Repairs and leaks
Roof repair and leaks in Los Angeles
Leaks, open seams, cracked tile and lifted shingles, on flat roofs and pitched ones. Every repair goes into the building's file as a pin with a photo.
Tenant reporting a leak? We come the same day.
Most roof problems on an apartment building are first seen from inside it: a ring on a ceiling in a top-floor unit, or water on a landing after a storm. The place the water shows is often some distance from the place it gets in, so a repair starts on the roof above the stain and works back along the path the water took.
When a tenant reports a leak
Give us the address and the unit. We stop the water that day and tell you, or the tenant, once it has. The leak goes into the building's file as a new pin, and the repair is scoped on its next page.
If we have worked on the building before, the plan comes back out and the leak becomes the next number on it.
What owners and managers hear about first
- A ring on a top-floor ceiling that grows with each storm
- Water on a stairwell landing or along an outside walkway
- Paint lifting above a top-floor window
- Pieces of tile on the path under the roof edge
- Granules collecting where a downspout empties
- A wet patch where a top-floor wall meets the ceiling
What we repair
On a flat roof the repair is usually at an edge or an opening. Seams open where the cap sheet turns up a parapet. A strainer packed with leaves backs water up around its drain, and the flashing around vent pipes and rooftop units dries out and splits. Those are cut out, patched and sealed one section at a time, as set out on flat and low-slope roofs.
On a pitched roof it is cracked or slipped tile, lifted shingle tabs, worn flashing at a chimney or a wall, and the rubber boots around vent pipes. A tile repair often turns up felt that has given out under tiles that still look sound, which is a different job, explained on tile roofs.
A repair covers the section it is in. If the rest of the roof is wearing out, the file says so on its Next line, with a year range to budget for, and the repair still goes ahead.
How a repair goes
- You call or send the building's details. We return the call within a few hours. For water coming in now, phone it in.
- The visit is free and takes about 45 minutes a roof. Every parapet and drain gets looked at, then the top-floor ceilings under them where we can get in.
- Before the day is out you have a plan of the roof, a numbered pin for each thing we saw, and the photo that goes with it.
- The written scope follows within 48 hours. Each section of the roof carries its own price, so a board can approve one repair and hold the rest.
- After the work, every pin gets its line: what we found there and what we did about it, including anything we left alone and why. The invoice follows in the same pin order.
What decides the price of a repair
- Which section the problem is in, and how much of the surface around it is wet underneath
- The covering: cap sheet, torch-down, tile or shingle
- Getting to it: the height of the building, a roof hatch or an outside stair, and where a truck can park
- What turns up once the surface is open
Rot found once a roof is open goes in as a new pin with a photo, and its own invoice line once you approve it.
Questions about repairs
Do you repair roofs somebody else put on?
Yes. Who installed the roof makes no difference to the visit or to the file. The first page records what is up there now.
Will you need to get into the units?
Sometimes, to see the ceiling under a leak. We arrange it with you or the manager first. We don't knock on doors unless you ask.
Can the insurer have a copy?
Yes. The insurer's copy is the invoice broken out per pin, with the completion report behind it.
The leak stopped on its own. Should someone still look?
Yes, if the stain has come back after more than one storm or sits over a unit somebody lives in. A leak that stops in dry weather has usually only stopped being fed.
Free building visit
The building visit is free.
Your file starts that day, with photos of your roof.
Roofs we work on
Every kind of roof in the county, flat ones first.
Start here
Need the roof explained to someone else? We'll write it down.
Four questions about the building, then your ZIP and phone.
- 1Which building is it?
- 2How many units?
- 3Who needs the paperwork?
- 4By when?
The building visit is free. Or call (310) 857-2520.