Salt Lake County, Utah
Roofing in the Sandy area
Honest roof work in Sandy, from a family company in its second generation.
What this valley does to a roof
The bench neighborhoods catch canyon wind coming down out of Little and Big Cottonwood, and it hits rake edges harder than open valley wind does.
We walk a Sandy roof before quoting it rather than pricing it from a satellite image.
The weather a Sandy roof works against
Wet leaves against a wall line
Where a lower roof runs into a two-story wall, leaves and needles collect in that inside corner and stay. The pile holds water directly against the bottom of the siding and the top of the step flashing, which is the one place on a roof where a little standing moisture does the most damage.
Clear the corner, check the kickout
A kickout flashing at the bottom of that run throws the water into the gutter instead of behind the siding. Plenty of houses up here were built without one.
Fog that never burns off
Valley fog in the cold months sits low and holds. It puts a film of moisture on everything without registering as precipitation, which is why a homeowner can swear it has not rained in three weeks while the roof has been wet the whole time. Organic debris in a valley stays soft and packed instead of drying out and blowing clear.
Where that shows first
Under the bottom course at a wall, and in the seam where a porch roof ties into the main body of the house.
The valley floor sees less snow than the benches above it, but the benches above it are where a lot of the housing is. A roof in Holladay or Cottonwood Heights lives a different winter from one in Kearns, five miles away.
What we find on roofs around Sandy
Dry-in is the real milestone
The moment that decides whether a re-roof goes well is not when the last shingle goes down, it is when the deck is covered, taped at the penetrations and sealed at the edges. From that point the house is weather-tight and everything after it is finish work. A crew that understands this never leaves at the end of a day with bare deck showing.
Ice barrier goes down first
Eaves, valleys and every pipe before any field underlayment. Working from the bottom up means every sheet laps over the one below it the way water expects.
Then the metal, then the field
In that order, every time.
Intake and exhaust have to match
Attic ventilation is a balance, and most of the failures we find are unbalanced. Ridge vent with the soffit stuffed full of insulation is exhaust with no intake, so the attic pulls its air from the house instead and drags moisture up with it.
How it shows up
Frost on the sheathing in January, a hot attic in July, curling shingles on the upper courses, and an ice dam at the eave that nobody can explain.
Baffles are cheap
Keeping the insulation off the soffit with a proper chute fixes more roofs than most people would believe.
Sandy is part of our Salt Lake County work. 27 years in the trade, and a full replacement carries our 10-year workmanship warranty.
What we do around Sandy
Every service is its own page. These are the ones Sandy asks for most.
Roofing
Full replacements and new roofs on Sandy homes, deck up.
Repairs
Leaks and failed details, which is most of what Sandy calls about.
Upkeep
Inspections, cleaning and sealing before a small thing gets expensive.
Shingles
Architectural laminate, the field material on most of this valley.
Metal
Standing seam and corrugated, common on canyon-side snow load.
Tile
Clay and concrete tile, and the flashing work they need.
Commercial
Membrane systems for flat and low-slope buildings around Sandy.
Coatings
Restoration coatings when a commercial roof has life left.
Storm
Hail, wind and the insurance paperwork that follows.
Skylights
Installation and the curb-flashing repairs skylights usually need.
Gutters
Gutters, downspouts and fascia, which are part of the roof.
Government
Schools, city, county, state and federal buildings. Every government service is on the government roofing page.
How the job runs
The insurance path on storm work
When a storm does real damage, the path runs through your carrier, and the order matters. Document the damage first, file the claim, and be on the roof with the adjuster when they come out. We meet adjusters because it is the one chance to point at bruising and lifted tabs while somebody with authority is looking.
What we do not do
We do not tell you a roof is totaled when it is repairable, and we do not promise what an adjuster will decide. That call is theirs.
When the weather turns mid-job
Forecasts here are wrong on a regular basis, so the plan assumes it. The plan includes enough underlayment and tarp on site to close up whatever is open, and the call to stop tearing off and start closing up gets made early rather than optimistically. Nobody wins a race against a cell coming over the benches.
What that means for your schedule
A job that was two days becomes three. Every time, we would rather explain a day than explain a wet ceiling.
Roofs around Sandy
Work from around the valley
The work happens after the handshake
Anybody can be pleasant during a walkthrough. What matters is whether the same person is pleasant on the third morning when the decking is worse than expected and somebody has to make a phone call they would rather not make. That is the part of this job that decides who a company is.
Bad news travels fast here
You hear it from us before you find it yourself.
How a callback gets handled
If you call us about a roof we replaced, we come look. There is no screening call to decide whether it is our fault first. We would rather drive out and find that a gutter is clogged than argue on the phone about whether it could possibly be the flashing we installed.
Getting it wrong happens
People install roofs and people make mistakes. What separates shops is what happens in the week after somebody finds one.
We come back
A full replacement carries our 10-year workmanship warranty.
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 actually work in Sandy?
Regularly. Sandy is ordinary working territory for us, not an outlying job we take when it is quiet.
How fast can you get to Sandy after a storm?
As fast as we can get there. Stopping the water comes first and the permanent repair follows once the weather opens a window.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Where Sandy sits on our map
Our Salt Lake County route covers Sandy, so a look at a roof here does not wait on a gap.
Talk to Hancock
Roof work in Sandy
Call (801) 382-8898. Photographs of what we find come back to you either way.