Lower Allen's neighborhoods sit between Camp Hill, Lemoyne, New Cumberland and Yellow Breeches Creek, and more of their homes date to the 1950s than to any other decade. We fix leaks and replace roofs on those homes and on everything built since.
Lower Allen has about 2.2 square miles of land and roughly 7,646 people. It sits about 3 miles southwest of downtown Harrisburg-Carlisle. We cover ZIP codes 17011 and 17070.
No completed roof in Lower Allen is logged in our job records yet.
Lower Allen's 3048 homes have no single age, but two decades stand out: the 1950s left 692 of them and the 1970s left 678. Another 350 came in the 1940s, 9% go back before 1940, and 12% date from 2000 or later. A house from the 1950s can still have board sheathing under its shingles and a low attic with little room to move air. A house from the 1970s more often has plywood under its roof, and the roof on top may already be a second layer over the first.
White Hill, Highland Park, Eberlys Mill, Cedar Cliff and Allendale sit at about 390 feet. Interstate 83 runs on the east, Yellow Breeches Creek runs along part of the south, and Camp Hill, Lemoyne and New Cumberland are on the borders. Winter brings snow piling on roofs and nights that refreeze what the day melted. Where attic heat reaches the deck, the snow over the living space softens and the runoff freezes again at the cold eave. The ice dam that builds there pushes water back under the shingles. Humid summers do slower damage: moss and dark algae spread on the slopes that dry last after rain.
Detached houses make up 58% of Lower Allen's housing. Another 382 homes share a wall with the next, and 286 sit in buildings of 50 or more units. When two attached homes are reroofed years apart, new shingles butt against old ones at the party wall, and water tends to get in at that joint first. Fuel oil heats 520 homes. Where an oil burner vents through a masonry chimney, the flashing at its base goes through the same freeze and thaw as the eaves. On a home that shares a wall, we photograph the line where your shingles meet your neighbor's, and those pictures are yours to keep.
The postwar housing in Lower Allen is mostly simple to roof, which is why it gets done badly so often. Decking is usually 1x6 boards or early plywood, still sound but worth walking rather than assuming. The recurring problems are the low-slope sections — porch roofs, carport tie-ins, the flat bit over an addition — where a shingle was installed below its rated pitch and has been failing quietly ever since. Attic ventilation on houses of this era is also routinely short of what current shingle warranties require, and under-venting cooks a roof from underneath. We measure intake against exhaust before we quote rather than just nailing on a ridge vent and calling it solved.
The Census Bureau counts 3,048 homes in Lower Allen, with a median year built of 1968. 273 of them (9%) went up before 1940 — 32nd of 37 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 378 (12%) in 2000 or later. The 1950s were the busiest decade, adding 692 of today's homes (23%). (Cumberland County as a whole: 15% before 1940.)
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 2,670 homes in Lower Allen built before 2000 (88%) have outlived at least one roof, and 52% (1,578 homes) go back before 1970, two roof lives and more. First replacements are arriving on the 207 homes built in the 2000s, while the 171 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with. Older houses are where a second layer laid over the first turns up, and that layer is what hides soft decking.
Detached single-family houses make up 58% (1,781); attached houses and townhouses 13% (382). 189 homes (6%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 682 (22%) in buildings of ten units or more, where the roof is usually a landlord's or an association's decision. 64% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 36% rented. With houses like these, the jobs can include full tear-offs on houses past two roof lives and flat and low-slope sections, which turn up more on attached and multi-unit buildings.
| Built | Homes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 273 | 9% | |
| 1940s | 350 | 11% | |
| 1950s | 692 | 23% | |
| 1960s | 263 | 9% | |
| 1970s | 678 | 22% | |
| 1980s | 298 | 10% | |
| 1990s | 116 | 4% | |
| 2000s | 207 | 7% | |
| 2010s | 171 | 6% | |
| 2020 or later | 0 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 3,048 homes, 2,916 occupied. Survey estimates.
From 2016 through 2025, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center recorded 3 reports of hail of 1 inch or more within 5 miles of Lower Allen’s center, all on one storm day. 1 of them was 1.75 inches or larger. The largest, 1.75 inches, came on June 3, 2023, about 2.6 miles northeast 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.
| Latest reports | Size | From center |
|---|---|---|
| June 3, 2023 | 1 inch | 3.7 mi NE |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.75 inches | 2.6 mi NE |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.25 inches | 4.1 mi NE |
A bruised shingle can look fine for a season or two, which is why a storm inspection after a date like these is worth having.
Permits and inspections for Lower Allen 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 Lower Allen 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 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 Lower Allen can tell you which figure applies. What it does to a roof is in the roofing code guide.
Lower Allen borders Camp Hill, Lemoyne and New Cumberland. Our pages for them:
Also in Cumberland County:
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Allen | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1968 |
| Camp Hill | Not published | Not published | 1953 |
| Lemoyne | Not published | Not published | 1949 |
| New Cumberland | Yes | Not published | 1953 |
| Boiling Springs | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1986 |
| Carlisle | Not published | Not published | 1953 |
| Unincorporated Cumberland County | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | — |
Every Cumberland County city we cover, side by side →
The NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center logged three reports of hail 1.0 inch or larger within 5 miles of Lower Allen from 2016 through 2025, all on June 3, 2023. The largest, 1.75 inches, came down 2.6 miles to the northeast. Stones that size can bruise shingles without leaving an obvious hole, which is why a storm passing that close is worth a look at the roof afterward.
Very likely not. HUD's rehab inspection guidance puts a roof's working life at 20 years, and a house from the 1950s has stood far longer than that. Lower Allen has 692 homes from that decade, more than from any other. On a house that age, an earlier layer may still sit under the current shingles and the deck may be the original boards, and both shape the job before a new shingle goes down.
Permits and inspections for Lower Allen 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 1968, by the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates. Of 3,048 homes, 2,670 were built before 2000 and 273 before 1940, so most roofs in Lower Allen are not the first one the house has had.
Yes. The most recent report of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Lower Allen's center was 1 inch on June 3, 2023, one of 3 such reports from 2016 through 2025.
Not yet: no completed roof in Lower Allen 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.