In Enola, the rail-yard community on the Susquehanna's west shore across from Harrisburg, our crew repairs leaks and replaces worn roofs on everything from homes built in 1939 or earlier to ones built in 2020 or later.
Enola has about 1.6 square miles of land and roughly 6,534 people. It sits about 4 miles northwest of downtown Harrisburg-Carlisle. We cover ZIP codes 17025 and 17093.
No completed roof in Enola is logged in our job records yet.
Enola was established in 1905 and grew up around the Enola rail yard; from 1909, more than 220 homes were built and rented or sold to families arriving for railroad work. Census counts 429 homes here built in 1939 or earlier, 15% of the total, and the largest year-built group, 461 homes, dates to the 1960s. Each era left different wood under the roof: board sheathing is common on the oldest houses, sometimes still carrying an earlier shingle layer, while 1960s houses more often sit on plywood.
Only 40% of Enola's homes are single detached houses. Another 650 are attached to a neighbor, 551 are in buildings of five to nine units, and 65 are mobile homes. Owners live in 54% of occupied homes, and on the rest a landlord makes the call on the roof.
Enola takes in North Enola, South Enola and West Enola, borders West Fairview, and sits at about 450 feet on the Susquehanna's west shore. NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals for the Harrisburg International Airport station in Middletown average 18.7 days a year with a high at or below 32°F, and snow that falls in that kind of cold tends to sit on the roof. Summers turn humid, and moss and algae take hold on shaded slopes. On houses with basements, downspouts should carry roof water clear of the foundation.
Hail came close on June 3, 2023, when stones of 1.75 inches were reported 3.6 miles southeast of Enola. Hail that size can knock granules loose and dent soft metal without causing a leak you would notice. If your roof was already on the house that June, we will check its vents, gutters and flashing for dents at no cost to you.
Postwar houses in Enola 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.
Enola has 2,818 homes in the Census Bureau's count and a median year built of 1969. 429 of them (15%) went up before 1940 — 27th of 37 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 443 (16%) in 2000 or later. The 1960s were the busiest decade, adding 461 of today's homes (16%). On the pre-1940 share, Enola sits level with Cumberland County's 15%.
About 20 years is the service life that HUD's Residential Rehabilitation Inspection Guide gives for a roof's first layer. On that yardstick the 2,375 homes in Enola built before 2000 (84%) have outlived at least one roof; 1,434 homes, 51% of the total, predate 1970, old enough for two replacements already. Homes from the 2000s (208 in Enola) are reaching their first replacement, while the 235 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with. On houses that old, the question worth asking is how many layers are up there: a roof laid over an old one hides the deck.
40% of homes in Enola are single-family detached houses (1,138) and 23% attached ones such as townhouses (650). 808 homes (29%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 157 (6%) in buildings of ten units or more, whose roofs are normally an owner's or a board's call rather than a resident's. The count also takes in 65 mobile homes, which are a different kind of roof job. 54% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 46% rented. 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 | 429 | 15% | |
| 1940s | 149 | 5% | |
| 1950s | 395 | 14% | |
| 1960s | 461 | 16% | |
| 1970s | 412 | 15% | |
| 1980s | 353 | 13% | |
| 1990s | 176 | 6% | |
| 2000s | 208 | 7% | |
| 2010s | 157 | 6% | |
| 2020 or later | 78 | 3% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 2,818 homes, 2,731 occupied. Survey estimates.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center logged 3 reports of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Enola’s center from 2016 through 2025, all on one day. 1 of them was 1.75 inches or larger. The largest, 1.75 inches, came on June 3, 2023, about 3.6 miles southeast of the center. These are reports, not a full record: they come from spotters and the public, so busier areas log more.
| Latest reports | Size | From center |
|---|---|---|
| June 3, 2023 | 1 inch | 4.2 mi E |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.75 inches | 3.6 mi SE |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.25 inches | 3.5 mi E |
If one of those storms crossed your street and nobody has been on the roof since, a storm inspection photographs what it did.
Permits and inspections for Enola 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 Enola 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 layerWind design is looked up by address 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, and the building department can say which figure applies to a given address. See the roofing code guide for what it governs.
Enola borders West Fairview. Our pages for them:
Also in Cumberland County:
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enola | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1969 |
| West Fairview | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1939 or earlier |
| 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) | — |
| Lemoyne | Not published | Not published | 1949 |
Every Cumberland County city we cover, side by side →
Snow on a roof melts from underneath when heat leaks from the house into the attic. The water runs down and refreezes at the eave, which hangs over cold air, and that ice can back meltwater up under the shingles. On Enola's older houses, thin or settled attic insulation is a common source of that heat. The fix starts in the attic, with insulation, air sealing and venting, backed by a membrane at the eave.
It can be. Enola has 650 homes attached to a neighbor, and one side of a shared roof can be replaced on its own. The new roof has to tie into the old one at the party wall, with flashing that keeps water out of the seam between them. Shingle color and roof height can differ from the side next door, so it helps to talk with your neighbor before work starts.
Permits and inspections for Enola 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.
Median year built 1969, by the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates. Of 2,818 homes, 2,375 were built before 2000 and 429 before 1940, so most roofs in Enola are not the first one the house has had.
3 reports of 1-inch-plus hail fell within 5 miles of Enola between 2016 and 2025, the biggest 1.75 inches on June 3, 2023 (NOAA Storm Prediction Center).
Not yet: no completed roof in Enola 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 · www2.census.gov · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.