Roofing contractor · Serving Braintree & the South Shore
Roofers In Braintree, MA.
In Braintree the contractor pulls the roofing permit, not you. Pull it yourself and Massachusetts law says you give up the $25,000 Guaranty Fund. We put that on the page because the top-10 lists will not. Then we show you the photos and do the roof right.
The paragraph the top-10 lists leave out
Whose Name Goes on the Braintree Permit?
It should be the contractor’s, and Massachusetts law says so. Chapter 142A requires the contractor to tell you what permits are needed and states that “it shall be the obligation of the contractor to obtain said permits.” Braintree requires a building permit for roofing. Applications run through PermitEyes.
You are allowed to pull it yourself. Here is what the statute says happens when you do: “homeowners who secure their own permits will be excluded from the guaranty fund provisions of this chapter.”
That is not a technicality. It is the difference between having a backstop and not having one. We wrote up the doorstep version of this in storm chaser roofers and the $25,000 mistake.
What you are giving up
The Guaranty Fund covers actual loss up to $25,000 when a registered contractor leaves an unpaid judgment or arbitration award. Older articles still say $10,000. The current figure on mass.gov is $25,000.
Where it is issued
Braintree Building Division
1 John F. Kennedy Memorial Drive, Braintree, MA 02184
781-794-8070
Mon, Wed, Thu 8:30am-4:30pm. Tue to 7:00pm. Fri to 1:00pm.
The red flag
“It’s faster if you pull it” is not a scheduling tip. It moves the liability to your name and quietly closes the Guaranty Fund door. It also sometimes means the contractor’s registration has lapsed and they cannot pull it.
To be eligible for the fund you need 4 things: a contract, a contractor who was registered with OCABR when you signed, which you can check on the MA Contractor Hub, work on a pre-existing owner-occupied 1 to 4 family home that is your primary residence, and the contractor rather than you holding the permit. Get 3 right and miss the fourth and you have nothing.
We pull the Braintree permit in our name. Every job. Ask us to put that in the contract and we will.
The one paragraph that saves people money
How Much Can a Roofer Ask For Up Front?
No more than the greater of one third of the total contract price, or the actual cost of special order or custom made materials. That is the wording in MGL chapter 142A section 2, and it applies to work over $1,000 on an existing owner-occupied 1 to 4 family home.
So the most anyone can ask for before work starts is a third of the contract, unless they can document a special order that costs more. Asphalt shingles off a supplier’s shelf are not a special order. Our roof replacement prep checklist covers what to have ready before the deposit goes out.
The deposit ceiling
Of the total contract price. A roofer asking for half in cash before the dumpster arrives is outside the statute, and that can be a Chapter 93A problem too.
In writing, in dollars
The contract has to be written, with a payment schedule stated in dollar figures. Not percentages agreed on a doorstep.
Final payment
Cannot be demanded until the work is complete to the satisfaction of both parties. Not when the truck leaves.
Two cards, not one
HIC registration and a Construction Supervisor License are different credentials from different agencies. A full replacement needs both, plus the permit. “Licensed and insured” painted on a van is not a lookup.
Ask for the HIC number and the CSL number before you send the first third, then look both up the same afternoon. HIC goes through the MA Contractor Hub. An expired HIC is how building departments quietly stop people from pulling permits.
Braintree is a cell in a table, not a vibe
What Is a Braintree Roof Actually Designed For?
Under 780 CMR, the municipal climatic table puts Braintree at a 35 psf ground snow load, a 30 psf minimum flat-roof snow load, and a 122 mph Risk Category II ultimate wind speed. Inland South Shore is not the Cape and it is not the Berkshires.
One marketing page still quotes 117 mph for this area. That is an older edition. Ask your estimator to say the current numbers out loud. If they cannot, they are quoting a brochure.
psf ground snow load
The number the inspector uses on a Braintree roof. It matters when someone wants to add a third layer or swap heavy slate for asphalt without checking the deck.
psf minimum flat-roof load
The figure for low-slope and flat sections: porch roofs, additions, rear extensions.
layers is the legal ceiling
Massachusetts caps you at 2 applications of roof covering. A third is a tear-off, not a roof-over. Pulling a second layer is a real line item and it will not appear if you only compare the new-shingle number. More on what the code says about overlay versus tear-off.
A measurement, not a brand name
How Far Does Your Ice Barrier Have to Go?
