Our crew roofs houses in Elizabethville, the Dauphin County crossroads borough at the foot of Berry Mountain, where 256 of 585 homes date to 1939 or earlier.
Elizabethville has about 0.5 square miles of land and roughly 1,350 people. It sits about 20 miles north of downtown Harrisburg-Carlisle. We cover ZIP code 17023.
No completed roof in Elizabethville is logged in our job records yet.
Elizabethville covers half a square mile along the northern base of Berry Mountain, about 600 feet up and 20 miles north of Harrisburg. The town was founded in April 1817, and US Route 209 and Pennsylvania Route 225 still meet in its center. The median house here was built in 1951, but that number hides a split: 256 of the 585 homes went up in 1939 or earlier, and 83 more came in the 1950s. On the oldest of them, the framing and decking under the shingles have carried several roofs, and what is up there decides the job more than the shingle does.
The 1970s are the other big stretch. Elizabethville added 134 homes in that decade, more than in any other single decade, and HUD's inspection guide gives a roof in Pennsylvania a 20-year life, so those houses have most likely been re-roofed at least once. About 70% of the town's housing is single-family detached, and 69% of its occupied homes are owner-occupied. The rest is attached: 82 one-unit attached homes and 57 units in three- and four-unit buildings, where the roof meets a shared wall and that edge needs its own flashing.
Winter shapes the work. Ice dams and snow piling on the roof are what local roofers talk about, along with freeze-thaw at the eaves, and humid summers bring mildew, moss and roof algae. Heat source matters too. Of 530 occupied homes, 253 heat with fuel oil, 169 with electricity, 28 with wood and 20 with coal, so flues and chimneys come up through many roofs in town. Chimney flashing gets a close look from us on those houses.
Postwar houses in Elizabethville are plain to roof, which is exactly why so many get roofed carelessly. Expect 1x6 board decking or early plywood: usually sound, but it should be walked, not assumed. The weak spots are the shallow pitches — a porch roof, the join to a carport, the flat section over an addition — where shingles went on below their rated slope and have leaked slowly for years. Attics from this era rarely have the ventilation today's shingle warranties ask for, and a hot, under-vented attic ages a roof from below, so intake and exhaust get measured before the quote.
By the Census Bureau's estimate there are 585 homes in Elizabethville, with a median year built of 1951. 256 of them (44%) went up before 1940 — 10th of 37 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 9 (2%) in 2000 or later. More of today's homes date from before 1940 than from any decade since. Across Dauphin County the pre-1940 share is 19%, so Elizabethville sits above it.
A roof's first layer has a service life of about 20 years, according to HUD's Residential Rehabilitation Inspection Guide. On that yardstick the 576 homes in Elizabethville built before 2000 (98%) have outlived at least one roof; 415 homes, 71% of the total, predate 1970, old enough for two replacements already. First replacements are arriving on the 9 homes built in the 2000s. 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.
70% of homes in Elizabethville are single-family detached houses (410) and 14% attached ones such as townhouses (82). 64 homes (11%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 22 (4%) in buildings of ten units or more, where the roof is usually a landlord's or an association's decision. Owners live in 69% of the 530 occupied homes. When we look at houses like these, our 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 | 256 | 44% | |
| 1940s | 25 | 4% | |
| 1950s | 83 | 14% | |
| 1960s | 51 | 9% | |
| 1970s | 134 | 23% | |
| 1980s | 13 | 2% | |
| 1990s | 14 | 2% | |
| 2000s | 9 | 2% | |
| 2010s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2020 or later | 0 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 585 homes, 530 occupied. Survey estimates.
From 2016 through 2025, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center recorded one report of hail of 1 inch or more within 5 miles of Elizabethville’s center. The stone was 1 inch, on June 3, 2020, about 3.7 miles north of the center. Counts follow people as much as storms, since every report is a spotter’s or a resident’s.
Hail damage rarely shows from the ground; a storm inspection photographs each slope so you know either way.
Elizabethville has not published an answer on re-roof permits. The building department gets the question from us before work starts, and any permit it wants is part of our job.
Elizabethville 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 layerDesign wind here is set by location, not one figure for the whole area: 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 for Elizabethville can tell you which figure applies. What it does to a roof is in the roofing code guide.
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabethville | Not published | Not published | 1951 |
| Colonial Park | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1969 |
| Unincorporated Dauphin County | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | — |
| Enhaut | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1950 |
| Harrisburg | Yes | Not published | 1947 |
| Hershey | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1970 |
| Highspire | Not published | Not published | 1964 |
Every Dauphin County city we cover, side by side →
Snow piles on the roof, heat leaking from the living space melts the bottom of it, and the water refreezes at the cold eave. In a borough where 256 of 585 homes date to 1939 or earlier, thin attic insulation is a common starting point.
Look for sagging between rafters, stained or soft decking, and damp attic insulation. Roofs on houses built in 1939 or earlier have often carried several layers. HUD's inspection guide gives a Pennsylvania roof a 20-year life, so age alone is a reason to look underneath.
Elizabethville publishes no rule on it. We ask the building department first and pull whatever it requires.
Median year built 1951, by the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates. Of 585 homes, 576 were built before 2000 and 256 before 1940, so most roofs in Elizabethville are not the first one the house has had.
The only report near Elizabethville of hail 1 inch or bigger since 2016 came on June 3, 2020, in NOAA's records within 5 miles.
Not yet: no completed roof in Elizabethville 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 · www.elizabethville.org · en.wikipedia.org · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.