Roof Flashing Repair in San Antonio, TX

When we trace a leak in Bexar County, the shingles usually aren't the problem. Water gets in at a joint, where the roof stops and a chimney, wall or pipe starts. Flashing is the metal bridging that gap. Once it rusts, lifts or works loose from the mortar, you've got a leak, and the stain tends to show up downhill from the actual hole. That's why so many people blame the wrong spot.

Chimneys need two layers: step flashing under the shingles, counter-flashing set into the mortar. A lot of older San Antonio houses have one layer and a thick coat of tar. Walls need a piece of step flashing on every shingle course, and skipped pieces are the shortcut we find most often. Valleys fill with live oak leaves and acorns that hold water on the metal until it rusts through. Pipe boots crack in the sun. Skylights leak when somebody bent their own metal in the field instead of using the factory kit.

What we don't do is sweep or reline a flue. Our flashing work is all on the outside of the chimney. If the damper or liner needs help, you want a chimney specialist, and we'll tell you so.

Flashing has a rough life here. Heat is the first reason. In August a dark shingle roof gets a lot hotter than the air, so the metal expands and shrinks every single day, and sealant can't keep up. A caulk-only chimney repair in San Antonio lasts about two summers in our experience. So caulk is our backup, never the repair.

Movement is the second. A masonry chimney sits on its own footing, and on the clay soil under much of the city, that footing shifts differently than the house does. Counter-flashing slowly creeps out of the mortar joint. We see it all the time on pre-1980 brick homes in Monte Vista, King William and the South Side. Own one in our San Antonio service area? We look at the chimney first.

Third, storms. Flashing, vents and boots are the soft metal on a roof, and hail marks them before anything else. The April 28, 2021 storm along I-10 and the 4.5-inch Helotes hail on April 12, 2016 both left dented valleys and split boots all over the metro. Get a free roof inspection after a storm and you'll catch that before the next rain does.

A flashing repair shouldn't turn into a new-roof pitch. Here's what actually happens.

1. Walk the roof and the attic. We match the stain inside to the joint outside. Water travels, so the drip is rarely right under the hole.
2. Make sure it's flashing. Sometimes it's a cracked shingle or a popped nail uphill, and then it's a plain roof leak repair, priced as one.
3. Open the joint. Shingles come up around the chimney, wall or valley, and the old metal comes out.
4. Check the decking. If a leak ran for a season, the plywood under a chimney is often soft. We replace it. Bigger areas are a roof decking replacement.
5. Install new metal, fastened to the manufacturer's spec and tied into the underlayment.
6. Water-test it. Ten minutes of hose on the joint with someone watching from the attic.

You'll get photos of each step. Most single-spot repairs are done in one working day. A wide chimney that needs a cricket and new decking takes longer, and you'll hear that before we start. It's one part of the roof repair work we do around the San Antonio metro.

Flashing is fussy work. You can tell an experienced crew by how a step flashing course lines up. Ours have that experience: our 8 full crew teams have worked side by side with us for over 20 years, across 2,800+ completed projects, and owner Charlie Carreon still climbs the tricky chimneys himself. We're veteran owned, registered and insured, and Charlie's 30 years in roofing go into every flashing detail.

If a repair needs new shingles, we use Owens Corning and GAF so the patch blends in. When hail or wind caused it, our in-house former insurance adjusters document the damage, meet your adjuster on the roof and handle the insurance claim. Flashing that simply wore out isn't covered under most policies, though, and we'd rather tell you that than file a claim that goes nowhere.

Ruben S. put it this way in his Google review: "Charlie and his crew were quick! Professional! Great work! Thank you for helping our family with the roof issue and you guys did great on fixing it!" Request a free estimate and we'll set up a time to walk your roof.