Fred Cannock has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since July of 2024, when the removal and reinstallation of an existing solar array was booked alongside a new roof. The roof was finished on 14 August 2024 and the panels were back on by 3 October.
Two layers off, 1,800 square feet on
This roof had been covered over once already, so two layers of old shingle came off down to the sheathing rather than one. Deck protection went over the exposed sheathing, then a GAF Timberline HDZ system in Charcoal carrying a 50-year warranty, aluminum drip edge along 221 feet of rakes and eaves, and a ridge vent along the peak.
20 panels down and back up
The array is 4.6 kW across 20 panels — 230 watts apiece, which places it in an earlier generation of modules. All of it came down, panels and mounting system together, and all of it went back: the existing mounts reused, the panels reinstalled and new DC rooftop wiring run throughout.
A rail-free array is a different job to reset
Most arrays sit on rails, so a row of panels shares a handful of anchor points. This one is rail-free, which means each panel is fixed to its own mounts and every mount is its own hole through the shingles. On a new roof that changes the arithmetic of a reset: there is no shortcut where a few long rails go back on. Every fixing gets new flashing, one at a time, and every one of them has to be right, because the whole point of the exercise was a roof that does not leak.
One microinverter replaced while the array was down
The notes carry a small instruction: replace the customer-supplied microinverter on the second array, checked against the Enphase map. A microinverter sits underneath its panel, so on a working array reaching one means taking a panel off. With the array already down for the roof, a unit that needed replacing was replaced at the only moment it was ever going to be easy. That is what having both crews on one job buys.
Why the roof under an array is worth doing properly
An array is fastened down for twenty-five years and more, so the roof beneath it has to last at least that long or the whole thing comes off again. Here it did come off — two layers of old shingle had reached the end, and the panels had years left in them. The order that made sense was down, roof, back up, with new flashing at every fixing and a 50-year system underneath. The array is the same one it was in August; what is beneath it is not.
Project Facts
- Location
- Port Monmouth, NJ
- Services
- Roofing Installation, Solar Removal/Replacement
- Client since
- July 2024
- System
- GAF Timberline Lifetime Roofing System
- Area replaced
- 1,800 sq ft
- Warranty
- 50 years
Roofing questions from Port Monmouth homeowners
Will gutter guards stop ice dams on a Port Monmouth home?
No. Ice dams come from snow melting on the warmer parts of a roof and refreezing at the colder edge, which is driven by attic heat loss, insulation, air leakage, ventilation and the weather. Keeping the gutters clear is worth doing, but it is not a substitute for the attic and roof design that causes the problem.
Does a wind warranty with no speed limit mean the roof cannot blow off?
No. It is a limited warranty without a maximum wind-speed limitation for qualifying systems, and that is a statement about coverage rather than about physics. Storm damage remains possible and the coverage remains subject to the warranty's terms and exclusions.
Why does nail placement matter so much on a roof?
Because a fastener set too high, too low or at the wrong angle can compromise how the shingle performs and how it bonds to the course below it. Modern shingles include an enlarged nailing area to make accurate placement easier, but the manufacturer's actual nailing instructions still govern — and those instructions are part of the warranty, not a suggestion.