Roof repair and replacement in Austin, priced by the layer, not the guess.
Five services, each in its own section below: roof leak and flashing repair, full roof replacement, storm and hail damage, standing-seam metal and emergency tarping. Every one starts with someone on your roof, and every one tells you up front what the price is built from.
Roof leak and flashing repair in Austin
Most calls end hereThe stain on your ceiling is not where the water gets in. Water runs down the top of a rafter or along the underside of the deck and drips wherever gravity wins, which can be four or six feet downslope of the hole. So a roof leak repair in Austin starts in the attic with a flashlight if we can get in, and then on the roof directly above where the wet wood ends.
Most of the time we find it at a penetration. Neoprene pipe boots crack after a few years of UV on a south slope, and the collar splits away from the vent pipe. Step flashing along a dormer wall gets reused by a crew in a hurry, and old nail holes line up with nothing. Counter flashing on a chimney gets a bead of caulk instead of a reglet cut into the mortar joint, and the caulk lasts about one summer. Valleys collect live oak leaves, hold water against the shingle edge and rot through from the top.
A roof flashing repair done properly means taking up the shingles around the area, removing the old metal, putting in new pieces one per course, and relaying the shingles. On a chimney we grind a reglet into the mortar, set the counter flashing into it and seal the joint. It is slower than a tube of sealant. It also does not come back next June.
How the repair goes
- Trace. Attic first where there is access, then the roof above the wet area. Photographs of the suspected entry point and of anything else we see on the way.
- Price in writing. One fixed figure for the repair, with what it includes. You approve it before we start.
- Open up and replace. Shingles lifted around the area, old flashing out, deck checked for soft spots, new flashing in, shingles relaid or replaced to match as closely as the current product allows.
- Show the result. Before and after photographs of the same spot, so you can see the work you paid for without climbing a ladder.
If we find more than one source, you get a price for each, and you choose. If the shingle field around the leak is failing too, the repair price comes with a note saying so, and how many years we think the rest of the roof has.
Full roof replacement, torn off to the deck
Per square, measured
| Layer | What goes on |
|---|---|
| Tear-off | All existing layers to the deck, into our dumpster |
| Deck | Soft sheets replaced, 4 × 8, counted and photographed |
| Drip edge | New metal on eaves and rakes |
| Membrane | Self-adhered ice-and-water at eaves, valleys, penetrations |
| Underlayment | Synthetic, lapped and cap-nailed |
| Flashing | All new: step, counter, pipe, headwall |
| Ventilation | Ridge vent, sized against soffit intake |
| Shingle | Architectural, product and colour named in writing |
Per roofing square (100 sq ft) measured on the roof, plus decking replaced per sheet as found.
Roof replacement in Austin is the job people expect to be quoted from the curb. We do not do that. Roof replacement cost here turns on four things, and all four need a tape and a look: the number of squares, the pitch, how cut-up the roof is with valleys and hips, and how much decking is soft under the old shingles.
We tear off to the deck. Every time. A lay-over saves the tear-off line this year and hides whatever is rotting underneath, and it leaves the next roofer two layers to strip. Once the deck is bare we walk it sheet by sheet. Anything that flexes or has delaminated comes out. The deck count is a line of its own, so you are never paying a vague allowance for wood we did not replace.
Then the layers go on in order: drip edge, self-adhered membrane at the eaves and in every valley, synthetic underlayment across the rest, starter strip, shingle courses, new flashing at every wall and penetration, and a ridge vent. A typical single-storey house is torn off and dried in on the first day. We do not leave a bare deck open overnight, not in a Central Texas spring.
Expect most shingle replacements on an ordinary Austin house to take one to three working days on the roof once materials are delivered. Two-storey homes, steep pitches and a lot of deck rot push that out, and the estimate says by how much.
What the replacement estimate covers
Tear-off and disposal, every layer listed in the table, magnet sweep of the yard, permit where the city requires one, and the final photo set. Manufacturer warranties pass through as the manufacturer issues them. Workmanship terms are written into your contract.
