As a home or business owner, it’s inevitable that you’ll face roof leaks or repairs you need to remedy asap to prevent further damage. We present to you the most common roof related repairs in Alberta you’ll eventually face as a home or business owner.
Summary of common roof repairs:
From wind: blown out shingles from the roof or detached chimney cap.
From hail: seen in the form of broken roof accessories, skylights or fractured shingles.
From poor maintenance: related to weathered sealants, around roof vents or skylights.
For metal roofs: weathered sealants around fasteners or mechanical damage.
For flat roofs: poor adhesion to seams and blistering.
Repairs related to deficiencies (e.g. manufacturer or poor workmanship): flashing issues (missing kick-out flashing), inadequate ventilation (e.g. soffit), improper vent placement, exposed roofing nails etc.
Common wind-related roof repairs:
With Calgary being the windiest larger city in Canada, and southern Alberta as a whole, you will most likely see wind damage to your roof eventually. Common wind related roof damage you’ll see are:
Blown of shingles
If you see shingle strips in your yard after a windy day or night, it most likely fell of your roof.
We can’t stress enough the immediate need to contract a roofing company right away! If you procrastinate in doing so, the upcoming damage from moisture to roof deck, attic insulation and drywall ceiling will cost at least x5 fold more to repair after the fact.
Pro tip: Always get the wind package when you’re re-roofing or installing shingle system on a brand new build. That means 6 roofing nails to a shingle strip instead of 4 nails.
Most roofers in Calgary and Alberta, will deduct the cost for wind package if you ask for a discount. It’s super easy for a roofer to add 6 nails instead of four, and the cost for additional two nails per shingle strip won’t exceed the $100 – $150 mark, depending on the amount of squares to roof.
You can always opt for a heavier shingle like Malarkey Legacy or Owens Corning Duration series, but prepare to shell out $2000 to $3000 more for these wind ad impact resistant performance shingles.
Detached roof accessories
Roofers might feel lazy sometimes and won’t nail through all pre-made holes/flange to a roof accessory. Typical example is a a turtle vent. Though blown off accessories from wind is rare for vents or exhaust vents, it’s mostly seen for chimney rain caps.
Chimney rain caps are typically made from aluminum (at least the newer ones) and will bend and crook/break away from its fasteners. Usually a fastener or two will help keep it attached and possibly grant some time for someone to notice.
Leaks from wind driven rain
Typical for a low pitch roof that’s 4/12 or below that.
Roof facets that will most of the times face a storm e.g. the north & west facing facets for Calgary, and are low pitch, will be more prone to one-time water ingress because of the limited water shedding ability. Keep in mind that wind driven rain isn’t covered by over 90% of home insurance carriers, but usually it’s a one time event.
Structural issues to roof trusses (super serious & super rare)
We’ve seen this happen to old commercial roofs to shops and barns. These builds will usually have two or more overhead doors open at most times for conducting activities. Wind gets in all the time and doesn’t have where to escape out of the build.
The positive pressure created by the wind coming into the build, and putting pressure on the trusses can detach the lumber from its plates. Strong winds can even blow off an older but sturdy metal roof.
These will be mainly older builds that might or not, have other structural issues. But in a windy southern Alberta, this is something to be wary off.
Common hail-related roof repairs you’ll face:
Granule loss and fractured shingles
Hailstorms are common in Calgary and Southern Alberta. If a roof doesn’t get hammered in a hail storm, a full roof replacement won’t be necessary and repairs should do it. Replacing shingle strips by a professional roofer should be enough.
Damage (holes) to roof vents
Taping over holes to roof vents will be enough to prevent moisture ingress in the attic until roof vents get replaced.
If you own a bungalow or the garage’s roof vents are broken and you feel comfortable with heights or have some basic height safety training you might apply temporary repairs yourself.
That wouldn’t be recommended as home insurance carriers will cover temp repairs. Usually a roofing vendor will be out the same or next day to apply emergency repairs.
Broken glazing to skylights
Depending how hard your roof gets hit in a hail storm and the type of skylight you have, you might experience damage to skylights from hail.
help Calgarians – Active leak from hail damaged skylight in Harvest Oak Cir NE
Pro tip: Skylight installation in Calgary can be pricey, and they’re definitely not the roof accessory where you want to save. Go get the best energy efficient and hail resistant skylights e.g. Velux offers 10 year of hail warranty, with proprietary flashing. You can thank us later as there’s a lot of liability if you don’t opt for the most high quality skylights.
