Steelton, 4 miles southeast of downtown Harrisburg, grew up around a steel mill built in 1866, and we inspect, repair and replace roofs on its attached houses and its detached ones alike.
Steelton has about 1.9 square miles of land and roughly 6,296 people. It sits about 4 miles southeast of downtown Harrisburg-Carlisle. We cover ZIP code 17113.
No completed roof in Steelton is logged in our job records yet.
Steelton is a borough of shared walls. Of its 2,629 housing units, 1,440 are single-family homes attached to the house next door and 738 stand alone, so only 28% of the total are detached. Age runs deep as well: 39% were built in 1939 or earlier, when boards rather than plywood often went under the roof. On an attached house the roof runs into the neighbor's at the shared wall, and that joint needs its own flashing and a tear-off that stops cleanly there. With 48% of occupied homes owner-occupied, a landlord makes the roof call about as often as a family does.
The mill came first. In 1866 Samuel Morse Felton Sr., president of the Pennsylvania Steel Company, chose a 100-acre site for it, and the ethnic groups drawn to its work settled in different sections of town. Flooding in 1936 and a flood stage of 32.95 feet in 1972 brought down the West Side, once a self-supporting community of about 3,000 residents. The borough meets Highspire, Enhaut and Bressler at its edges.
The large hail near Steelton has come in June. On June 3, 2023, a 1.75-inch stone was reported 3.7 miles northwest of the borough, and on June 16, 2022, a 1-inch report came 3.3 miles south. Winter works from inside: heat leaking into the attic melts the snow piled on top, and it refreezes as ice dams at the cold eaves. Humid summers feed moss and algae on the shadiest slopes.
Steelton runs its own permit office, the Borough of Steelton Codes Department, which takes applications only in person at 123 N. Front Street, 3rd floor. Processing usually takes about 2 to 3 business days, worth allowing for before a start date. When the borough asks for a permit on your job, we carry the application up to that third floor ourselves.
Houses of this age in Steelton 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.
The Census Bureau counts 2,629 homes in Steelton, with a median year built of 1949. 1,023 of them (39%) went up before 1940 — 14th of 37 places on this site for pre-1940 share — and 171 (7%) 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 Steelton 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 2,458 homes in Steelton built before 2000 (93%) have outlived at least one roof; 1,844 homes, 70% of the total, predate 1970, old enough for two replacements already. Homes from the 2000s (135 in Steelton) are reaching their first replacement, while the 36 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.
28% of homes in Steelton are single-family detached houses (738) and 55% attached ones such as townhouses (1,440). 316 homes (12%) sit in two- to nine-unit buildings and 120 (5%) in buildings of ten units or more, whose roofs are normally an owner's or a board's call rather than a resident's. 1,180 of 2,445 occupied homes (48%) are lived in by their owners. 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 | 1,023 | 39% | |
| 1940s | 324 | 12% | |
| 1950s | 290 | 11% | |
| 1960s | 207 | 8% | |
| 1970s | 352 | 13% | |
| 1980s | 137 | 5% | |
| 1990s | 125 | 5% | |
| 2000s | 135 | 5% | |
| 2010s | 36 | 1% | |
| 2020 or later | 0 | 0% |
Census ACS 2020–2024, tables B25034, B25035, B25024 and B25003: 2,629 homes, 2,445 occupied. Survey estimates.
From 2016 through 2025, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center recorded 5 reports of hail of 1 inch or more within 5 miles of Steelton’s center, spread over 3 storm days. 1 of them was 1.75 inches or larger. The largest, 1.75 inches, came on June 3, 2023, about 3.7 miles northwest 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 | 3.6 mi NW |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.75 inches | 3.7 mi NW |
| June 3, 2023 | 1.25 inches | 4.4 mi NW |
| June 16, 2022 | 1 inch | 3.3 mi S |
| June 10, 2020 | 1 inch | 5 mi NE |
If one of those storms crossed your street and nobody has been on the roof since, a storm inspection photographs what it did.
Steelton publishes no rule either way on a like-for-like re-roof, so we ask the Borough of Steelton Codes Department (717-939-9842 ext. 5019) before we start and pull whatever it wants.
Steelton 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 717-939-9842 ext. 5019. The building official is Aaron Curry, Codes Director. We check the department’s own page for its current permit rules before a job.
Design 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 Steelton can tell you which figure applies. What it does to a roof is in the roofing code guide.
Steelton borders Highspire, Enhaut and Bressler. Our pages for them:
Also in Dauphin County:
| City | Re-roof permit | Code | Median built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steelton | Not published | Not published | 1949 |
| Highspire | Not published | Not published | 1964 |
| Enhaut | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1950 |
| Colonial Park | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | 1969 |
| Unincorporated Dauphin County | Not published | UCC (2021 IRC) | — |
| Elizabethville | Not published | Not published | 1951 |
| Harrisburg | Yes | Not published | 1947 |
Every Dauphin County city we cover, side by side →
It could have. On June 3, 2023, three reports of hail 1 inch or larger came in between 3.6 and 4.4 miles northwest of the borough, the largest 1.75 inches. Stones that size can crack shingles, knock granules loose and dent gutters and vent caps, often with nothing to see from the ground. A close look on the roof itself, and from the attic side, is the way to know.
A federal HUD guide to inspecting houses for rehab puts a roof's life at 20 years. In Steelton, 39% of homes were built in 1939 or earlier, so the roof on top is likely not the house's first, and older layers or board sheathing underneath shape the job. A roof near or past 20 years that shows curling, bare spots or moss is worth a look before snow and ice dams test it again.
Steelton does not publish a clear answer either way. We confirm it with the Borough of Steelton Codes Department before starting and pull whatever is required.
Median year built 1949, by the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 estimates. Of 2,629 homes, 2,458 were built before 2000 and 1,023 before 1940, so most roofs in Steelton are not the first one the house has had.
Yes. The most recent report of hail 1 inch or larger within 5 miles of Steelton's center was 1 inch on June 3, 2023, one of 5 such reports from 2016 through 2025.
The building official is Aaron Curry, Codes Director. We reach the permit desk at 717-939-9842 ext. 5019.
Not yet: no completed roof in Steelton 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.steeltonpa.com · www.steeltonpa.com · www.steeltonpa.com · 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.steeltonpa.com · www.spc.noaa.gov. Rules and staff change; check with the jurisdiction.