From the lowest edge of the roof to not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line. On roofs pitched 8:12 or steeper, it also has to run not less than 36 inches measured from the eave edge. That is Section R905.1.2 of the Massachusetts Residential Code.
The code also says what it has to be: not fewer than 2 layers of underlayment cemented together, or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet. Felt at the edge does not satisfy it.
Every roofing page in Braintree says “ice and water shield.” Almost none give the trigger. Measured from inside the wall line rather than from the gutter, a typical overhang puts the real run at 3 to 6 feet up the slope, plus valleys and penetrations. A crew treating it as a 2 foot strip at the drip edge is not describing the assembly an inspector can fail.
inches inside the wall line
Measured in from the exterior wall, not the drip edge. That single word is why quotes differ by hundreds of dollars of membrane.
inches from the eave edge
The extra requirement on slopes of 8:12 and steeper. Two separate measurements. A quote can satisfy one and miss the other.
ice dams stopped by membrane alone
The barrier is the backup, not the control. Heat leaking into the deck is what builds the dam. Air sealing, insulation and balanced ventilation are the fix.
What last winter changed
After 2025-26, Two Things Split Apart
GBH and CBS Boston covered it as the first real winter in several years. The MPIUA’s Frank O’Brien said ice-dam-related claims were up for exactly that reason. Ice-dam and roof-cleaning shops ran multi-week backlogs. Logan came in over 60 inches against a roughly 49-inch average.
Two practical splits came out of that winter and they still do not appear on the ranking pages.
Removal is not damage. Steaming, raking or chipping a dam off the roof is often not a covered peril. Sudden interior water damage caused by the dam often is. Photograph the ceiling stain before anyone gets on the roof. Once the dam is gone, so is the evidence, and you have made the adjuster’s job harder for no reason.
A new roof is not an attic. A code-legal new shingle roof will still ice-dam if heat is leaking to the deck. If ice dams are the reason you are calling and the quote is silent on air sealing, insulation and ventilation, you are buying the cosmetic layer and hoping. We check intake and exhaust on every inspection and write what we find, and we broke down what actually stops ice dams in full.
What Should a Braintree Roofing Quote Include?
Put this list in front of every roofer who quotes you, including us. Two quotes are almost never the same roof, and the cheaper number is usually a smaller job wearing the same name.
Tear-off of how many layers, stated as a number, with the extra cost of pulling a second layer shown separately.
Ice barrier to 24 inches inside the wall line, plus valleys and penetrations, with the distance written down.
Who pays the PermitEyes fee and whose name is on the permit. If it is yours, walk.
Deposit as a dollar figure, and confirmation it is at or under one third of the contract price.
A decking allowance with a per-sheet price, so rotted wood is a known number and not a driveway conversation.
Synthetic underlayment, new flashing, drip edge and new pipe boots, each listed rather than assumed.
Attic ventilation and baffles if ice dams are the reason you are calling.
HIC number and CSL number, both looked up the same afternoon on the Contractor Hub and eLicensing.
Dumpster, lawn protection and a magnet sweep, written into the scope.
Labour warranty in years, and whether it survives a sale of the house.
Does the address sit in the Town Center Historic District? If yes, the commission goes before the building permit.
Three-day cancellation language in the written contract, as the statute contemplates.
A roofer who will not answer this list in writing has told you something. Write down which question they dodged.
Almost no directory mentions this
If You Live in Town Center, the Commission Goes First
Braintree’s Historical Commission also functions as the Historic District Commission, and the Town Center Historic District is a real overlay rather than a walking-tour label. A visible roof change inside it needs a Certificate of Appropriateness before the building permit becomes the main event.
This is the live local standard, not a theory about what the commission likes. The Fire Headquarters roof went to the commission as synthetic slate, called out at 12-inch width and 8-inch exposure, with a caveat to confirm acceptance with Mass Historical. Snow guards and cornice work were handled as separate review items.
If your address is in the district, do not let anyone sell you a charcoal architectural shingle as a Monday start. Check the town district map first. If you are outside it, none of this applies to you, which is exactly why the listicles skip it.
Our services
What Does Powersol Do in Braintree?
Powersol Roofing is a Massachusetts roofing company working the South Shore out of Quincy. Residential work, with one point of contact from the first inspection to the final walkthrough. We install the full roofing system, because the roof is only as good as the deck, flashing, underlayment and ventilation under the shingles.
Roof Replacement
Full tear-off to the deck, then the complete GAF system: WeatherWatch leak barrier, FeltBuster synthetic underlayment, Pro-Start starter strips, Timberline HDZ architectural shingles, Cobra ridge vent and Seal-A-Ridge caps.
