Best Roofer In Orange:Jermaine Hylton's Story

Jermaine Hylton receives the 2024 Community Leadership Award for Best Roofer in Orange, NJ — presented by HANDS Inc. at the annual Community Leadership Awards ceremony.

Jermaine Hylton did not start NJ Roofing because he wanted to own a business. He started it because he had found something he was genuinely good at and could not figure out why he would keep doing it for someone else.

The recognition he received at the 2024 HANDS Community Leadership Awards — Best Roofer in Orange, NJ — is the kind of award that reflects years of work in a specific community rather than a marketing application or a regional ranking. It came from the organization that has watched Jermaine show up, fix problems, and treat people in Orange the way he would want to be treated. That matters more to him than most credentials on the market.

Where It Started

Jermaine's first roofing job was practical, not aspirational. He was looking for work that paid well and could support his family. What he did not expect was that the trade would suit him the way it did. Within a short time working for his first roofing company, he found a mentor.

John's investment paid off fast. Within a month, Jermaine was running as a foreman. He discovered not just competence in the trade but a genuine affinity for it — the problem-solving, the physical work, the direct accountability of a finished roof that either holds or it does not.

Eventually, Jermaine moved on. He tried other work, different companies, different industries. None of it fit the way roofing did. The jobs were leaving him, in his own words, unsatisfied and unhealthy. He kept coming back to the same realization: he was good at roofing, he loved it, and he was doing it for other people when he could be doing it for himself.

Starting With One Truck

In 2015, Jermaine registered the business name and bought one truck. That is the whole origin story, in practical terms. One man, one truck, a trade he had spent years learning, and a bet on himself.

What followed was the education that no mentor can fully prepare you for: running the business side of a trade business.

But the diagnosis was not wrong work, it was wrong pricing and wrong systems. The drive was there. The skills were there. The gap was in the business mechanics, and those are learnable.

The HANDS Partnership

The relationship between NJ Roofing and HANDS is not a standard vendor contract. Jermaine's crews function as an in-house maintenance operation for HANDS properties, handling roofing, electrical, flooring, plumbing — whatever the building needs. The scope of the relationship is a function of trust that built up over years of showing up when called and handling problems without creating new ones.

The human element of that partnership is something Jermaine describes in terms of connection rather than contract. HANDS tenants are not just clients. They know him. They call him directly. A tenant asking if they can borrow a ladder for 15 minutes is the kind of interaction that happens when a contractor is genuinely embedded in a community rather than just working in it.

What Orange Means To Jermaine

NJ Roofing is headquartered in Orange, NJ because that is where Jermaine built the company. Not because of a market analysis or a strategic location decision, but because Orange is where the work started and where the relationships are. The address at 609 Nassau Street is not incidental to the business — it is the business's identity.

When asked what makes Orange different, Jermaine's answer is not about demographics or geography. It is about character.

That togetherness is not a backdrop to what NJ Roofing does. It is part of the operating model. The HANDS partnership, the long-term relationships with homeowners throughout Essex County, the referral network that runs through neighborhoods where one family tells the next about a contractor they trust — all of it grows from an actual investment in a specific community.

Where NJ Roofing Is Headed

The 2024 award is a milestone, not a ceiling. Jermaine's stated direction includes expansion into government contracts, building on the institutional work the company has already done with organizations like the VA Medical Center in East Orange. He wants to continue growing the team in a way that lets him focus less on the operational details he is currently handling and more on the relationships and strategy that have driven the company's growth.

The credentialing that supports that direction is already in place. GAF Master Elite certification puts NJ Roofing among the top 3 percent of roofing contractors in the country. The company's $2M-plus general liability coverage and NJ HIC license are current and verifiable. The track record of completed projects across Essex, Bergen, Union, and Hudson counties is documented and growing.

What has not changed from the one-truck starting point is the operating principle: show up, do the work correctly, be honest about what something costs, and be reachable when something needs attention after the job is done. That is the version of contracting that the Orange community recognized in 2024, and it is the same version NJ Roofing is expanding into the broader NJ market.

A Note From NJ Roofing

The HANDS Community Leadership Award is one of the recognitions we are most proud of because it comes from an organization that has seen our work up close, over years, on properties where the residents have no other safety net if something goes wrong with their roof. Earning that trust is a different thing from earning a star rating online. It means you showed up every time, did the work right, and treated people the way you would want your own family treated.

Thank you to HANDS Inc., to the Orange community, and to every homeowner and property manager who has let us into their home or building and trusted us with something that matters. We take that seriously. That is what this business is built on, and that is what we are going to keep building.