Roof Repair in Pasadena, CA

Pasadena wrote the book this county's tile roofs are read from. The bungalow neighborhoods and the revival streets above the Arroyo carry clay tile and Spanish detailing from the 1920s and 1930s, a full century of sun on the underlayment beneath tile that still photographs beautifully. Add the ranch stock toward the east side, the foothill houses climbing toward Altadena, and the flat-topped garages and additions behind everything, and Pasadena is a whole roofing library in one city.

Read a Pasadena roof by its layer, not its looks. The tile on a Madison Heights or Linda Vista house is very often original and very often fine. The felt under it is on its second or third life, and the season's leaks gather where the generations disagree: at laps and joints the tile hands water to a layer that can no longer hold it. The honest first move here is a lifted section and a plain report on the felt, slope by slope, before anyone says the word replacement out loud.

Common Pasadena roof problems: clay tile over brittle felt, valley metal worn through under debris, parapet and scupper details on the Spanish-style houses, comp shingles at end of life on the bungalow stock, ponding on garage and addition flats.