Shiremanstown is a 0.3-square-mile borough five miles southwest of Harrisburg, and Trueline Roofers inspects and re-roofs its houses, starting with a free visit that covers the shingles and the attic.
Shiremanstown has about 0.3 square miles of land and roughly 1,777 people. It sits about 5 miles southwest of downtown Harrisburg-Carlisle. We cover ZIP code 17011.
No completed roof in Shiremanstown is logged in our job records yet.
Shiremanstown's median home was built in 1956, yet the housing is not one age. Of 767 homes, 210 date to 1939 or earlier, 167 to the 1950s, 113 to the 1960s and 145 to the 1970s. The oldest roofs often sit on plank decking and framing that has carried several generations of shingles, and a post-war house may hide a second layer of shingles under the top one.
About 52% of the housing here is single-family detached. The rest includes 195 attached units, 53 two-unit homes and 116 units in three- and four-unit buildings. Where a roof meets a neighbor's wall, the flashing at that joint decides whether water stays out. About 34% of occupied homes are rented, so the person who calls about a leak is not always the person who owns the roof.
The borough covers 0.3 square miles at about 420 feet, five miles southwest of downtown Harrisburg, with Hampden Township to the north and Lower Allen Township to the south. It was part of Lower Allen before becoming a borough in 1864 and grew around the Shireman family and St. John's Lutheran Church. On a lot this close to a township line, confirm which municipality your house is in before any paperwork starts.
Winter is the hard season on these roofs. Snow piles up, melts where heat leaks through the attic floor and refreezes at the eave, which is how ice dams begin. Summers run humid, and damp shade brings mildew, moss and algae onto shingles. Heat comes from utility gas in 302 homes, electricity in 246 and fuel oil in 190.
Postwar houses in Shiremanstown 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 767 homes in Shiremanstown, with a median year built of 1956. 210 of them (27%) went up before 1940 — 22nd of 37 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 19 (2%) in 2000 or later. More of today's homes date from before 1940 than from any decade since. (Cumberland County as a whole: 15% before 1940.)
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 748 homes in Shiremanstown built before 2000 (98%) have outlived at least one roof, and 73% (561 homes) go back before 1970, two roof lives and more. The 13 homes from the 2000s are where first replacements come up now, while the 6 built since 2010 are mostly still on the roof they were built with. 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.
By building type: 396 detached houses (52%), 195 attached (25%). 176 homes (23%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings. Owners live in 66% of the 763 occupied homes. With houses like these, the jobs 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 | 210 | 27% | |
| 1940s | 71 | 9% | |
| 1950s | 167 | 22% | |
| 1960s | 113 | 15% | |
| 1970s | 145 | 19% | |
| 1980s | 17 | 2% | |
| 1990s | 25 | 3% | |
| 2000s | 13 | 2% | |
| 2010s | 6 | 1% | |
| 2020 or later | 0 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 767 homes, 763 occupied. Survey estimates.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center logged 2 reports of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Shiremanstown’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 4.8 miles northeast of the center. Counts follow people as much as storms, since every report is a spotter’s or a resident’s.
If one of those storms crossed your street and nobody has been on the roof since, a storm inspection photographs what it did.
Nothing Shiremanstown publishes says whether a like-for-like re-roof needs a permit. We call the department before the job and pull whatever is required.
Shiremanstown 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 layerThe design wind speed a roof in Shiremanstown 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shiremanstown | Not published | Not published | 1956 |
| 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 |
Every Cumberland County city we cover, side by side →
A roof is almost always younger than the house under it. Shiremanstown's median build year is 1956, and 210 homes date to 1939 or earlier. What matters most is the layer count and the condition of the decking and framing underneath, which show from the attic side and once the old shingles come off.
Snow on the roof melts where attic heat leaks through, then refreezes at the cold eave and backs water up under the shingles. Gas, electric and oil heat can all cause it. The fix starts inside, with air sealing, attic insulation and eave ventilation, rather than at the shingles.
Shiremanstown does not publish a clear answer either way. We confirm it with the building department before starting and pull whatever is required.
By the Census Bureau's estimates, 98% of Shiremanstown's homes were built before 2000 and 73% before 1970, with a median year built of 1956 (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 Shiremanstown of hail 1 inch or bigger came on June 3, 2023; NOAA's records hold 2 of them within 5 miles since 2016.
Not yet: no completed roof in Shiremanstown 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.