The Lehigh Valley, From the River to the Ridge
Region pages usually mean a marketing boundary. This one means an elevation change. The valley floor at Allentown and Bethlehem sits a few hundred feet above sea level; follow the Lehigh River north through the gap at Palmerton and you climb onto the Pocono plateau, where winter is a different season altogether. Both ends are the same territory for us, and they need different roofs.
The valley proper is the third-largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania, built along the Lehigh River between Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, with Emmaus, Whitehall, Catasauqua and Coplay filling the ground between them. It was industrial long before it was suburban, which is why the housing runs from row after row of brick and stucco twins to warehouse-era development along the Route 22 and 78 corridors. North of Blue Mountain the character changes completely. Carbon County is forest, lake communities and old anthracite towns — Jim Thorpe wedged into its gorge, Lehighton, Palmerton, and the Albrightsville area up in the Poconos. Two counties, one river, and roughly a thousand feet of elevation between the ends of the drive.
Down on the valley floor the work is mostly geometry. Pre-war twins and singles in Allentown, Bethlehem and Emmaus carry steep pitches, dormers, turret sections, short valleys and masonry chimneys, and the leaks come from the transitions rather than the field — counterflashing packed with roofing cement instead of metal is the single most common thing we find. In the Macungies and the developments off Route 100, the roofs are simple and the problems are systemic: unbalanced attic ventilation, builder-grade pipe boots, ridge caps under-fastened for an exposed lot. Up in Carbon County none of that leads. Snow load and freeze-thaw do. Meltwater refreezes at cold eaves and backs up under the courses, which makes ice-and-water membrane coverage the decision that matters most.
Two offices cover the region, and the split follows the mountain. Allentown handles Lehigh County and the valley towns; the Albrightsville office takes the Carbon County side, where a January service call is a different proposition. Either way you get a crew that lives in the territory rather than a schedule handed down from somewhere else, and the same faces from the first measurement to the final walkthrough. Estimates are free and itemized in writing — on a valley job the flashing lines are where the real work sits, and you should be able to see them. Allentown answers at (484) 806-0911 around the clock, holidays and storm nights included.
Offices covering the Lehigh Valley
Counties in this region
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Roofing in the Lehigh Valley — common questions
Which counties does this region cover?
Lehigh County and Carbon County. That takes in Allentown, Bethlehem, Emmaus, Whitehall and Center Valley on the valley floor, and Lehighton, Palmerton, Jim Thorpe and the Albrightsville area north of Blue Mountain. Easton and the Northampton County side sit in the valley geographically; if your address is over there, call (484) 806-0911 and we will tell you plainly whether we can schedule it.
Why does a roof in Albrightsville need a different specification than one in Allentown?
Snow. At Pocono elevation it sits on a roof for weeks, melts against a warm attic, then reaches the unheated overhang and freezes again. That cycle drives water back up under the shingles, which no shingle is designed to resist. The answer is broad ice-and-water membrane at eaves and valleys plus balanced ventilation to keep the deck cold. On the valley floor the same detail is worth doing, but the exposure is milder.
Do you work on the older brick and stucco homes in Allentown and Bethlehem?
That is a large share of what we do here. Those roofs are steep, cut up with dormers and valleys, and often carry chimneys that were flashed with tar at some point in the last fifty years. The fix is proper metal counterflashing cut into the joint, step flashing reset course by course, and valleys detailed the full length rather than patched at the leak.
How quickly can someone reach a house up in Carbon County in winter?
Faster than most people expect and slower than in July — that is the honest answer. Calls are taken at any hour, and an active leak is triaged ahead of everything else. Winter emergency work means securing the roof safely, which sometimes waits for ice to become manageable rather than for morning. Permanent repairs get a real date once the surface can be worked.
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