Laguna Beach, CA
Flat and low-slope roofing in Laguna Beach
Almost every flat roof problem is a drainage problem wearing a disguise. Standing water finds the one seam that was not welded properly.
Describe the flat roofing job
Three questions, then the address. Up to three Laguna Beach contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in Laguna Beach 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
- Which membrane, and how the seams are joined
- Whether water ponds anywhere after rain
- Whether a coating is being sold as a repair
- Drain, scupper and overflow provision
Modified bitumen is the rolled, torched or self-adhered system you see on older flat additions. Cheaper, and shorter-lived.
Coatings can buy a sound roof several years. Coating a failed roof buys you a wet roof with a fresh top coat on it.
Look at the flashing where the flat section meets a wall. That transition leaks far more often than the field of the membrane does.
Locally
The failure that leads here is old houses carrying more layers, and more surprises, than the estimate assumed. Cottages from the 1920s to the 1950s have usually been re-roofed over rather than stripped. What is under the top layer decides the real price, and nobody knows what that is until the tear-off starts.
About flat roofing here
How much deposit is normal?
A third at most, and never the full amount. Pay the balance when the job is finished and you have walked it. Some states cap the deposit by law.
Should I repair or replace?
It depends almost entirely on how much life is left in the material. Ask any contractor who inspects it to give you a number of years and a reason. If two of them independently say the same thing, believe it.
Does being near the ocean change what goes on the roof?
Considerably. Salt air corrodes anything ferrous, so fasteners, valley metal, vent collars, flashing and gutter hangers should be specified for coastal exposure — stainless or heavy-gauge coated, not plain galvanised. The covering usually outlives the metal holding it down.
I rent. Can I use this?
Only the owner can approve roofing work. If you are renting, the fastest route is to send this to your landlord or property manager rather than gathering quotes nobody can act on.
Ready for a real number?
Free, no obligation, and your details go to no company until you say yes.