November 26, 2025
Beyond Shingles: Why Your Row Home Needs a Specialized Flashing Inspection
The true engineering challenge of a row home isn’t the flat surfaces—it is the edges. Unlike suburban homes with overhangs and gutters that push water away from the walls, row homes capture water within parapet walls and channel it through complex masonry systems.
The Hard Truth: You can install the most expensive roofing membrane on the market, but if you treat the flashing as an afterthought, your row home will leak. The interface between your roof and your brick walls requires a specialized inspection that goes beyond a simple “glance from the ground.”
Here is the deep dive on why row home flashing fails and what a specialized inspector actually looks for.
1. The “Cap and Skirt” Dynamic (Parapet Walls)
A row home roof doesn’t end at a gutter; it ends at a wall that extends above the roofline. This is the parapet wall. Waterproofing this requires two distinct components working in unison:
- The Coping (The Cap): The stone, terracotta, or metal that sits on the very top of the brick wall.
- The Cant Strip & Flashing (The Skirt): The membrane that curves up from the roof deck onto the wall.
The Inspection Failure: Average roofers check the “skirt” but ignore the “cap.” If the mortar joints in your coping stones are cracked, water bypasses the flashing entirely. It travels down through the center of the brick wall, bypassing your expensive new roof membrane, and exits into your bedroom ceiling. A specialized inspection checks the porosity of the coping stones and the integrity of the mortar joints.
2. The Thermal Shock Factor
Your brick walls and your metal flashing are enemies. Metal heats up and expands rapidly in the sun; brick moves much slower. This constant push-and-pull is called thermal shock.
Over 10 years, this movement shears nails and snaps caulk seals.
The Specialized Fix: We look for counter-flashing that is not just caulked to the surface, but “reglet-set.” This means a groove was cut into the brick, the metal was inserted, and then lead wedges were driven in to hold it tight. If your flashing is just glued to the side of a dirty brick wall, it is a temporary bandage, not a waterproofing solution.
3. The “Tar Patch” Falsehood
Walk on any older city roof, and you will see mounds of black tar (roof cement) slathered around chimneys and vents.
The Expert Insight: Tar is not flashing. Tar is a maintenance item with a lifespan of 3-5 years before it cracks under UV exposure. A true specialized inspection identifies where previous contractors used tar to hide a lack of metal. We look for structural flashing—metal that physically directs water—rather than chemical sealants that eventually dry out and fail.
4. The “Party Wall” Liability
In a row home, you share a wall with your neighbor. But did you know you might be sharing their leaks?
If your neighbor’s flashing fails on their side of the parapet, water can saturate the common brick wall and migrate laterally into your home. A standard inspector only looks at your property lines. A specialized inspector looks at the context. We assess the condition of the adjoining flashing to determine if your “mystery leak” is actually coming from next door, saving you from paying for repairs that won’t fix the problem.
The Bottom Line
Row homes are architectural gems, but they require a higher standard of care. Standard roofing practices that work in the suburbs often fail in the city. You need an inspector who understands masonry, thermal dynamics, and the unique geometry of row house construction.