Paxtang was settled in 1722 just east of Harrisburg, and its median home was built in 1938, so when we repair or replace a roof in the borough, the old framing underneath sets the plan.
Paxtang has about 0.4 square miles of land and roughly 1,662 people. It sits about 3 miles east of downtown Harrisburg-Carlisle. We cover ZIP code 17111.
No completed roof in Paxtang is logged in our job records yet.
Paxtang covers 0.4 square miles just east of Harrisburg, which it borders, and its stone Presbyterian church was built in 1740. Census counts for the borough show 434 homes built in 1939 or earlier, 123 from the 1940s, 100 from the 1950s and none from 1980 on. Of its 712 homes, 473 stand alone and 149 share a wall with the house next door. On a prewar house, the shingles on top are often not the first roof it has worn, the boards beneath may be sawn planks rather than plywood, and an attached home's roof has to be sealed where it meets the neighbor's at the party wall.
The name comes from the Lenape village of Peshtank, meaning where the waters stand, and water in its slower forms is what an old roof here fights. Snow piles on the slopes, freeze-thaw cycles pry at old flashing, ice dams form at the eaves, and humid summers let moss and algae take hold. Heating adds its own detail: 452 homes heat with utility gas, 119 with fuel oil and 9 with coal, so plenty of Paxtang roofs still have a chimney passing through them, and each chimney is a seam to flash and watch.
Permits come from the Paxtang Borough Office, and Approved Codes Services is listed as the Building Codes Officer. The borough's permit list for one- and two-family homes names roofs where structural components are replaced or repaired, and on a house of that age that can mean rotted roof boards or a split rafter. Applications need proof of worker's compensation insurance for any contractors and subcontractors, no work may begin until the Codes Officer has issued the Building Permit Card, and most applications are processed within 5 to 10 business days. If your decking needs that kind of repair, we set the start date around that card.
The borough is home to historic homes and well-known structures.
Houses of this age in Paxtang 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.
By the Census Bureau's estimate there are 712 homes in Paxtang, with a median year built of 1939 or earlier, the oldest band the survey reports. 434 of them (61%) went up before 1940 — the 5th-highest pre-1940 share of the 37 places on this site — and 0 (0%) 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 Paxtang sits above it.
About 20 years is the service life that HUD's Residential Rehabilitation Inspection Guide gives for a roof's first layer. That puts 712 homes in Paxtang, the 100% built before 2000, past at least one full roof life; 694 homes, 97% of the total, predate 1970, old enough for two replacements already. 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 66% (473); attached houses and townhouses 21% (149). 90 homes (13%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings. Owners live in 83% of the 698 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 | 434 | 61% | |
| 1940s | 123 | 17% | |
| 1950s | 100 | 14% | |
| 1960s | 37 | 5% | |
| 1970s | 18 | 3% | |
| 1980s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1990s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2000s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2010s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2020 or later | 0 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 712 homes, 698 occupied. Survey estimates.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center logged 5 reports of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Paxtang’s center from 2016 through 2025, on 2 different days. 1 of them was 1.75 inches or larger. The largest, 1.75 inches, came on June 3, 2023, about 2.4 miles west of the center. Counts follow people as much as storms, since every report is a spotter’s or a resident’s.
| Latest reports | Size | From center |
|---|---|---|
| June 3, 2023 | 1 inch | 1.5 mi W |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.75 inches | 2.4 mi W |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.25 inches | 2.2 mi NW |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.5 inches | 4.8 mi N |
| June 10, 2020 | 1 inch | 4.9 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.
The borough's residential permit list for one and two family dwellings names roofs only where structural components are replaced or repaired: "Roofs (replacing/repairing any structural components) – Building Permit". The borough's permit page says a building permit application is required for any proposed construction or structural repairs.
Paxtang does not publish the code edition it currently enforces. We confirm the edition with the building department before we write the scope.
We reach the permit desk at 717-564-4770. The Building Codes Officer is listed as Approved Codes Services. We check the department’s own page for its current permit rules before a job.
The design wind speed a roof in Paxtang 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.
Paxtang borders Harrisburg. Our pages for them:
Also in Dauphin County:
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paxtang | Not published | Not published | 1939 or earlier |
| Harrisburg | Yes | Not published | 1947 |
| Colonial Park | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1969 |
| Unincorporated Dauphin County | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | — |
| Elizabethville | Not published | Not published | 1951 |
| Enhaut | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1950 |
| Hershey | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1970 |
Every Dauphin County city we cover, side by side →
Storm Prediction Center reports from 2016 to 2025 put the largest hail near Paxtang at 1.75 inches, 2.4 miles west of the borough on June 3, 2023, one of four reports of 1-inch or larger hail within 5 miles that day. Hail that size can knock granules loose and bruise shingles without an immediate leak, so grit piling up in the gutters after a storm is a sign worth checking.
Warmth from the rooms below reaches the underside of the roof, melts the snow on the upper slope, and the water freezes again when it reaches the colder eave. In a borough where 61% of homes were built before 1940, many attics started out with little or no insulation, so heat slips through easily. Each freeze-thaw cycle then lets the backed-up water creep under the shingles toward the ceilings and walls.
The borough's residential permit list for one and two family dwellings names roofs only where structural components are replaced or repaired: "Roofs (replacing/repairing any structural components) – Building Permit". The borough's permit page says a building permit application is required for any proposed construction or structural repairs.
By the Census Bureau's estimates, 100% of Paxtang's homes were built before 2000 and 97% before 1970, with a median year built of 1939 or earlier (2020–2024 estimates). A roof usually lasts about 20 years, so the deck and the layers get checked before any quote.
The last report near Paxtang of hail 1 inch or bigger came on June 3, 2023; NOAA's records hold 5 of them within 5 miles since 2016.
Not yet: no completed roof in Paxtang 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: www.paxtang.org · www.paxtang.org · 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.paxtang.org · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.