Bell Gardens, CA
Flat roofs do not shed water. They hold it back.
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 Bell Gardens contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in Bell Gardens 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
- Whether a coating is being sold as a repair
- Drain, scupper and overflow provision
- Which membrane, and how the seams are joined
- How the flat section is flashed into adjoining walls and pitched roofs
Single-ply membranes — TPO, PVC, EPDM — are heat-welded or taped at the seams. The seams and the terminations are the whole job.
Look at the flashing where the flat section meets a wall. That transition leaks far more often than the field of the membrane does.
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
The second problem is morning fog that sits on the roof until mid-morning. Damp that arrives every morning and leaves by lunchtime is worse for a roof than rain, because nothing ever fully dries between one and the next.
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.
How long should a roof last here?
An architectural asphalt roof is rated for twenty-five to thirty years and, in this climate, tends to land at the lower end of that. Tile and metal go much further, provided what is underneath them is maintained.
What does a new roof cost in Bell Gardens?
Most quotes here for a standard asphalt replacement come in around $12,500 to $27,000. That assumes one layer to remove and sound decking. Every quote you get should say in writing what happens if the decking is not sound.
Should I take the cheapest quote?
Only if it is the same roof. Most large gaps between quotes are scope gaps. Ask the cheapest contractor which of the other quotes items they have left out, and why.
Get the roof looked at
Free, no obligation, and your details go to no company until you say yes.