a different problem from getting it onto a suburban one, and it is worth settling before install day rather than improvising.

Tree canopy covers roughly 42 percent of the city's land area, among the highest of any major American city, which is wonderful to live under and hard on gutters. Between that and the clay-rich Pittsburgh red beds that drive so much of the local slope instability, where roof water actually discharges is a real question here, not a detail to sort out later.

What our weather does to a roof

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals put Pittsburgh at 44 inches of snow and just under 40 inches of precipitation a year, but the number that matters most is the roughly 80 days a year when the temperature climbs above freezing and drops back below it. Every one of those cycles works at flashing, at sealant, and at any water already sitting in a seam. Summer brings straight-line thunderstorm wind, which lifts and creases shingles without ever removing them, so damage after a storm often looks like nothing at all from the ground.

Our services in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh neighborhoods we serve

From the North Hills and South Hills to the East End and the river towns, Ireland Contracting serves the full Pittsburgh metro. Looking for your specific suburb? See all the areas we serve.