Ask a roofer where roofs leak and the answer is almost always the flashing. It is the metal that seals the joints where a roof meets a chimney, a wall, a valley, or a vent. When it fails, water gets in even though the tile or shingle looks perfect. Orian Construction & Roofing rebuilds flashing across Los Angeles County so those joints stay watertight.
A roof surface, tile or shingle, does one job: shed water down the slope. But a roof is not a single unbroken surface. It runs into chimneys, walls, skylights, and vents, and it folds into valleys where two slopes meet. At every one of those spots the surface stops, and something has to seal the gap. That something is flashing, the shaped metal that bridges the joint and directs water back onto the roof and off the house.
Flashing is behind a large share of the leaks we repair, and there is a simple reason. The open field of a roof just sits there shedding water. The flashing sits at the joints, where two materials meet and where the building moves and heats and cools at different rates. That movement, plus years of sun and the occasional careless past repair, works the metal loose or opens the seal. So a roof can look flawless from the street and still leak, because the trouble is at a joint you cannot see from the ground. That is exactly why our leak detection checks the flashing first, and our piece on flashing and why it matters explains it in plain terms.
Flashing repair is part of nearly every roof repair we do, and it overlaps with our skylight work, since a skylight is one more joint that needs flashing.
The metal that wraps a chimney where it passes through the roof. A frequent leak point, since the chimney and the roof move independently and open the seal over time.
Where a roof slope meets a vertical wall, like a second story rising off a lower roof. Step flashing layers with the shingles to keep water out of that corner.
The channel where two roof slopes meet and funnel a heavy flow of water. Valleys carry the most water on a roof, so their flashing takes the most punishment.
The boots and collars around plumbing vents, exhaust vents, and pipes. The rubber and metal here dries and cracks in the sun and is a common, easily missed leak.
Older metal rusts and thins until it no longer seals. We replace it with new flashing rather than patching worn metal.
Roof repair →A common shortcut. Someone seals a joint with caulk instead of proper flashing. The caulk dries, cracks, and the leak returns. We rebuild it correctly.
Leak detection →Buildings shift and heat and cool, and wind works at the edges, loosening flashing over the years until a seam opens.
Storm damage →Family owned and based on Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks. A joint sealed with the right flashing holds for years. One sealed with a tube of caulk is next winter's leak.
A proper flashing repair is not a smear of sealant over the top. We strip the failed flashing back, look at the joint underneath, and rebuild it with new metal shaped and layered to route water the way it should go. On a chimney that means new base and counter flashing tied into the masonry. In a valley it means fresh valley metal set under the courses on each side. Around a vent it means a new boot sized to the pipe.
The goal is a joint that sheds water on its own, without depending on a bead of caulk to hold back the rain. Caulk has a place as a secondary seal, but it is not a flashing, and a roof that relies on it will leak again once the sun dries it out. Because flashing repair is often the fix behind a stubborn leak, we usually pair it with a look at the surrounding area so we are not leaving a second problem next to the one we just solved. A roof inspection catches worn flashing before it leaks, and our waterproofing handles the trickier wall and deck transitions.
We repair and rebuild roof flashing for homeowners across the county from our shop on Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks. A few of the areas we serve:
Leak near a chimney, wall, or valley? Tell us where and we will come out, find the joint, and give you a written estimate.