Roof Repair
Flashing, missing shingles, pipe boots, chimney leaks. We find the actual cause rather than the stain, and document it with photos.
Roof Inspections
Buying a house, past year 15, or after a storm. A documented photo inspection tells you what is real, what is urgent and what can wait, in plain English.
Attic Ventilation
Intake and exhaust checked and corrected. This is the part that actually controls ice dams, and it is one of the most skipped items in the trade.
Gutters, Fascia & Soffit
Seamless gutters and PVC fascia and soffit. The edges of the roof are where most of the long-term damage starts, and they are usually quoted as an afterthought.
Emergency Roof Repair
Water coming in now. We tarp and stabilize the leak, then schedule the permanent fix in daylight when it can be done properly.
From the roof, not the brochure
What We Actually Find When the Old Roof Comes Off
The problem is rarely just the shingle. From the ground a roof can look fine. Once you are on it you see lifted shingles, granule loss, bad flashing, soft wood, nail pops, old pipe boots and water damage nobody notices until it becomes a much bigger problem.
Rotted decking is the one thing nobody can see until the old roof is off. That is why the allowance goes in writing before we start, as a per-sheet price you already agreed to.
Pipe boots
The rubber collar around a vent pipe. Costs a few dollars, cracks with age, and it is the most common slow leak we get called about. Plenty of quotes reuse them.
Flashing
Step flashing at walls and chimneys, and the counterflashing above it. Reused flashing is a leak with a delay on it.
Rotted decking
Invisible until the old roof is off. A per-sheet price agreed in advance turns it from an argument into a line item.
Valleys
Where 2 roof planes meet, all the water goes. A valley detailed badly last time keeps leaking no matter how good the shingle above it is.
Ventilation
A hot attic cooks shingles from underneath and feeds ice dams from above. We check intake and exhaust on every inspection.
Bad nail placement
Nails driven high, overdriven or underdriven void shingle warranties and let wind lift the course above. Nobody sees it once the next row goes on. We see it on tear-off.
Proof, not promises
Why Homeowners Pick Powersol
Owner-led. Powersol is owned by Manuel “Manny” Reynoso, who stays in the details because you are trusting us with one of the most important parts of the house. Tell you the truth, show you the photos, explain the options, do the job the right way.
“Amazing team to work with. They answered all my questions and were active in communicating with me during the whole installation process (before, during, and after).”
Mari M. · Google review
“I had a great experience working with Rey. He was knowledgeable, professional, and always willing to take the time to explain everything clearly. From the beginning, he made the process feel simple and stress-free.”
Djine Marlly Pierre · Google review
“Top-notch service! Rafael Rey Reyes was professional, knowledgeable, and incredibly helpful throughout the process. I highly recommend him.”
Sonia Sharma · Google review
Recent exterior projects nearby: roof, gutters and PVC fascia and soffit in Taunton. Roof, gutters and siding in Randolph. Roof and windows in Dorchester.
Search Powersol Roofing on Google to read all 90.
How it works
What Happens Between Your Call and a Finished Roof
Inspection & photos
We inspect the roof and exterior, take photos, and explain what we see in plain English. Free, and no pressure attached to it.
Written scope, not a number
Repair or replace, with the photos to back it up. Materials, layers, decking allowance, ice barrier distance, ventilation, permit, timeline and cleanup. If it is not time yet, we say so.
Permit and install
We pull the Braintree permit in our name. Then we protect the property, tear off to the deck, replace bad decking at the agreed price, and install drip edge, leak barrier, underlayment, starter, flashing, new pipe boots, Timberline HDZ, ridge vent and ridge cap.
Cleanup & walkthrough
Magnetic nail sweep, debris haul-away, final photos, and a walk-through of the finished work with you.
Most standard replacements go on in 1 to 2 days once material is on site and the weather holds. Our average install is about 1 day. We will not guarantee a date that weather can move, and anyone who does is guessing.
Before you sign anything
The 8 Questions to Walk Into an Estimate With
Ask us these too. We would rather answer them than have you find out later.
