In Bloomfield, the Perry County seat commonly called New Bloomfield, we repair and replace roofs across a small town that climbs from Little Juniata Creek at its southeast corner to a higher northern edge.
Bloomfield has about 0.6 square miles of land and roughly 1,090 people. It sits about 20 miles northwest of downtown Harrisburg-Carlisle. We cover ZIP code 17068.
No completed roof in Bloomfield is logged in our job records yet.
The Perry County courthouse stands on Center Square in Bloomfield, and one township surrounds the town on every side. Its houses are old. Of the town's 395 homes, 184 date to 1939 or earlier, another 41 went up in the 1940s, and only 9 were built between 2010 and 2019. The pre-1940 houses usually sit on sawn rafters and board decking rather than plywood, and some still wear slate or hide an older layer of shingles under the top one. The town also has 43 single-family homes attached to a neighbor, where one roof meets the next along a shared wall.
The ground is not level. It rises from about 640 feet at the southeast corner by Little Juniata Creek to about 1,000 feet along the northern boundary, so the north side of town sits higher than the creek side. Rain off the upper streets heads downhill, and on the lower lots near the creek, a downspout that empties beside the foundation can send roof water toward a basement. On a visit to one of those houses, we follow the roof water from the gutter to the spot where the downspout lets it go. Summers are humid, and a roof face turned away from the sun stays damp long enough for moss and algae to grow.
Winter here brings snow piling on roofs and nights that freeze what melted during the day. Fuel oil heats 214 of the town's 375 occupied homes, and an oil burner usually vents up a chimney, so those roofs still tend to have one running through them. Each freeze works at the mortar on top and at the flashing where masonry meets shingle, and on an old roof that joint is often where water first gets in.
Houses of this age in Bloomfield were sheathed with solid board decking rather than plywood, and boards move. Plank gaps open up, nails back out, and a shingle fastened into a gap has nothing holding it. We also expect original step and counter-flashing at chimneys and walls — often the real leak while the shingles look fine — and more than one house on a street like this has two or three roofs stacked on it because someone went over rather than tore off. That matters: layers hide the decking, add weight, and void most manufacturer warranties. If there is original slate or tile anywhere on the property, it wants a different conversation than an asphalt tear-off.
Bloomfield has 395 homes in the Census Bureau's count and a median year built of 1943. 184 of them (47%) went up before 1940 — 8th of 37 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 50 (13%) in 2000 or later. More of today's homes date from before 1940 than from any decade since. On the pre-1940 share, Bloomfield sits above Perry County's 21%.
A roof's first layer has a service life of about 20 years, according to HUD's Residential Rehabilitation Inspection Guide. That puts 345 homes in Bloomfield, the 87% built before 2000, past at least one full roof life, and the 273 built before 1970 (69%) are usually on a third covering or later. Homes from the 2000s (41 in Bloomfield) are reaching their first replacement, while the 9 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with. At that age it pays to know whether the last roof was torn off or laid over the one before it, because a second layer hides the deck.
Detached single-family houses make up 75% (295); attached houses and townhouses 11% (43). 55 homes (14%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings. Owners live in 73% of the 375 occupied homes. On a housing mix like this, the work can include full tear-offs on houses past two roof lives, deck and flashing checks on pre-war board sheathing and flat and low-slope sections, which turn up more on attached and multi-unit buildings.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 184 | 47% | |
| 1940s | 41 | 10% | |
| 1950s | 34 | 9% | |
| 1960s | 14 | 4% | |
| 1970s | 30 | 8% | |
| 1980s | 11 | 3% | |
| 1990s | 31 | 8% | |
| 2000s | 41 | 10% | |
| 2010s | 9 | 2% | |
| 2020 or later | 0 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 395 homes, 375 occupied. Survey estimates.
Between 2016 and 2025 there was one report of 1-inch-plus hail within 5 miles of Bloomfield’s center in the records of NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. The stone was 1 inch, on May 16, 2025, about 0.8 miles southeast of the center. A report needs someone to see the hail and send it in, so the count is a floor, not a full tally.
Hail damage rarely shows from the ground; a storm inspection photographs each slope so you know either way.
Nothing Bloomfield publishes says whether a like-for-like re-roof needs a permit. We call the department before the job and pull whatever is required.
Bloomfield does not publish the code edition it currently enforces. We confirm the edition with the building department before we write the scope.
What goes into a new roof, layer by layerThe design wind speed a roof in Bloomfield is built to depends on where the house stands: across the Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pennsylvania metro, we build to the design wind speed set for the address; Township of Upper Allen’s published table gives 90 mph. The building department can confirm the figure, and the code guide explains what it governs.
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloomfield | Not published | Not published | 1943 |
| Duncannon | Not published | Not published | 1939 or earlier |
| Marysville | Not published | Not published | 1955 |
| Newport | Not published | Not published | 1939 or earlier |
| Unincorporated Perry County | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | — |
Every Perry County city we cover, side by side →
Heat escaping from the rooms warms the roof deck, so snow melts up high and refreezes at the colder eave, pushing water back under the shingles. The National Weather Service's 1991-2020 normals for nearby Harrisburg, not Bloomfield itself, show 101.1 days a year with a low at or below 32°F and 18.7 days a year with a high at or below 32°F. Sealing attic air leaks and adding insulation treat the cause.
Once, by the Storm Prediction Center's count. From 2016 through 2025 it shows one report of hail 1.0 inch or larger within five miles of town: 1.0 inch on May 16, 2025, 0.8 miles to the southeast. Perry County logged five reports on five days, the largest 1.25 inches on July 17, 2021. Stones that size can bruise asphalt shingles and crack old slate, so dented gutters or vents after a storm deserve a closer look.
Bloomfield publishes no rule on it. We ask the building department first and pull whatever it requires.
The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates put the median year built at 1943: 47% of Bloomfield's 395 homes predate 1940 and 13% were built in 2000 or later. At the usual 20-year roof life, the 87% built before 2000 are past at least one full roof life.
The only report near Bloomfield of hail 1 inch or bigger since 2016 came on May 16, 2025, in NOAA's records within 5 miles.
Not yet: no completed roof in Bloomfield is in our job records, so this page shows no job count.
Researched 2026-11-09; housing, Census ACS 2020–2024; hail, NOAA SPC. Sources: data.census.gov · data.census.gov · data.census.gov · www2.census.gov · www2.census.gov · data.census.gov · data.census.gov · en.wikipedia.org · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.