SLC Roofers
(385) 340-6200

Salt Lake City roofing

Roof Repair in Salt Lake City, UT

Leaks, ice-dam damage, wind-lifted shingles, failed flashing — the crew finds the real source and fixes it, instead of chasing the wet spot on your ceiling.

Call (385) 340-6200

A roof repair addresses the one part of your roof that has quit doing its job — a failed vent boot, a swamp cooler that has rusted through its curb, wind-lifted shingles along the east bench, or a valley leaking under a melting snowpack — while leaving the sound majority of the roof in place. On most Salt Lake homes the field shingles outlast the metal, the seals, and the penetrations by years, so tearing off a whole roof to chase one leak is usually the wrong first move.

You can spot most of the trouble yourself. A brown ring on a ceiling or at the top of a wall, granules gathering in the gutter or at the bottom of a downspout, shingles curling or cracking you can see from the yard, or a damp, musty closet on a north wall. In our winters the tell is often a stain that only shows up during a thaw — that is meltwater backing up behind an ice dam at a cold eave, not a hole in the roof.

Catch it early and the fix is small. Left through a wet spring, the same leak rots decking and insulation and turns a few-hundred-dollar repair into interior work that costs more than the roof did. We give you a straight read on how much life the roof has left, and if you are a couple of patches from needing a replacement anyway, we say so before you spend.

What's included

Flashing and chimney reseal

The metal that seals joints — chimney, sidewalls, dormers, step flashing — is where most Salt Lake leaks start, especially on the older brick homes in the Avenues and Sugar House where mortar and counterflashing have loosened over decades. The roofer pulls the failed flashing, cuts a fresh reglet into the masonry where needed, and resets counterflashing so water sheds instead of collecting. Caulk smeared over old flashing is a stopgap, not a repair, and they don't leave it that way.

Vent boot and seal replacement

The rubber gasket around a plumbing vent is the first thing our dry, high-UV summers destroy. At valley elevation the sun cracks that collar years before the shingles wear out, and it leaks slowly enough to soak a ceiling before you notice. The crew swaps failed boots for ones with a metal collar or a longer-lasting seal, and reseals exposed nail heads and cracked pipe collars while they are up there.

Swamp cooler curb repair

Almost every older Salt Lake home runs an evaporative cooler on the roof, and the sheet-metal curb it sits on is one of the most reliable leak sources the contractor finds. The panning rusts, the mastic dries out, and the water line seeps where it penetrates. They reflash the curb, replace corroded pan metal, and reseal the line entry — or cap and flash the opening properly if you have gone to central air and the cooler is coming off.

Wind and snow shingle repair

Downslope winds off the Wasatch strip and lift tabs on the east bench, and heavy wet snow loads the eaves and valleys. The crew replaces missing and broken shingles, reseals tabs the wind has broken loose, and matches new shingles to the existing color and profile as closely as the product line allows. On older three-tab roofs an exact match is not always possible, and they tell you that before they start rather than after.

Valley, eave and decking repair

Valleys move more water than any other part of the roof, and under a melting snowpack a cracked or displaced valley liner sends it straight under the shingles. The contractor opens the valley, replaces the liner, and resets the shingles that overlap it. If they find soft or rotted decking under a leak, they cut it out and replace the sheathing — patching over spongy wood only buys a few months.

How it works

  1. 1

    The first call and quote

    You tell us what you are seeing and roughly where. We schedule a look, usually within a few days unless water is actively coming in, in which case we move faster. The inspection and written quote cost you nothing, and we do not ask for money before the actual problem is found.

  2. 2

    Finding the real entry point

    Water enters in one place and shows up in another, running down the deck and along a rafter before it drips. The roofer walks the attic where it is accessible to trace the stain back to its source, then checks the matching spot on the roof. Sealing the nearest suspicious spot is guesswork, and it is why leaks come back.

