Lake Forest, CA
Roof storm damage in Lake Forest, CA
The first hour after a storm is about stopping water, not about getting the best price. Those are two separate jobs and they happen in that order.
Describe the storm damage job
Three questions, then the address. Up to three Lake Forest contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in Lake Forest 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 storm damage job. A contractor who has not raised them has not looked properly.
- A written scope of the work, line by line
- What the emergency tarp costs, separate from the repair
- Whether the contractor is licensed and insured in this state
- A local address you could actually drive to
- Photographs of the damage before any work happens
Photograph the outside, the inside, and the date. Then get a tarp on it. Photographs of the original damage are a record nobody can argue with; a description of what it looked like before the repair is not.
If two contractors describe the damage differently, ask each to show you on the roof or in their photographs. It changes the conversation.
A local contractor who inspects and documents properly is more use to you than a fast one who is already on the roof.
Locally
What actually takes roofs out here is 1970s and 1980s roofs that are now well past the warranty they were sold on. A twenty-five-year shingle put on in 1982 is not a maintenance question any more. The older tracts here are past the point where patching is the cheaper answer.
About storm damage here
What if the decking is rotten underneath?
Expect a few sheets on most older roofs. Get the per-sheet rate in the contract. Open-ended decking charges are where a fixed price stops being fixed.
Is moss on the roof a problem?
It matters more than it looks. The damage is not the moss, it is the permanent damp underneath it. Kill it and brush it off gently; never pressure wash asphalt.
What warranty should I expect?
Ask for both in writing: the material warranty from the manufacturer and the workmanship warranty from the contractor. The second one is the one that matters in year three, and it is only as good as the company behind it.
Should I take the cheapest quote?
Only if it is the same roof. Most large gaps between quotes are scope gaps. Ask the cheapest contractor which of the other quotes items they have left out, and why.
Get the roof looked at
Free, no obligation, and your details go to no company until you say yes.