Common roof repairs due to poor maintenance (that’s on you):
Roof maintenance is usually recommended every 3 years. For new roof and assuming a good job was done with the installation, getting an inspection after whole 5 years should be pretty safe to do so. Unless there’s an immediate deficiency right after a new roof installation, the following are common causes for roof repairs in Calgary:
Weathered sealants
Super typical and easy to forget. You’ll observe this on almost any roof. Typical place are weathered sealants to roof vent fasteners, nail pops or wall flashing fasteners where siding meets the roofing system.
If your roof isn’t that steep and we find that anything under 6/12 pitch is comfortable to walk on for ‘non-roofers’, then a Polyurethane sealant found at nearest Home Depot will do the job. Get a knife while at it, and trim all weathered sealants that have expanded through time, so the new sealant application can bond well without an obstacle to fasteners.
No inspections to roofing system or attic
Attic inspections intervals should be done is similar rotation to roof inspections. Might as well do it in one go with the same roofing company. Most roofing companies in Calgary will service attic issues too.
Common issues you’ll see with attic rain in Calgary is loose air-tightness to vapour barrier placed above the drywall, not enough ventilation because of missing or miscalculated number of roof vents, blocked soffits etc.
Protip: as attics are meant to be cool or have similar temperatures to the outside weather, sometimes it takes just a few minutes to see the condition of your attic space. Reach for the attic hatch, open it and go up half body in.
Feel the temperature; if it’s cool the attic is probably venting properly, but if it’s kinda warm and closer to the home temperature than there’s something wrong.
Pointing a flashlight to the fasteners on the roof deck and checking for rust is a great indicator whether there’s condensation that’s freezing on the sheathing, before the thaw comes and attic rains happens.
Blocked eaves
Very common to see particularly in one-story builds. Bungalows are lower in altitude than two story houses, and it’s eaves are susceptible to eaves blockage by falling leaves.
Eaves filled with leaves aren’t detrimental to a house water draining, but couple that with granules from asphalt shingle de-granulation and dirt piling through the years, and now you have a mortar-alike mixture occupying space in the eaves that otherwise rainwater would be draining through.
Calgary, AB T2E 1N5
Un-addressed clogged eaves are a disaster to happen. It’s like we don’t talk enough about this.
We’ve seen countless times overflow from eaves getting behind stucco and causing discoloration to stucco, damage to house sheathing and other. Just as an example having to re-do the stucco on that elevation will now cost you over $13,500 assuming it’s a standard elevation of around 900sqft x $15 acrylic stucco price per sqft.
And if the vapour barrier behind stucco is compromised or in rare cases non-existed, then the water damage restoration will require involving your insurance.
Protip: Be proactive!! It really makes a difference if you’re looking to save money. Bundle your roof/attic/eaves inspection and cleaning and ask for a discount from your exterior company and if they’re a serious company, they will accommodate your request. For the more frugal DYI personas out there, cut a 1ft eaves (maybe you have a damaged extension laying around your yard or under-deck), and lean your ladders to the eaves and starting scooping. Have a bucket close by to pour the debris in. All the debris can go in the green bin.
Clogged & Non-slopped roof drains (common with commercial objects)
Insufficient slope with flat roofing in Calgary is not an un-common sight.
The weight of snow, heavy tools/equipment for HVAC teams on a flat roof, and bad worksmanship will eventually make you pick the phone and call a commercial roofing company. Common culprit are leaves in the fall season hovering over lower residential builds e.g. detached garages or overhanging a one story retail build e.g. a strip mall;
Common metal-related roof repairs:
Weathered sealants around roof accessories
A metal roofing system will use the highest amount of exposed fasteners. This is in contrast to a traditional shingle system where roofing nails will be covered by an overlap from the next shingle strip in the installation process. Any outside fastener will get exposed to elements and eventually succumb to rust and water ingress.
Rusted fasteners
If you’re a lucky homeowner of a metal roof here in Calgary, besides the noise that might slightly bother you when rain is pouring down, you’re probably super happy with the sturdiness it comes with especially when hail storms come. You’re probably happy too for the fact that you’ve minimized the amount of repairs to almost none. In most metal roofs in Calgary we’ve seen are installed in low pitch roof facets.
The most common repair you would need to around every 5 years. A metal roofing contractor in Calgary can probably do that for a service charge + materials for a small residential roof of 20SQ and less. For commercial price might go up but not much as sealing fasteners isn’t labour intensive.
