Rolling Hills Estates, CA
Flat roofs do not shed water. They hold it back.
Flat sections on an otherwise pitched house are where the leaks are. Additions, porch roofs, and the bit over the garage.
Describe the flat roofing job
Three questions, then the address. Up to three Rolling Hills Estates contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in Rolling Hills Estates is taking requests through this service yet. We are lining them up, and yours is kept until one can.
- Nobody gets your details yet. Your request stays with us and is not passed to any company.
- One email when someone can help. When a provider covering your area can take it on, we email you once and ask whether you want that company, by name, to contact you.
- Deleted after 90 days. If nobody can take it on, or you do not say yes, your contact details are deleted 90 days after your request.
- You decide, or you do not. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to pay us.
Nobody will call you about this request unless you say yes to a company by name.
Before you let anybody on the roof
The things worth pinning down on a flat roofing job. A contractor who has not raised them has not looked properly.
- How the flat section is flashed into adjoining walls and pitched roofs
- Whether water ponds anywhere after rain
- Whether a coating is being sold as a repair
- Which membrane, and how the seams are joined
- Drain, scupper and overflow provision
Look at the flashing where the flat section meets a wall. That transition leaks far more often than the field of the membrane does.
Single-ply membranes — TPO, PVC, EPDM — are heat-welded or taped at the seams. The seams and the terminations are the whole job.
Drains and scuppers need to be checked every season. One blocked drain can hold enough water to matter structurally.
Locally
Then, less dramatically: shaded slopes that never really dry out. The north side of a house here ages years faster than the south side, and almost every roof gets replaced because of it.
About flat roofing here
Is moss on the roof a problem?
It matters more than it looks. The damage is not the moss, it is the permanent damp underneath it. Kill it and brush it off gently; never pressure wash asphalt.
Is this really free?
It is free to you. Contractors pay to receive homeowner requests in their area. That is the entire business model, and we would rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise.
What if the decking is rotten underneath?
Expect a few sheets on most older roofs. Get the per-sheet rate in the contract. Open-ended decking charges are where a fixed price stops being fixed.
Does being near the ocean change what goes on the roof?
Yes. The specification that matters here is metal, not shingle. Ask directly what the fasteners and flashings are made of; in salt air that answer decides how long the roof lasts far more than the brand of the covering.
Ready for a real number?
Free, no obligation, and your details go to no company until you say yes.