Flashing

Flashing Repair, Replacement & Maintenance

The roof top of most homes consists of an overlapping series of shingles and flashing. Flashing is thin metal, generally aluminum, steel or copper, that protects openings in the roof.

To better understand roof flashing repair, some roof anatomy 101 is needed:

Roof Valleys: Roof valleys are the points where sloped sections of roof meet, usually at an angle. The valleys direct water into the gutters to remove it from your roof. Valleys may be made of materials such as metal flashing, interlaced shingles or rolled roofing. The repair technique you use will depend on what kind of material forms the valleys and the manner in which the valleys are constructed. In open valley construction, shingles do not cover the valley, which has flashing or rolled roofing material as the base. In closed valley construction, interlaced shingles form the valley. Valleys are weak spots in a roof, prone to leaks that may worsen during heavy rainfall because of the way the shingles are applied over and around the area.

Clean, well-kept roof valleys improve your home’s appearance and protect the structure from damage.

Flashing Around Chimneys: Step flashing is a precut piece or pieces of aluminum coil that is cut and bent to fit around the chimney to lock out water that can seep in the adjoining roof fields.

An extraction of shingles is necessary around this area for enough room to remove old flashing, install the new flashing, and then new shingles will be matched and installed to complete the job.

Flashing Around Skylights: The purpose of all roof flashing including skylight flashing is to keep as much of the moisture as possible on the surface of the roofing material. Skylights are one of the most troublesome roofing details. This is true of skylights on steep roofs and flat roofs. Most problems are associated with poor quality installation, although in some cases, it is a problem associated with the quality of the skylight.

If you imagine that a skylight mounted on a curb is a very short chimney, it's easy to understand how the flashing details can be done correctly. Base and cap flashing strategies can be used and step flashings along the sides are employed. In some cases, a counter flashing is provided; in other cases the skylight curb itself forms the counter flashing.

In some cases, it's not possible to find out where the skylight is leaking. Since most of the installation details are concealed from view, you usually can't pinpoint the weak link. In some situations, the "leak" may actually be condensation. In our years of experience there have only been a few of these repair jobs where the leak was not obvious.

Roof Vents:Roof vent pipes and sewer vent pipes will always have flashing around them where the shingles come in contact witht the opening through which the protusion in your roof extends. Flashing is present under the layer of shingles that butts up against the vent pipe in order to detour water from leaking into your home's interior.

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Shown: Tear out of old, or poor flashing & replacing with properly cut, custom valley metal, step flashing, & counter flashing for a brick chimney.

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Shown: A specific extraction on a Timberline roof of an adjoining wall, valley, and furnace flu; major leak repair!

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Shown: Removal of necessary wood shingles around a complex, large leaking poorly flashed skylight.

Overlooking the roof of your home is a recipe for disaster. It is not an overly simplistic view to consider that every other structure, possession or feature of your home could be potentially destroyed if the roof is compromised. Maintaining a strong and secure roof is a critical part of overall home maintenance.

A New Addition: When an new addition is built on a house or when a roof is extended, the tilt of one roof can meet the angle of another, creating what is known as a valley. This valley poses difficulties to roof builders, because it represents a weak point in roof construction. If not shingled and fixed in properly, leaks can develop and ruin roof materials below. There are several methods Roof Doctor, Inc. can use to repair those leaks.