Boiling Springs takes its name from 30 artesian springs that feed Children's Lake, and we roof the houses around them, from older houses in the historic district to homes built in the 2000s.
Boiling Springs has about 2.5 square miles of land and roughly 3,334 people. It sits about 15 miles southwest of downtown Harrisburg-Carlisle. We cover ZIP code 17007.
No completed roof in Boiling Springs is logged in our job records yet.
Boiling Springs sits on limestone bedrock on the north side of Yellow Breeches Creek. The town has the Boiling Springs Historic District, and its older buildings include a 1795 Georgian ironmaster's mansion and an 18th-century grist mill beside Children's Lake. The Census dates 187 of the town's 1258 homes to 1939 or earlier, none to the 1940s and 28 to the 1950s. Roofs on those early houses often sit on board sheathing rather than plywood, and a tear-off there can turn up old layers, split boards or gaps that need new wood before shingles go down.
Building picked up after that, with 193 homes from the 1970s, 217 from the 1980s and 176 from the 1990s. Fuel oil heats 239 homes here and wood heats 16, and a furnace or stove of that kind usually vents through a chimney. Where a chimney rises through the roof, the step and counter flashing around it should come up and go back down with the new shingles, since old flashing sealed over with tar tends to leak again.
Winter snow piles on Boiling Springs roofs, and ice dams form where attic heat melts it and the water refreezes at the cold eaves. That can happen on one of the town's pre-1940 houses where the attic insulation is thin, and on a 1990s or 2000s house with gaps around attic hatches, ceiling lights or bath fans.
Housing from these decades usually sits on plywood or OSB decking and was largely first roofed with three-tab shingles, but we look at each house in Boiling Springs before saying which. The things worth checking are the penetrations rather than the field: pipe boots from this era are worth a close look, because the rubber collar splits long before the shingles wear out. Ridge venting was inconsistent through these years, and OSB that has been damp for a season goes soft in a way plywood does not — you find it with your feet, not from the ground.
By the Census Bureau's estimate there are 1,258 homes in Boiling Springs, with a median year built of 1986. 187 of them (15%) went up before 1940 — 26th of 37 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 375 (30%) in 2000 or later. The 2000s were the busiest decade, adding 286 of today's homes (23%). Across Cumberland County the pre-1940 share is 15%, so Boiling Springs sits level with it.
A roof's first layer has a service life of about 20 years, according to HUD's Residential Rehabilitation Inspection Guide. By that measure, 70% of Boiling Springs' homes — the 883 built before 2000 — are past their first roof; 297 homes, 24% of the total, predate 1970, old enough for two replacements already. Homes from the 2000s (286 in Boiling Springs) are reaching their first replacement, while the 89 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with.
By building type: 1,129 detached houses (90%), 56 attached (4%). 73 homes (6%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings. 87% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 13% rented. When we look at houses like these, our work can include deck and flashing checks on pre-war board sheathing and storm checks on newer roofs that look fine from the driveway.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 187 | 15% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 28 | 2% | |
| 1960s | 82 | 7% | |
| 1970s | 193 | 15% | |
| 1980s | 217 | 17% | |
| 1990s | 176 | 14% | |
| 2000s | 286 | 23% | |
| 2010s | 89 | 7% | |
| 2020 or later | 0 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 1,258 homes, 1,258 occupied. Survey estimates.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center logged no reports of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Boiling Springs’ center from 2016 through 2025. That is a gap in the reports rather than proof that no hail fell: reports come from spotters and the public.
Permits and inspections for Boiling Springs run through the municipality that enforces Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code there, or through a third-party agency or the Department of Labor and Industry where it does not. Before a re-roof we ask the office that covers the address whether a permit is needed, and where one is, we pull it.
The code that applies in Boiling Springs is Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code, which adopts the 2021 International Residential Code for the whole state (34 Pa. Code 403.21). We build to it and to the manufacturer's instructions.
What goes into a new roof, layer by layerThe design wind speed a roof in Boiling Springs 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boiling Springs | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1986 |
| Camp Hill | Not published | Not published | 1953 |
| Carlisle | Not published | Not published | 1953 |
| Unincorporated Cumberland County | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | — |
| Enola | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1969 |
| Lemoyne | Not published | Not published | 1949 |
| Lower Allen | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1968 |
Every Cumberland County city we cover, side by side →
Boiling Springs added 286 homes from 2000 to 2009, more than in any other decade the Census counts here. A HUD rehab inspection guide gives a roof a working life of 20 years, so a house from that decade still on its first shingles is close to or past that age. Age alone does not settle it; curled or cracked shingles, bare patches, granules in the gutters and stains on the attic boards say more.
Humid summers give algae and moss what they need on slopes that stay shaded and slow to dry. The dark streaks are algae and mostly cosmetic. Moss is the bigger problem, because it holds water against the shingles and can lift their edges. Scraping and pressure washing strip granules, so a cleaner made for roofs and more sun on the slope work better, and shingles with algae-resistant granules slow the return.
Permits and inspections for Boiling Springs run through the municipality that enforces Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code there, or through a third-party agency or the Department of Labor and Industry where it does not. Before a re-roof we ask the office that covers the address whether a permit is needed, and where one is, we pull it.
The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates put the median year built at 1986: 15% of Boiling Springs' 1,258 homes predate 1940 and 30% were built in 2000 or later. At the usual 20-year roof life, the 70% built before 2000 are past at least one full roof life.
Not yet: no completed roof in Boiling Springs 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.