Protip & disclamer: If you’re comfortable with ladders and getting on your metal roof, then get a caulking gun buy GEOCEL Phantom metal roof sealant red from your closest Roofmart (they have a location in SE close to Chinook and one in the NE) and start sealing rusted fasteners.
This is a particularly good sealant as it cures even in damp conditions, probably the conditions you might see a drywall ceiling stain.
Please be aware that most of falls are ladder related so take that on your own risk.
Common flat roof repairs you’ll likely need to arrange to get them done:
Improper slope leading to ponding water – Not addressing ponding water
This is directly intertwined with the aforementioned insufficient slope or clogged flat roof drains. Eventually you will face flat roof repairs caused by insufficient slope. A bad slopping design mainly made of compressed foam doesn’t channel water to the drain
Poor seam installation or weathered adhesive causing water penetration
Weathered seams are another one of those flat roof repairs you’ll need to address swiftly. Insufficient or improper application of adhesive between membranes is commonly the culprit. Wear and tear is common too so don’t preemptively blame the contractor that installed the flat roof in the first place.
Mechanical damage
Commercial HVAC units installed on a flat roof require maintenance and almost frequent visits from HVAC specialists. ‘HVAC ‘curb ‘or ‘roof ‘curb ‘or ‘equipment ‘curb’ is an area that frequently gets roofed with TPO roofing. As we know TPO is more cheaper and less reliable flat roofing membrane and it well get punctured more often then not, depending on how careful/experienced are the HVAC crew.
Patching TPO membrane in a DIY fashion can be a risky undertake. Hire flat roof specialist in Calgary, as this requires more complicated approach in terms of tools and materials. The flat roofing company can further advice on the service age or the membrane.
Common roof repairs to do in Calgary from various deficiencies:
Issues with head/appron wall flashing
Common repairs with residential homes is the wall flashing detaching with time. It could happen from nails not hitting the trusses and de-fastening with time. It’s imperative to have this repaired asap so wind driven rain and snow doesn’t get behind the roofing underlayment and compromise roof deck sheathing.
Protip: use a moisture meter if you can access the roof sheathing. If dry, use ladders to get up on the roof and nail down new fasteners. After re-attaching the wall flashing apply sealant to fasteners and you’re good to. Always consult a roofing journeyman if you want to be on the safe side.
Ice damming
We’ve yet to meet a homeowner or business owner that haven’t experienced ice damming on their roofing system. Poor attic ventilation cause from various reasons will eventually melt snow located higher up in a roof facet, melt down and only to freeze up again where roof system meets the eaves. There’s no DIY tips here as this is a serious issue and requires an attic/roofer specialist to thoroughly inspect the issue.
Avoid roofers that won’t provide a thorough report including the attic. Most roofers in Calgary will recommend adding more exhaust roof vents, which makes sense more often than not but might not be the culprit. You’ll end calling roofers every thaw period if you don’t do it right the first time.
Consider snow removal services, once or twice a winter to prevent ice damming build up.
Attic rain
Whether it’s from poor ventilation, punctures to vapour barrier(poly) located under insulation, punctures to ducts(flexpipe), you will be calling someone to address the situation. There could be a number of factors exacerbating the issue.
Similarly to what we mention talked about ice damming, getting this resolved is a must. There’s no DIY solution and consulting a professional is a must. It’s imperative to tackle this early to preserve the integrity of the loose fil or batt insulation in your attic. If problem is ignored for a long time and once insulation is damp, it will stress your drywall ending up detaching the drywall fasteners.
Crocked valleys on new roof installations
Crocked metal roof valleys can usually happen while delivering the coil or installing it. It can also happen post roof installation when roofers are wrapping up the jobsite and moving heavy tools around.
It’s important that the roofing company you’ve hired to do post installation quality control. Ask for photos to be shared with you. Almost all more reputable contractors use CompanyCam so taking & sharing photos for your peace of mind should be a breeze without much efforts.
How to fix aforementioned roof issues if you find yourself in any of the scenarios?
A. If roof damage is caused by natural catastrophic disasters or weather events:
Call you insurance carrier and open a claim. An adjuster will be assigned to your file and a restoration company in Calgary will get involved. You’ll get guidelines from the restoration and insurance company on how to proceed with restoring your property to pre-damage state.
You’ll need to do some homework, and prepare yourselves with answers for questions regarding your claim and how best to answer them.
B. If answer A above doesn’t apply to you:
Call a reputable roofing company. Well known and established roofing companies will in most cases help you remedy the aforementioned issues. They can also help with insurance claims along the way re-enforcing a case with a documented supporting case on the nature of damage.
