Where an addition meets the original roof
Very few houses in this county are still the shape they were built. Rooms were enclosed, lanais added, carports filled in. Each of those left a seam, and a seam built by two trades at two different times belongs to neither of them.
- 1 The ridge. The highest, hottest course, and where a shared roof usually begins and ends.
- 2 The field. Tile or shingle above, and the underlayment that actually keeps water out below.
- 3 The valley. One channel carrying what two slopes shed, and where debris settles between rains.
- 4 Wall flashing. Where an addition or an enclosure meets the house, and where neither trade owns the seam.
- 5 Penetrations. Collars, curbs and skylights: holes cut on purpose, then sealed. They open first.
- 6 Eaves and metal. Drip edge and fasteners. Near the water they end the roof; twelve miles west they do not.
The junction with no owner
A lower roof running into a wall is one of the hardest details on any house to get right. Done properly, the flashing is let into the wall and outlives the covering. Done quickly, it is caulked, and caulk under this sun is a maintenance item rather than a permanent one.
Screen enclosures make it sharper still, because they are fastened to the structure and move independently of it. The roofer did the roof, the enclosure company did the cage, and the line between them was somebody’s afternoon.
It rarely shows where it enters
Water entering at a junction runs along a top plate or a beam before it drops, and it surfaces several feet inside the house. That sends the first inspection to the wrong place and produces an estimate for the wrong work.
A second common sign is a lanai ceiling that stays marked after the rain has stopped. It is usually read as condensation, and often it is not.
Getting it priced
One question, asked out loud: does this price include rebuilding the flashing where the addition and the enclosure meet the house, or does it assume the existing detail is sound? Both answers can be legitimate. Only one of them is what most owners think they are buying.