Storm damage roof repair and hail inspection
Inspection free
Hail leaves bruises you can feel with a thumb before you can see them. We mark each one in chalk and photograph it. That is the core of a hail damage roof inspection in Austin, and it is slower than a walk around the yard pointing at dented gutters.
We go slope by slope. On each one we check a test area, count hits, circle them, and photograph them with a tape measure lying across the shingles so the size is not a matter of opinion. We look at the soft metals too, because vent caps and drip edge show the size and direction of the hail better than anything. Wind damage gets the same treatment: creased tabs, missing shingles and lifted ridge caps, each one photographed in place.
What you get is a packet you can hand to your insurance adjuster. It shows what is there. It does not argue about what the policy owes you, because that is between you and your insurer.
Standing-seam metal roofing in Austin, TX
Lead time: fabrication
Per roofing square, with panel gauge and finish itemised.
Standing-seam is the metal roofing we install in Austin. Concealed fasteners: the clips that hold each panel are under the seam of the next one, so there is no row of exposed screws with rubber washers waiting to dry out and leak in the August sun. Panels run in one piece from eave to ridge, formed to the length of each slope.
That last part sets the schedule. Panels are fabricated to order once the roof is measured, and the lead time depends on the fabricator, the gauge and the finish you pick. A shingle roof can be booked around a delivery; a metal roof gets booked around fabrication. We tell you the expected wait when we give you the estimate and update you if it moves.
Underneath, the build-up is the same discipline as a shingle replacement. Tear-off to the deck, soft sheets replaced, membrane, and a high-temperature underlayment suited to metal, because the panel surface gets far hotter than a shingle does.
Who it suits: owners planning to stay a long time, houses with simple long slopes, and anyone tired of shingle granules in the gutters. Who it does not: a roof cut into a dozen small facets, where every hip and valley adds trim and labour, or a tight budget this year. We will tell you which side of that line your house sits on.
| Panel profile | Standing-seam, concealed clip |
|---|---|
| Gauge | Stated per panel on the estimate |
| Finish and colour | Named in writing |
| Trim | Eave, rake, ridge, valley and wall, by run |
| Underlayment | High-temperature, suited to metal |
| Lead time | Set by panel fabrication, given with the estimate |
A live oak limb comes through the deck at two in the morning. Or a spring line strips the shingles off a ridge and the rain comes in sideways. Do not type. Call 512-952-7454.
An emergency dry-in is a temporary job with one purpose: stop water getting into the house until the permanent repair can be done. We clear loose debris from the opening, lay a heavy tarp that runs over the ridge where possible so water sheds off it instead of under it, and screw wood battens through the tarp along its edges. Sandbags and a few roofing nails through grommets do not survive a Texas wind gust. Battens do.
If a tree is still lying on the roof, the tree has to come off first, and that is a job for a tree crew, not us. We can tarp around a limb that is out of the way but we will not cut a loaded limb sitting on your rafters.
The price is per call-out and we state it before work starts, on the phone or on site. A tarp is a stopgap. Expect to schedule the permanent repair or replacement within weeks, not months, because UV breaks tarps down and battens loosen. The permanent work is priced the normal way, in writing, after inspection.
How we decide which one your roof gets.
If the roof has five good years left, we will tell you that and fix the flashing instead. Repair makes sense when the shingle field is sound and the leak is at a single detail: a boot, a chimney, a valley, a skylight. Replacement makes sense when the damage is the field itself.
The signs we look for are physical, not age on a calendar. A roof that went on fifteen years ago with good ventilation can outlast a ten-year-old roof over a hot unvented attic.
Have a question the sections above do not answer? Read how we work, or send us the address and we will look.
| Sign | What it means |
|---|---|
| Granules in gutters | Asphalt exposed to sun, ageing fast |
| Curled or cupped tabs | Shingle has lost its seal and its shape |
| Soft deck near eaves | Water has been getting in for a while |
| Hail bruises on every slope | Not a patch job; mat fractured across the roof |
| Multiple leak points | Repairs would cost close to a new roof |