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Roof Repairs · Kelowna & the Okanagan Repairs & Maintenance.

Most roofs don’t fail all at once. They fail at one detail — a cracked boot, a lifted lap, a tired sealant joint — and everything downstream of it gets wet. We find the detail that’s actually failing, fix it properly, and tell you honestly what the rest of the roof has left.

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The Reality

A leak is a symptom, not a location.

Water almost never enters where it appears. It gets in at one small detail, runs along whatever the structure gives it, and drips out somewhere else entirely — often at a light fixture, because that is the first hole it finds. Chasing the stain instead of the entry point is how a roof gets patched five times and still leaks.

≈ 4 m VENT STACK ATTIC CEILING 1 2 3
01 — It gets in

At one failed detail

A perished boot on a plumbing stack, an open lap, a lifted piece of counterflashing. The opening is usually smaller than a coin, and it is almost never out in the middle of the open area of the roof (roofers call it the field).

02 — It travels

Along whatever it finds

Down the underside of the deck, along a rafter, across the top of the ceiling. Water goes where the structure sends it, not straight down, and it can run a long way before anything gets wet enough to drip.

03 — It appears

Somewhere else entirely

At a light fixture, a seam, a corner — the first hole it reaches. That spot is the one you phone about, and it is the one place on the roof we can be fairly sure the leak is not.

So the first job is working out where the water is actually getting in. Then you get told what it is, what it will take, and whether it is worth repairing at all. Sometimes the honest answer is that the roof is at the end of its life and a repair is money spent twice.

What We Fix

The things that actually fail.

Pick one and look at it. Almost everything we get called out for is on this list, and most of it is one detail rather than a whole roof. Not sure what you are looking at? Trace it in the Problem Web.

Plumbing stacks, vents, curbs, HVAC units and anything else that punches through the roof. This is where most leaks start — not out in the open field. Cracked pipe boots, tired pitch pans and lifted counterflashing get resealed or replaced outright.
UV and the Okanagan’s temperature swing work a roof hard. Asphalt surfaces alligator and lose their granules; membranes go brittle and split, usually along a lap or over a deck joint where the movement concentrates. Cracks get cut out and patched into sound material, not smeared over.
Lifted or missing shingles, peeled membrane edges, torn edge metal. Wind damage is often worse than it looks from the ground, because the course that stayed on may have broken its seal strip and will go in the next storm. We check the surrounding field, not just the bare patch.
Air or moisture trapped between plies in built-up and modified bitumen roofs expands in the heat and lifts the membrane. A blister that has not broken is not always urgent — one that has is an open hole. We cut, dry, and patch back in with matching plies.
Standing water is a drainage problem before it is a membrane problem — though it does real damage while it sits, multiplying UV, adding weight and testing every weak seam. So the first question is drainage: whether there is enough of it for the area, and whether the drains and scuppers are actually clear. A drain choked with needles and grit is the common answer, and the cheap one. When clearing them does not fix it, the water has nowhere to go because the roof has no fall towards the drains — and that takes a slope package built into the assembly to move it, or scuppers cut through the parapet, or both. We will tell you which of those you are looking at rather than sell you a patch.
Reglets, counterflashing, termination bars and pitch pans all rely on sealant that has a shorter life than the roof around it. Left alone it shrinks, cracks and opens a path straight behind the membrane. It is cheap to renew on schedule and expensive to ignore.
Concrete and clay tiles crack from impact, foot traffic in the wrong place, or freeze-thaw on an already-hairlined tile. Individual tiles get replaced and re-secured; if the fasteners or battens underneath have gone, that gets dealt with too rather than laying a new tile on a bad bed.
Usually the perimeter flashing rather than the glass. We also check whether it is a leak at all — a cold skylight in a humid house condenses and drips, which looks identical from inside and is fixed completely differently. See our skylight work.
Moss holds water against the shingle and creeps up under the courses, lifting them as it thickens. On a shaded slope under Okanagan pines it takes hold fast. We take it off by hand and with low-pressure methods — no chemical wash — and where it keeps returning we can fit zinc strips near the ridge, so rain carries zinc down the slope and slows regrowth.
Blocked, sagging or leaking gutters put water down the wall and into the foundation instead of away from the house. Clearing, re-securing and resealing are ordinary maintenance; if you are tired of doing it every autumn, see gutter guards.
Water backing up behind a ridge of ice at the eave gets under the shingles and into the ceiling below. We repair what it damaged on the roof — but the dam itself is a heat and airflow problem, so we look at the cause too. See ice damming.
Before & After

Drag it across. Same roof.

Three of the jobs that come up most. The frame does not move between the two halves — what changes is the roof.

The same flat roof with the drain cleared and the field dry Illustration

Needles and grit pack around a drain until it stops taking water, and then the roof holds a pond every time it rains. That water multiplies UV damage, adds weight and finds every weak seam. Clearing the drain is quick work; what it prevents is not.

Maintenance

Maintenance: finding problems while they are small.

Nearly everything that fails badly gives warning first — a lifting lap, a shrinking bead of sealant, a drain that is half full of needles. A scheduled visit is how those get found while they are still small.

