Roof Repair in Fremont, CA

The sun does most of the damage here, and the rain reveals it.

Lifted and cracked shingles on south and west slopes. The slopes that face the afternoon sun age years ahead of the north side of the same roof. The shingles dry out, curl at the edges, and crack when a foot or a branch lands on them. We replace the cracked tabs with shingles that match the blend as closely as the color still on the roof allows, and hand-seal the courses around them so the wind does not pick up the next one.

Failed pipe boots and pipe flashings. The rubber collar on a standard pipe boot splits after enough summers, and the paint on a galvanized pipe jack wears off well before the shingles are done, leaving rust at the base of the pipe. Both leak in the same place, where the collar meets the plate. We replace the flashing rather than caulk it, and the new one goes on stone-coated.

Chimney and wall flashing. Covered in its own section below, because it is the second most common leak we chase.

Ridge caps. The ridge takes the most wind and the most sun on the house. Caps that have cracked, lifted or blown off get replaced, and on roofs with a ridge vent we check that the vent is still fastened and the end caps are sealed.

Skylights. The older bubble skylights in a lot of Fremont tract houses leak at the curb flashing or at the seal between the dome and the frame. Some can be re-flashed with new step flashing and a new cricket above; some have gone cloudy and brittle and are better replaced or decked over while we are up there.

Chimney flashing fails in two ways. The step flashing that is supposed to be woven into the shingles up each side of the chimney was instead run as one piece and caulked, and the caulk is long gone. Or the counterflashing, the piece that should be cut into the mortar joints and bent down over the step flashing, was surface-mounted and has pulled away from the brick. Stucco chimneys, common in Fremont and Milpitas, have their own version: the flashing was stuccoed over and the stucco cracked. On the uphill side, a chimney without a cricket, the small peaked diverter that splits water around it, collects leaves and holds water against the brick.

We cut the old flashing out, install new step flashing woven into the shingles, set counterflashing into the mortar joints and seal it, and build a cricket where one is missing. The same approach fixes the flashing around furnace flues and water heater vents, which are smaller chimneys with the same problems. Where a metal vent hood or a vent pipe flashing has rusted through, it gets replaced with a stone-coated one matched to the roof.

The fascia is the board behind the gutter; the soffit is the underside of the eave. They rot from the top down when water gets behind the gutter, which happens when the drip edge is missing or was set behind the gutter instead of into it, when a gutter is pitched wrong and overflows at the back, or when the gutter was hung with the wrong fasteners and pulled away from the board. The redwoods, oaks and liquidambars over East Bay yards keep gutters full and make all of it worse. You notice it as peeling paint, a sagging gutter, or a soft spot when you press the board.

We replace the rotted fascia and soffit sections with matching stock, prime the cut ends, correct the drip edge so water runs into the gutter, and rehang or replace the gutter section that caused it. If the whole gutter run is past saving, our gutters and downspouts page covers replacement and the leaf guards that keep it from happening again. Fascia repair is also the moment to look at the eave vents in the soffit, since blocked eave vents are half of an attic ventilation problem; see our ventilation and insulation page.

There is a point past which a repair is money spent on a roof that is finished. Granules gone across the whole south slope, shingles that snap when lifted, more than one leak at a time, or a deck that gives underfoot. If your roof is there, Adeline will tell you and price a roof replacement instead, because a patch on that roof leaks again in February and you have paid twice.

The opposite is just as common, and it is the one homeowners worry about. A roof with pliable shingles, a solid deck and a single bad pipe flashing or valley does not need to be torn off, and plenty of people in Oakland and San Leandro have been quoted a new roof over one failed detail. When a repair is enough, we say so. If someone else has already condemned your roof, a roof inspection from us is a fair way to get a second opinion.

Adeline sets the appointment and comes out herself. She gets on the roof and looks at the whole thing, not only the spot you called about, because the pipe that is leaking usually has brothers that are about to. You get a plain explanation of what she found and a written price before any work starts.

Smaller repairs are done on the same trip when the material is on the truck: pipe flashings, sealant, ridge caps, common shingle colors. Chimney rebuilds, fascia runs and skylight replacements are scheduled for a return trip, and we do not open a roof with rain on the way. When the work is done, the yard and gutters are left cleaner than we found them.

A pipe flashing is the single most common repair we make, because the base of the pipe is where a sound roof usually lets water in. When we pull a failed pipe jack or a rusted vent hood, the new piece goes in properly flashed and sealed into the courses around it, and we tell you plainly whether that spot was the whole problem or a sign the roof is near the end. The stone-coated flashings that make our roofs look different go on as part of a full replacement, because they have to be woven in under the shingles while the roof is being laid. We will not talk you into a new roof to get them.

A repaired roof still needs a look each fall. Gutters cleared before the first storm, valleys and the uphill side of the chimney cleared of leaves, moss scraped off the north slope before it lifts the shingle edges, and a walk of the pipes and vents to catch the next cracked boot. We do that as a roof maintenance visit, and our rainy season roof checklist lists what to look for from the ground. Moss and tree debris are the East Bay's particular problem, and our post on moss, algae and tree debris on East Bay roofs covers what they do to a composition roof and how we deal with them.

Fremont is home, and Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Warm Springs and Ardenwood see us every week. We repair roofs up the bayside through San Leandro and Oakland, and south across Milpitas and Sunnyvale, where the older ranch houses have the same 1960s pipe jacks and the same sun-cooked south slopes. Every city we work in is listed on our service areas page.