What roof deck repair involves
Bad sections cut out and replaced while the roof is open, before anything goes back on.
You only see the decking during a tear-off. That is when it gets fixed.
What matters on roof deck repair
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.
Roof Deck Repair on real jobs
How the system goes together
Counterflashing let into the masonry
Where a roof meets brick or stone, the honest detail cuts a groove into a mortar joint, tucks the top edge of the metal into it, and seals the groove. Water running down the wall face hits metal and gets thrown out onto the roof. The shortcut runs the metal flat up the wall and caulks the top edge, which works until the caulk moves.
Surface-mounted is a temporary answer
We will do it that way on an emergency repair and tell you plainly that it needs to be cut in properly when there is time.
Six nails in the right line
Every shingle wrapper prints a nailing pattern and a nail line, and that pattern is what the wind rating was earned with. High nailing misses the reinforced strip and leaves the nail head sitting in the exposed area of the shingle below. Four nails where the wrapper asks for six cuts the uplift resistance on the one part of the roof the wind works hardest.
Overdriven is as bad as missing
A gun set too hot cuts through the mat and the shingle is hanging on a hole.
Cheapest detail to get right
And the most common thing done wrong.
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.
Freeze and thaw works on everything
A February day here can swing forty degrees between sunrise and mid afternoon. Water gets into a nail hole, a lap, a crack in the flashing sealant. It freezes overnight and expands. It thaws and goes deeper. Multiply that by a hundred cycles a winter and small openings become real ones. It is slow, and it is the reason a roof that was fine three winters ago is leaking now.
Sealant is a maintenance item
Anything relying on caulk has a clock on it. Flashings that rely on metal geometry instead of sealant last a great deal longer.
A slide onto a walkway
A loaded slope above a front door or a side path is a safety matter before it is a roofing one. Snow releases in one piece, and a hundred pounds landing on a step is how people get hurt. It also tears at the gutter on the way past and bends the hangers out of the fascia.
Fixing it means changing the geometry
Retention hardware, or a small roof over the entry to break the fall, or moving the path. Something has to change, because the slope will keep doing what slopes do.
What this looks like on a real roof
There is a version of roof deck repair 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.
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.
Will you tell me if I do not need a new roof?
Yes. Plenty of what we look at turns out to be a repair, and we say so. A roof with years left in it gets left alone, and you get the photographs either way.
Do you handle the insurance side?
On hail-damaged roofs, we work with your insurance to get the roof covered. We document the damage thoroughly with photographs, so the claim reflects what is actually on the roof.
Ask about roof deck repair
Call (801) 382-8898 or send a note. We will look at the roof and tell you straight what it needs.