1. Will you pull the Braintree building permit in your name?
2. What is your HIC number and your CSL number, today, on the Contractor Hub and eLicensing?
3. Show me the ice barrier detail to 24 inches inside the wall line on this eave.
4. How many layers are up there, and is this a tear-off?
5. Deposit in dollars. Is it over one third?
6. Does this address sit in the Town Center Historic District?
7. After last winter, are you pricing steam-out and interior drywall, or only shingles?
8. If the attic is the reason the eaves ice, who owns that scope?
Honest gaps
What We Could Not Confirm
Four things we went looking for and could not close from the public record. We would rather say so than publish a number we invented.
The exact Braintree re-roof permit fee. The town’s language is valuation-based, generally per $1,000 of estimated cost, but we could not pull a clean figure for a standard residential re-roof from the public snippets of the current schedule. Marketing sites quote a range anyway. We are not repeating a number we could not source. Call the Building Division at 781-794-8070 and ask what an asphalt replacement is assessing at this month.
How many private roofs sit inside the historic district. Use the town map, not a blog.
A Braintree-only ice dam claim count. The MPIUA spoke regionally, not town by town.
Live HIC and CSL status for any named company. Including ours. Look it up the morning you sign, not the week you searched.
Straight answers
Frequently Asked Questions
Who pulls the roofing permit in Braintree, MA?
Your contractor does. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 142A puts the obligation to obtain permits on the contractor, and Braintree requires a building permit for roofing. Applications run through PermitEyes and the Building Division is at 781-794-8070. You can legally pull it yourself, but the statute says homeowners who secure their own permits are excluded from the Guaranty Fund provisions of the chapter. That is a real protection to give away for a form.
What is the Massachusetts Guaranty Fund and how much does it cover?
It pays homeowners for actual loss up to $25,000 when a registered Home Improvement Contractor leaves an unpaid court judgment or arbitration award. To be eligible you need a contract, the contractor registered with OCABR when you signed, work on a pre-existing owner-occupied 1 to 4 family home that is your primary residence, and the contractor rather than you must have secured the building permit. Older articles still say $10,000. The current figure on mass.gov is $25,000.
How much deposit can a roofer ask for in Massachusetts?
No more than the greater of one third of the total contract price, or the actual cost of any materials or equipment of a special order or custom made nature. That is the language in MGL chapter 142A section 2. A roofer asking for 50 percent in cash before the dumpster arrives is outside the statute, and your contract also has to be in writing with a payment schedule stated in dollars.
How far does the ice barrier have to run under Massachusetts code?
From the lowest edge of the roof to not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line. On roofs pitched 8:12 or steeper it must also run not less than 36 inches measured from the eave edge. It has to be not fewer than 2 layers of underlayment cemented together, or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet. A 2 foot starter strip at the drip edge is not the same assembly, and on a typical overhang the real run is often 3 to 6 feet up the slope.
Can I put a third layer of shingles on my Braintree roof?
No. Massachusetts caps you at 2 applications of roof covering. If you already have 2 layers, the roof has to come off to the deck. That is a tear-off, not a roof-over, and it is a separate line on the quote rather than a surprise on day 1.
Does my roof need Historical Commission approval in Braintree?
Only if the house sits in the Town Center Historic District. There, a visible roof change needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historical Commission before the building permit becomes the main event. Check your address against the town district map before anyone books a start date. Outside the district this does not apply.
Will a new roof stop ice dams?
Not on its own. A code-legal new roof still ice-dams if heat is leaking from the house into the roof deck. The ice barrier is the backup, not the fix. Air sealing, insulation and balanced attic ventilation are what control the dam. If ice dams are why you are calling and the quote says nothing about the attic, it is not answering your problem.
Does insurance cover ice dam removal?
Removal and sudden damage are treated differently. Steaming or chipping a dam off the roof is often not a covered peril. Sudden interior water damage caused by the dam often is. Photograph the ceiling stain and the interior damage before anyone gets on the roof, because once the dam is gone the evidence is gone with it.
How long does a roof replacement take?
Most standard replacements go on in 1 to 2 days once material is on site and the weather holds. Our average install is about 1 day. We will not guarantee a date that weather can move.
What happens if you find rotted wood after you tear the roof off?
It gets replaced at the per-sheet price already written into your scope. That is what a decking allowance is for. Rotted decking is the most common surprise on a tear-off, and a quote without an allowance moves that conversation to your driveway with the roof already open.
Service areas
Where Else Does Powersol Work?
Braintree and the surrounding South Shore and Greater Boston towns.
Free estimate
Ready for a Free Estimate?
Photos of what we find, and a written scope with the decking allowance, the ice barrier distance, the permit and the deposit spelled out in dollars. No pressure.