Los Angeles County, California
Commercial Roof Repair in Los Angeles
Temporary work that holds water back and the permanent repair a manufacturer warranty will accept are two different jobs, and the warranty is the reason they stay apart.
Free, and there is no obligation to go ahead.
- Free roof inspection
Someone comes out, gets on the roof, and tells you what they find.
- The price in writing
A written quote before anyone starts, with nothing to sign on the day.
- Licensed roofers
The roofer who turns up holds a current California license.
- Across Los Angeles County
From the Valley and the foothills to the Westside and the South Bay.
A leak on an occupied building is two pieces of work. One holds the water back until the roof is dry enough to work on. The other is the permanent repair, following the membrane manufacturer's published repair detail. The warranty is why they stay apart. One manufacturer's published sample voids coverage where repairs of any magnitude are made without written approval first, and it excludes exposed mastics and sealants, so mastic is temporary by definition.
Warranties also carry a notice clause: written notice to the manufacturer within a set number of days of discovering the defect, and missing that window voids the coverage. Find the deadline in your own document, send the letter, mark the stain on a floor plan, and date the photographs before anyone prices the work.
Those cover a defect already found. Past repair, flat and low-slope replacement runs $12,000 to $30,000 for an area the size of a house. A commercial deck runs bigger, and the number comes off a count: curbs, drains, linear feet of base flashing, and how much insulation is wet. More on roofing costs.
- What it isHolding the water back, then a permanent repair the warranty will accept
- Where it failsBase flashings at the turn, pitch pans, drains and curbs
- Before you bid itDefects marked on a roof plan, with dated photographs
- Outside C-39Rooftop HVAC is C-20, drain piping C-36, gutters C-43
Base flashing splits at the turn
A base flashing is where a horizontal surface turns up a vertical one, and the two move against each other as the roof heats. It splits at the turn, not in the field. Height is covered on commercial roof replacement. On a repair the question is what the flashing is fastened to. NRCA says do not anchor it to a parapet unless the parapet and the substrate cannot move independently, because a flashing fastened across that joint tears there.
A pitch pan is a maintenance item
NRCA has discouraged pitch pans for decades, and they are seldom built to specification. The sealant dries out and pulls from the sides, and once the surface goes concave the pan holds water. Use a curb or boot flashing where the penetration allows one.
Start at the drain
Pull the strainer and count the bolts holding the clamping ring down. They go missing one at a time, and the membrane lifts where they are gone. A damaged ring and the joint below it are the plumber's items. NRCA recommends a sump at every internal drain, the bowl diameter plus 24 inches, so a 12-inch bowl gets 36 by 36 inches. California Building Code section 1503.4.2.1 sets overflow scupper height as adopted in your jurisdiction. If the pipe below the bowl leaks, no work on the membrane around it will stop the water.
Finding where the water gets in
Where the deck corrugations run parallel to the slope, water runs downhill inside the flute until it reaches a lap in the decking, and that lap is where it shows up inside. A hose test traces it, starting at the drain and working upstream in stages so each element is wetted alone. A moisture survey finds wet insulation without pinpointing the source, and NRCA does not recommend flood testing, which loads a roof built to shed flowing water. Core cuts are on commercial roof replacement, standing water on commercial roofing.
What a sound patch looks like
TPO oxidizes on exposure, and past a short weathering window the sheet has to be cleaned with weathered membrane cleaner before anything is welded to it. The manufacturer's repair instructions set that window. A finished weld is continuous and free of voids across the full width the manufacturer specifies, and every seam gets probed once cool with a blunt probe, which will not enter a sound lap. EPDM takes seam adhesive or a tape cover strip in place of a weld, with the lap cleaned and primed first. On modified bitumen the patch is like material cut oversize, and NRCA's repair guidance gives the dimensions. Corners get rounded, because square corners lift and peel.
The building underneath stays open
Asphalt, adhesives, coatings and solvents give off fumes that reach the space below through active HVAC systems. Occupants notice roofing asphalt at low concentrations, and odor is not an exposure measurement. The building's safety people decide the response. The units that pull air off the roof get shut down or covered by the building engineer while work is over them, and the kettle sits downwind of every intake. Torch work requires a fire watch under the California Fire Code, during the work and for not less than 30 minutes after. NFPA 51B, 2019 edition, takes that to one hour. Ask which the permit is written to. Before older material comes off, South Coast AQMD Rule 1403 requires an asbestos survey report signed by a consultant.
What to ask before you accept a price
- Which items are temporary and which are permanent, priced separately?
- Where is each defect marked on a roof plan, and where are the photographs?
- Whose specification is the repair written to, and who is putting it in front of the manufacturer for written approval?
- What are the unit prices per square foot and per linear foot?
- What is the CSLB license number of the roofer who will attend, and does the classification cover the work?
- Which parts of the job fall outside C-39? Rooftop HVAC is C-20, drain piping is C-36, gutters are C-43.
Hand every bidder the same sheet. Three prices written against three different scopes tell you nothing about the roof.
The offer
$500 off a new roof, 10% off any repair
Start online and it is attached to your request, with nothing to remember.
- We get on the roof, and into the attic if that is where the answer is
- You get photographs of whatever we find
- The price in writing, with nothing to sign on the day
Where we work
Across Los Angeles County
Tell us what is going on
A description is enough to start. We will come out, look at the roof properly, and give you the price in writing.