Roof maintenance

Maintenance looks different depending on the material, because each one fails a different way.

• Tile: checking for slipped or cracked tile, resealing ridge and hip caps, and clearing debris from valleys, without disturbing the felt underneath, which is a separate conversation covered on the tile roofing page.
• Shingle: clearing debris, resealing pipe boots, and checking that attic ventilation is still balanced. The single biggest factor in how long a shingle roof actually lasts.
• Foam & flat: mainly the recoat cycle covered on the foam & flat roofing page, plus clearing drains and checking for new ponding between coats.
• Metal: checking sealant at penetrations and fasteners and clearing debris from valleys. There's no coating to renew, which is most of why metal costs less to maintain than it does to buy.

Twice a year is the sensible default here. Once in spring, before monsoon season loads the roof with wind and debris, and once in fall, to check what that season actually did. A once-a-year minimum still catches most of what matters; it just means one visit is doing the work of two, so nothing goes unnoticed for more than twelve months at a stretch. Full sun, large daily temperature swings, and a hard monsoon season all push harder on a Valley roof than a mild climate would, which is why we don't recommend stretching the interval further than that.

Maintenance doesn't make a roof last forever. It keeps you catching problems while they're still a maintenance line item instead of a leak. A slipped tile found in spring is a five-minute fix. The same tile left through a monsoon season can mean a soaked deck by fall. The roof still ages either way; maintenance just changes whether you find out about it on your schedule or on the roof's.

Warranty coverage depends on the products and application on your job. We'll walk you through the manufacturer and workmanship terms in your quote. Either way, a maintenance visit is worth more than just the work done during it. It's also a dated record of the roof's condition, which is worth having if you ever need to make a claim.

That said, maintenance stops making sense once the roof is genuinely at the end of its material's service life rather than just showing normal wear. At that point you're paying to visit a problem that a visit can't fix. We'll tell you when we think you've crossed that line instead of continuing to bill you for maintenance on a roof that actually needs replacing.