What Happens After Your First Call
Storm response starts with stabilization, not a sales conversation. We climb onto the rooftop, photograph what failed, and decide whether the slope needs a tarp tonight or can wait for morning.
- Emergency tarps cover the damaged field course and ridge cap, so rain sheds off instead of soaking the roof deck and plywood sheathing below.
- Debris gets cleared from valleys, around the chimney, and along the gutter line, because blocked drainage pushes water sideways under the eave.
- Loose flashing is hand-sealed with roof cement, mastic, or a compatible sealant until we can refit the step flashing and counter-flashing correctly.
- We pull wet insulation off the attic floor, since trapped moisture feeds mold long after the drip itself stops.
A Roofer Traces the Cause, Not Just the Missing Shingles
An emergency roof inspection follows water back to where it entered, because a stain on your ceiling rarely sits under the actual breach. Water wicks along the underlayment and shows up rooms away.
- A cracked pipe flashing, pipe boot, or vent boot sends water down the plumbing stack into the drywall below.
- Chimney flashing pulls loose from the masonry, turning the chimney into a funnel during a heavy Pacific storm.
- Drip edge and rake trim bend or rust, so runoff curls back under the starter course and rots the fascia.
- Split gutter and downspout seams back water up beneath the soffit until the wood sags.
- An ice dam forms at the eave when heat escapes through thin insulation and meltwater refreezes behind the ice-and-water shield.
- Skylight curbs, dormers, and hip-to-gable transitions carry the most joints, so they tend to fail first.
Materials We Carry So the Repair Blends In
Matching matters, since a patch that reads as a patch from the sidewalk undercuts the work. We stock several shingle types, plus the fasteners and sealants each one requires.
- Asphalt shingle repairs use replacement shingles — architectural shingle or three-tab shingle — matched by exposure and head lap.
- Wood shake and cedar shake get replaced by thickness, because a thin shake beside a thick one opens a gap.
- Slate, clay tile, and concrete tile are reset with hooks and adhesive rather than hammered through.
- Metal panel, standing-seam panel, and corrugated panel patches use gasketed fasteners and touch-up coating at the cut edge.
- Low-slope sections get TPO, EPDM, PVC membrane, modified bitumen, or a built-up roof resealed with roofing felt, tar paper, and asphalt bitumen.
- Synthetic underlayment replaces torn felt where the deck is exposed, and self-adhered ice-and-water shield goes back at the eave.
Edge Details and Openings That Fail First
- Parapet walls and coping trap water on a flat roof until the scupper and drain can move it again.
- Apron flashing and boot flashing around a canopy, awning, or dormer overhang need fresh caulk and new anchors.
- Snow guards and a vapor barrier keep meltwater off the verge, where freeze-thaw cycles peel the coating.
- Waterproofing lasts only as long as the weatherproofing above it, so we read the substrate before sealing anything.
- Ridge vents, soffit vents, and attic fans have to stay open, or trapped heat cooks the shingles from underneath.
Tools, Framing, and Why Some Jobs Run Long
Access and framing decide the schedule more than shingle count does. On old tar-and-gravel roofs we check pitch before choosing between an overlay and a full tear-off.
- We inspect the truss, rafter, joist, and ridge beam for sag, since a soft frame lets the roof settle again.
- Purlins, battens, and counterbattens on older roofs get probed for rot before we fasten anything down.
- Ring-shank nails, screws, and gasketed fasteners hold better than smooth nails in aged OSB and plywood.
- A roofing square, nail gun, air compressor, pry bar, and roofing shovel strip damage without tearing good decking.
- Scaffold, ladder, and safety harness come out for steep pitch or second-story work; a dumpster takes the tear-off debris away.
- A torch is used only on modified bitumen where the manufacturer allows open flame, never on a dry wood shake roof.
- Steep pitch, a mansard or gambrel profile, or a tight lot adds labor hours, and most repairs still finish in one day.
