Repairing chimney counter flashing in The Roads

Checking the flashing from the ground

A pair of binoculars shows a lot from the yard. Look where the chimney meets the roof for lifted metal edges, dark gaps along the top of the counter flashing and rust streaks on the roofing below. Look also for heavy smears of black roof cement.

Stay off the roof, especially if it is tile or wet. Tile can crack underfoot, and a wet slope is a fall risk. Write down which face showed what. Those notes help us know where to look first during the free inspection.

What to mention when you book

A few details make the first visit more useful. Share what you know, even if some answers are rough guesses.

If you have papers from past roof or chimney work, keep them handy for the visit. We use them as background and still check the junction in person, because a past invoice cannot show how the metal looks today.

• Where the water or stain appears inside the house
• Whether it shows during rain or some time after
• The roof covering and roughly when it was installed
• Any earlier repair at the chimney and who did it

When the roofer and the chimney company disagree

It is common for a roofer to say the chimney is leaking and for a chimney company to say the roof is. You are left in the middle with a stain that keeps growing. The way out is evidence, not opinion.

We explain what we saw at the junction, what we saw elsewhere on the roof and what we could not check. If the flashing is sound, we say so plainly. Where the evidence points at roofing away from the chimney, the findings say that too, so you can take them back to the roofer.

Mixed metals in sea air

Where two different metals touch in wet, salty air, one of them usually corrodes faster. That includes flashing, fasteners, straps and any old pieces left behind. Near the coast the effect tends to show sooner than it would farther inland.

We match fasteners and joining pieces to the flashing metal and separate unlike metals where they have to meet. If your chimney carries a mix of copper, galvanized and aluminum pieces from past repairs, the findings list them. Mixed metals are one reason a repair can fail early in sea air.