Why roofs fail
Ask anyone who repairs roofs where they leak and the answer is the same: not in the middle, but wherever the roof meets something else.
- 1 The ridge. The highest, hottest course, and the one the sun works on all day.
- 2 The field. Tile or shingle above, and the underlayment that actually keeps water out below.
- 3 Valleys. One channel carrying what two slopes shed, at the pace this coast rains.
- 4 Flashing. Where the lanai and the enclosure meet the house, and where neither trade owns the seam.
- 5 Penetrations. Every vent and curb is a hole the underlayment has to seal, and the first place it stops.
- 6 Eaves and metal. Drip edge and fasteners, which salt air reaches years before it touches the covering.
The six
- The empty half-yearThe season nobody is home
- Roofs on one clockWhen a whole street is the same age
- Under the tileThe layer that decides when a tile roof is finished
- Fasteners and metalThe hardware nobody looks at
- Low pitchWhat a shallow roof asks of its materials
- Lanai tie-insWhere the cage meets the roof
What this region does to a roof
A winter that hovers at freezing and crosses the line dozens of times, working on every seam. Capes and split-levels with finished rooms in the roof, leaving knee-wall pockets that cannot be ventilated like an attic. A second layer of shingles hiding a deck nobody has seen in forty years. Skylights and dormers whose flashing was sealed rather than layered. Roof planes that stop against a wall. And a fascia edge quietly going soft behind the gutters. Most of what ends a roof here traces back to one of those.