New Construction Roofing
Roofing on new builds, scheduled to the framing.
What new construction roofing involves
We come in when the deck is ready and get the building dried in without holding up the trades behind us.
On a build the roof is a schedule item before it is a finish. We treat it that way.
What matters on new construction roofing
What we find most often
On houses in this valley the three recurring findings are unbalanced ventilation, flashing that was sealed rather than formed, and decking that went soft under a valley nobody could see into. All three are invisible from the ground and all three are cheap to fix while the roof is already open.
What the age of the house tells us
A house built in the 1950s, one built in the 1980s and one built last year each fail differently. Older stock tends to have thinner decking and original framing that was never sized for a second layer of shingles. Houses from the building booms tend to share a builder’s ventilation shortcut across a whole subdivision. New construction usually fails at a detail somebody rushed to hit a schedule.
New Construction Roofing on real jobs
How the system goes together
Decking is the part nobody plans for
The sheathing under the roof only gets looked at once every couple of decades, which is when the old roof comes off. Older homes up here might have skip sheathing, plank decking with gaps, or plywood that has been soft over a leak for years. It gets replaced where it is bad, because fasteners do not hold in punky wood and a soft deck telegraphs every wave through a new roof.
It is measured, not guessed
Sheet count gets documented once the roof is open, before anything goes back down.
Ridge cap is its own material
The cap along a ridge or a hip is the most exposed run on any roof and the most abused during installation. Cutting three-tab pieces to serve as cap on an architectural roof is a common shortcut, and the folded pieces crack at the bend within a few seasons up here. Purpose-made hip and ridge stock is thicker, pre-bent, and holds the fold through the cold.
Nail placement is the other half
Fasteners land under the next piece’s overlap, never through the weather surface where they sit exposed to the sky.
What we check
- Soft spots underfoot, particularly below valleys
- Delamination at panel edges
- Fastener backing out through the sheathing
- Span between rafters against panel thickness
How we approach it
Look first
We get on the roof and read what is actually happening before quoting anything.
Say what we find
Photographs and a plain explanation, including when the answer is that you do not need us yet.
Built in sequence
Crews we hire and run, working the right detail in the right order.
Leave it clean
Magnet over the yard, container gone, walked with you.
Microclimate changes street to street
Two homes ten minutes apart can be on completely different roofs in terms of what they endure. Elevation, whether the lot sits in a canyon draw, how much tree cover is overhead, and which direction the main slope faces all change the answer. A roof age that is fine on a shaded north-facing bench home is well past done on an exposed south-facing lot at a higher elevation.
Why we look before we talk
That is the reason we get on a roof before saying anything about it.
Rain driven sideways into a lap
Shingles are built to shed water running downhill. A thirty mile an hour gust with rain in it does not run downhill, it runs across and up. That is the one condition where a lap that has worked for fifteen years lets water through, and it is the reason a leak can appear in a specific storm and then never again.
Chasing a wind-only leak
You cannot find it on a dry day by looking. You find it by knowing which wall faces the weather and checking every horizontal joint on that face.
What this looks like on a real roof
There is a version of new construction roofing that gets sold off a clipboard in the driveway and a version that comes off actually reading the roof. The second one costs the same and lasts.
What follows is the part most people never get told: what usually went wrong before we arrived, and what the job looks like when it is done in the right order.
Where roofs go wrong
The shortcut we see most
Shingles laid over a second existing layer to save a tear-off. It hides the decking, adds weight the framing was not sized for, and guarantees that the next roof is a bigger job than this one should have been.
What good looks like instead
Down to the deck, sheathing repaired where it is soft, ice barrier where the eaves need it, and the flashing formed rather than sealed.
Signs worth a look
- Granules collecting in the gutters or at the downspout discharge
- Tabs lifting or curling along a rake or ridge
- Shingles that look bare or patchy from the street
- Staining or daylight visible in the attic
What to expect
How long it takes
Most houses in this valley are one to two days on site once the crew arrives. What stretches it is pitch, the number of existing layers to strip, and how many valleys and penetrations the roof has. We tell you which of those apply to yours before the schedule is set.
What happens to your yard
Tarps go down over landscaping and the drive before anything comes off the roof. Material is staged where it will not crack concrete. At the end of every day the site gets cleared, and when the job is finished a magnet goes over the whole yard for nails.
What you should expect from us
A walk of the roof before anything is quoted, photographs of what we found, a plain explanation of what needs doing and what does not, and Hancock answering for the job through to the finish.
Related work
Roofing covers more than one job, and they are not interchangeable. These are the others in the same family, each on its own page.
Questions we get asked
Not the question you had? Call the shop and ask a person. We would rather talk it through than have you guess from a website.
(801) 382-8898Do you work on older homes?
Yes, and they often need different handling. A 1950s bungalow and a new bench build have different decking, framing and ventilation realities.
Will you protect my landscaping?
Yes. We tarp and stage before anything comes off the roof, and we run a magnet over the yard before we leave.
How do I know when a roof is getting close?
Granules collecting in the gutters, tabs lifting or curling at the edges, shingles that look bare in patches, and daylight or staining in the attic. Any of those is worth a look.
How long does a roof replacement take?
Most houses in this valley are a one to two day job once the crew is on site. Steeper pitches, multiple layers to strip and complicated roofs with a lot of valleys take longer, and we tell you which yours is before we start.
What happens if you find bad decking?
We show you. The decking is only visible during a tear-off, so that is when soft sheathing gets found and replaced. We photograph it rather than just add it to a list.
What makes a Utah roof different?
Snow load, ice at the eaves, canyon wind and high-altitude sun, all on the same roof. A crew that learned roofing somewhere mild has to learn it again up here.
Ask about new construction roofing
Call (801) 382-8898 or send a note. We will look at the roof and tell you straight what it needs.