Roofing, gutters and skylights in Oakland

Up through Montclair and the hill streets, the houses sit on slopes under redwood and oak and the lots often fall away behind. Two things follow from that. The first is staging: a steep drive, a split-level roof or a long stair changes how material gets up and how the old covering comes down, and it belongs in the written proposal rather than in a conversation on the day. The second is debris. Redwood and oak drop through the year rather than in a single autumn, and a valley on a shaded slope up there can hold a damp mat of needles for weeks after a storm.

In the flatter neighborhoods, Rockridge, Glenview, the Laurel, the housing is older and the details are the period's. Bungalow eaves are shallow, the gutters have usually been rehung more than once and the fascia has taken decades of splash. The first thing we test is whether the board will still grip a screw, because nothing hung on softened wood stays where it is put. Where a house has had a re-roof at some point, the other thing worth checking is the edge: work done quickly often left no metal strip under the first course, and water has been running behind the gutter ever since.

Across both halves of the city, what reaches the ceiling is rarely above where it lands. Water gets in at a flashing or a lifted cap, runs along the framing and drops somewhere else entirely, and on a hill house with a complicated roof that path can be long. We trace it from the roof side before anyone opens drywall. On the hill streets we also expect the conversation to cover the whole assembly rather than the covering alone, because what goes at the eaves and the vents matters as much as what goes on the surface.