5 Questions to ask Your Roofer When Replacing Your Roof

Roof flashings are a very important aspect of your roof. Good or bad flashings can severely impact the roof.  Roof flashings protect the penetrations on the roof. Often when your roof starts going bad it starts leaking at the penetrations.

The drip edge and gutter apron are the flashings that protect the edge of your roof.  Proper eve flashing is important for your gutters to work correctly.  Often we get phone calls that our gutters are not working properly and it is a drip edge issue.  Older drip edge was made of steel and eventually rusts pretty bad and can cause streaking on your gutters and fascia as well as not working properly.

When replacing your roof confirm that all pipe flashings are being replaced. This may seem like a obvious but often cheaper contractors will re-use them. These flashings will last the life of your roof but are not made to last 50 years and will be eventually the cause of your roof leak if not replaced with the roof.  Older houses sometimes have the electrical mast go through the roof and there is a specialty flashing made for going around this. They are called a split boot or zip boot.  Often this flashing isn’t replaced by many contractors.

Chimney flashing is often the culprit of many roof leak phone calls. When replacing the roof is it good to replace the flashing around the flashing including the step flashing.  Some contractors will try and re-use old flashings. We have even run across guys that have spray painted the old flashing to make it look they replaced it.  Being that we are in the midwest we install ice and water shield around the base of the chimney as well as an extra preventative measure.  When your chimney is in the middle of the roof it is important to have a cricket behind it instead of a dead end.  You want all the water to flow around the chimney and not be sitting behind the chimney. this can cause big issues during the winter with ice damming.

This is the flashing that goes from the roofing to siding or masonry.  This can be sometimes re-used but must be properly inspected that is the proper size and not full of holes or torn.  This flashing if needed to be replaced has to be done while doing the roof. Step flashing is very important. People that don’t replace this often put a bead of sealant just where the roof meets the wall and this will not protect you very long

A kick-out flashing is required where to wall extends past the roof. It is the bottom flashing on step flashing.  Many inexperienced roofers don’t install these and can almost guarantee that if not installed will cause you damage. If this isn’t installed the water will run directly down the wall. This often causes framing issues and can cost thousands to fix instead of installing the flashing that cost less than $5.   ( use the photo I put on Facebook last week for this one)

Flashings cost a very small percentage of the roofing materials but can cause major havoc on your roof if they are not replaced or installed properly.