Montebello, CA
Flat roofs do not shed water. They hold it back.
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 Montebello contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in Montebello 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.
- Whether water ponds anywhere after rain
- Which membrane, and how the seams are joined
- Drain, scupper and overflow provision
- How the flat section is flashed into adjoining walls and pitched roofs
- Whether a coating is being sold as a repair
Drains and scuppers need to be checked every season. One blocked drain can hold enough water to matter structurally.
Modified bitumen is the rolled, torched or self-adhered system you see on older flat additions. Cheaper, and shorter-lived.
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 second problem is the marine layer keeping the north slope damp. 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
Why does ventilation keep coming up?
It is the most under-sold part of a roof. Trapped heat and moisture shorten shingle life, warp decking, and in cold weather it is what turns snow into an ice dam.
What should I do to prepare?
Move the cars out, take pictures off the top-floor walls, cover anything stored in the attic, and put pets somewhere else for the loud days. Expect nails in the driveway however careful the crew is — ask whether they run a magnet at the end.
Are gutters included in a re-roof?
Usually not, unless the quote says so. If they are near the end of their life, replacing them during the re-roof is meaningfully cheaper than doing it later, because the crew and the staging are already there.
What happens to my information?
It goes to a maximum of three roofing contractors working in Montebello, and to nobody else. We do not sell it as a mailing list and we do not post it anywhere public. Our privacy policy sets out exactly what is shared.