Drains, scuppers and gutters cleared

The single most common reason a flat roof holds water and a gutter overflows down the wall. It is also the fastest thing on the list to put right.

Penetrations and terminations checked

Boots, curbs, pitch pans, reglets and termination bars — the details that fail years before the field does, and where most leaks start.

Laps, flashings and edge metal looked over

Anywhere two materials meet or the roof stops. Open laps and lifted edge metal get dealt with before wind or water gets into them.

Debris and organic growth off

Needles, leaves and branches cleared, and moss caught while it is still a stain rather than a mat holding water against the shingle.

Small things fixed on the spot

Where it is minor and we have the material with us, it gets done on the visit rather than turned into a second trip and a second invoice.

A written record with photographs

What we saw, what we did, and what is worth watching. Over a few visits that becomes a history of the roof, which is exactly what you want when it is time to budget.

Most pitched roofs

Once a year

Usually autumn, once the pines have dropped and before the weather turns. Gutters, penetrations, flashings and any moss taking hold on the shaded slopes.

Flat and commercial

Twice a year

Spring and autumn. Flat roofs depend on their drainage far more than a pitched roof does, and a blocked drain in November is a pond all winter.

After the weather

And after a storm

A hard blow or a heavy snow load is worth a look even if nothing is showing inside. Wind damage is routinely worse from up there than it looks from the ground.

Maintenance covers the whole roof, and that includes the attic when the roof calls for it.

Set up a maintenance visit
How It Goes

Diagnose first. Then fix.

STEP 01

We look properly

On the roof first, and in the attic only when there is a reason we have to. Wet insulation, stained sheathing and daylight through a deck tell you more about where water is entering than a stain on a ceiling does.

STEP 02

You get told what it is

What is failing, why, what it will take to fix, and whether a repair makes sense on a roof at this age. If it does not, we will say that.

STEP 03

It gets fixed

Repairs are made with material compatible with what is already up there — the wrong sealant or the wrong membrane on a patch fails faster than the thing it replaced.

STEP 04

You know what is next

We tell you what else we saw and roughly how long it has, so the next repair is planned instead of an emergency.

Leaking right now?

Call 250-258-8600. An active leak usually gets a temporary measure first to stop the water, then the permanent repair once it can be done properly. Outside office hours, leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

What a repair can promise

Tracing a leak is investigative work. Water enters at one point and appears at another, so finding the failure means following it — starting at the most likely cause and working outward. Sometimes it is the first detail we open up. Sometimes it is the third.

A repair fixes the failure we find. It does not make the rest of an older roof new: where there is a second entry point, a tired membrane or movement in the deck, water can find another way in later, and mending one detail was never going to prevent that. So we will not tell you a repair has resolved a roof’s underlying condition. What we do commit to is our best effort at the cause in front of us, a straight account of anything else we saw up there, and standing behind the work we actually did.

Related
Questions

Repair questions.

That depends on age, on how widespread the problem is, and on what condition the deck is in. An isolated failure on a roof with years left is worth repairing. Widespread cracking, saturated insulation or repeated failures across the field usually mean you are spending money on a roof that is finished. We will tell you which one you have. On a flat roof, a layover over the old roof is sometimes an option.
Finding it is our job. Knowing where the water shows up inside is useful, but it is a starting point rather than the answer — water travels before it drips.
The visit, the look and the quote are free. If tracing the leak means opening up the roof, that is paid work, and we tell you before we start.
Call and tell us if water is coming in right now. After hours, leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Weekend visits are possible for an extra fee.
On a flat roof especially, yes. Nearly everything that fails catastrophically gives warning first — a lifting lap, an open sealant joint, a blocked drain. Catching those on a scheduled visit costs a fraction of the interior damage they cause when they are missed.
Often, where the leak has a single cause and the roof around it is sound. But finding a leak is an investigation, not a lookup — water enters in one place and shows itself in another, so a repair addresses the most likely cause and occasionally a second entry point only announces itself in the next hard rain. A repair also cannot undo a roof’s age. Fixing one detail does not stop a tired membrane letting go somewhere else, and we do not claim otherwise. You get our best effort at the cause we find, an honest account of the roof’s condition, and our workmanship behind what we did.
We stand behind the work we did. Whether a repair carries a warranty, and for how long, depends on the roof and the job, and it is set out on your quote. If water later finds another way in, through a second entry point or an ageing roof, that is a new problem, not a fault in the repair.
It can, if the work is done with incompatible materials or by someone not approved to touch that system. Tell us what warranty is on the roof before we start, and we will tell you whether we can work within it.
Yes. We take moss off by hand and with low pressure, never a chemical wash, and clear the needles and debris while we’re up there. Where it keeps coming back, zinc strips near the ridge slow the regrowth.
Yes: we clear, re-secure and reseal gutters and eavestroughs. We don’t install new ones, but if you’re tired of cleaning them every autumn, we fit gutter guards.
Next Step

Something up there isn’t right?

Tell us what you are seeing and we will come and find out what is causing it. Free estimates, and an honest answer about whether it is worth repairing.

Request a Free Estimate
110+ five-star reviews on Google

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