  3. 3

    The repair itself

    Most repairs are a half-day to a full day of work. The crew replaces the failed component — flashing, boot, valley, curb, shingles — and checks the areas immediately around it, since one aging seal usually has neighbors close behind. If they open a leak and find rot underneath, they'll call you with the finding and a price before they keep going.

  4. 4

    Photos and sign-off

    When they are done you get photos of what was wrong and what they did, so you are not taking their word for work you cannot see from the ground. If you are running an insurance claim or selling the house, that record is what the adjuster or buyer's inspector wants. They clean up nails and debris before they leave.

In Salt Lake City & the surrounding area

Salt Lake sits at about 4,300 feet in a semi-arid valley, and the roof takes a beating from both ends of the calendar. Summer UV at this elevation is brutal on anything rubber or asphalt-based, which is why boots and mastic here fail on a faster clock than the shingle warranty suggests. Winter brings freeze-thaw cycles and lake-effect snow that piles on north-facing eaves, and the ice dams that form there are behind a large share of the leaks the crews chase from December through March.

The housing stock runs from pre-war brick bungalows and Victorians in the Avenues and Sugar House to post-war ranches across Millcreek, Murray and Sandy. The older homes tend to have steep pitches, masonry chimneys with tired flashing, and sometimes a hidden layer or two of old roofing underneath. In Salt Lake City a straightforward repair generally does not require a permit, but a tear-off and re-roof does, and the city inspects it. If a contractor wants to re-roof without pulling one, treat that as a red flag.

Questions about roof repair

What does a roof repair cost here?

Most single-issue repairs in the Salt Lake area land somewhere between a few hundred and roughly two thousand dollars, depending on what failed and how much decking sits behind it. A vent boot swap is at the low end. Reflashing a chimney, rebuilding a swamp cooler curb, or replacing rotted sheathing pushes higher because there is more labor and material involved. The two biggest cost drivers are steep pitch, which slows everyone down, and hidden rot you cannot see until the leak is opened up.

How soon can you come out, and how long does it take?

For an active leak we try to get someone out within a day or two, at least to tarp and stop the water; a stain that has been there a while can usually wait for the next open slot. The repair itself is most often a half to a full day. Snow and ice are the exception — a crew cannot safely or reliably work on a roof buried under a foot of snow, so some winter leaks get a temporary fix until the roof clears.

Will insurance cover it?

It depends on the cause. Sudden, identifiable damage from a wind or hail event is usually covered, minus your deductible; slow wear, failed seals, and neglected maintenance generally are not. In Utah, wind claims from those downslope Wasatch storms are the most common the crew documents. The roofer gives you photos and a written description of the damage so you can file, but they do not inflate a claim or call plain age storm-related when it is not.

What materials do you use, and how long will the repair last?

The crew matches the existing roof — most Salt Lake homes are on asphalt architectural or older three-tab shingles, and they keep the repair consistent with what is there. Flashing is replaced in metal, not caulk. A proper repair on a sound roof should last as long as the surrounding shingles have left, which on a mid-life asphalt roof in this climate is often ten years or more. A patch on a worn-out roof is a different story, and we will tell you which one you have.

What does the warranty actually cover?

The contractor's repair warranty covers the workmanship on what they fixed — if that boot, valley or flashing leaks again from how they installed it, they come back at no charge. It does not cover a new leak somewhere else on an aging roof, because that is not the same problem. Manufacturer coverage on the shingles is separate and stays with whatever was originally installed. They put the terms in writing so there is no argument later about what is and is not covered.

My leak only shows up when the snow melts — is that a roof hole?

Usually not. That pattern is an ice dam: snow melts on the warm upper roof, runs down to the cold eave, refreezes, and backs water up under the shingles until it finds a way in. It is common on the older, poorly insulated homes across the Avenues and east bench. The crew can repair the resulting damage and reset the eave, but the real fix is attic insulation and ventilation so the eave stays cold. A repair alone will not stop it from happening again next winter.

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Get started in Salt Lake City

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Call (385) 340-6200