La Habra, CA
Flat roof work in La Habra, CA
A pitched roof sheds water. A flat roof is a shallow tray that has to be watertight everywhere at once, which is a much harder thing to build.
Describe the flat roofing job
Three questions, then the address. Up to three La Habra contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in La Habra 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
- Drain, scupper and overflow provision
- Whether a coating is being sold as a repair
- Which membrane, and how the seams are joined
Ponding water is the enemy. Anything still sitting there forty-eight hours after rain is a design problem, and tapered insulation is usually the answer.
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.
Locally
Then, less dramatically: morning fog that sits on the roof until mid-morning. Nothing dramatic happens. A slope stays damp most mornings for thirty years, and eventually that is enough.
About flat roofing here
Do I have to hire anyone?
Not at all. Plenty of people use this to find out what a job costs and then do nothing for a year. That is a perfectly reasonable outcome.
Do I need a permit?
Yes, in nearly every jurisdiction a re-roof is permitted work. A contractor who suggests skipping it is telling you something useful about how they work.
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.
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.
Get the roof looked at
No cost. We email you once when a provider near you can take it on.
