Signal Hill, CA
Find out what you are actually dealing with
Half the people who ask for a replacement need a repair, and a handful of the people who ask for a repair need a replacement. An hour on the roof sorts that out.
Describe the inspection job
Three questions, then the address. Up to three Signal Hill contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in Signal Hill is taking requests through this service yet. We are lining them up, and yours is kept until one can.
- Nobody gets your details yet. Your request stays with us and is not passed to any company.
- One email when someone can help. When a provider covering your area can take it on, we email you once and ask whether you want that company, by name, to contact you.
- Deleted after 90 days. If nobody can take it on, or you do not say yes, your contact details are deleted 90 days after your request.
- You decide, or you do not. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to pay us.
Nobody will call you about this request unless you say yes to a company by name.
Before you let anybody on the roof
The things worth pinning down on a inspection job. A contractor who has not raised them has not looked properly.
- A written report, not a verbal summary
- Photographs of anything they flag
- Whether the inspection includes going into the attic
- Whether the fee comes off the job if you proceed
- An estimated number of years left in the covering
Either way, ask for photographs. A report with pictures of your actual roof is worth ten times one with a tick-box condition rating.
Ask for an estimated remaining life in years, and what would extend it. That answer is the useful part.
Twice a year is the standard advice, and almost nobody does it. Once after the worst weather of the year is a reasonable compromise.
Locally
The second problem is dry offshore wind that arrives all at once in autumn. Dry offshore wind lifts material that damp coastal air had been holding down. Most wind losses here happen on a handful of nights a year.
About inspection here
Do you cover the whole Los Angeles County area?
We match across Signal Hill and the neighbouring communities in Los Angeles County. Put the ZIP of the property in and it will route to whoever actually covers it.
Are the contractors licensed and insured?
Contractors have to give us their state licence number and proof of liability and workers compensation cover before they can receive requests. You should still ask to see current certificates yourself before work starts — a licence can lapse between checks.
Why does ventilation keep coming up?
Because a badly ventilated attic cooks the roof from underneath and takes years off it. Intake at the eaves and exhaust at the ridge, in balance. It is cheap during a re-roof and awkward afterwards.
Does being near the ocean change what goes on the roof?
Considerably. Salt air corrodes anything ferrous, so fasteners, valley metal, vent collars, flashing and gutter hangers should be specified for coastal exposure — stainless or heavy-gauge coated, not plain galvanised. The covering usually outlives the metal holding it down.
What is it going to cost?
Free, no obligation, and your details go to no company until you say yes.