Roof Flashing Repair

Ask any honest roofer where roofs actually leak and you'll get one word: flashing. The metal transitions where a roof meets a chimney, skylight, wall, or valley do the hardest waterproofing work on the whole roof — and when they fail, water gets in while the shingles around them still look perfect. Flashing repair is precision work, and it's a core CraftBuilt service statewide.

The Flashings That Fail

• Chimney flashing: the step-and-counterflashing system around masonry is the single most common leak source on older homes — mortar joints loosen, counterflashing pulls away, and improvised tar repairs accelerate the decline
• Pipe jacks and boots: the rubber collars around plumbing vents are UV sacrifices in Arizona, cracking in as little as a decade in Valley sun
• Skylight perimeters: factory flashing kits age out, and site-built curbs fail at their corners
• Valley metal: debris and rust wear the channel that carries more water than any other part of the roof
• Wall and headwall transitions: where a roof dies into a second-story wall, kickout flashing is often missing entirely — a detail that quietly rots sheathing for years

How We Repair Flashing

Real flashing repair means metal, not mastic. A tube of roofing tar over failed flashing is a one-monsoon fix that makes the eventual correct repair harder. We open the affected courses, remove the failed metal, and rebuild the assembly the way the manufacturer drew it: new step flashing woven with the shingles, counterflashing let into the masonry joint, boots and collars replaced rather than recaulked, valleys relaid with ice-and-water membrane beneath where climate calls for it.

Climate Makes It Urgent

Freeze-thaw cycling in Prescott and Flagstaff pries at every flashing seam a hundred nights each winter, while Valley UV in Chandler destroys sealants and boots from above. Either way, flashing fails years before roofs do — which makes a flashing-focused inspection the highest-value checkup an aging roof can get.

My chimney leaks only in wind-driven rain — flashing?

Almost certainly. Wind-driven rain defeats marginal counterflashing that sheds vertical rainfall fine. It's a classic leak-tracing pattern, and a permanent fix is usually a day's work.

Why Flashing Outlives Sealant — and Should

Everything about flashing design assumes one Arizona truth: sealants are temporary, metal is not. Correct flashing works mechanically — gravity and overlap shedding water without depending on adhesion — so when the inevitable UV death of any exposed sealant arrives, the assembly still sheds. That's the difference between step flashing woven into shingle courses and a caulked-on angle piece: both look similar finished; only one still works in year fifteen. It's also why our repairs rebuild assemblies rather than refreshing caulk lines. When you compare flashing bids, ask one question: is the fix metal or mastic? The answer predicts whether you'll buy it again.

What metal do you use for flashing?

Galvanized steel and aluminum for most assemblies, with heavier gauge in valleys that carry real water volume. On tile and high-end work, matching profiles and finishes matter and we source accordingly. Counterflashing gets let into masonry joints properly — grinding a clean reglet — not surface-glued against brick.

Can flashing be repaired without redoing the shingles around it?

Yes — that's the craft of it. Surrounding courses lift, the assembly rebuilds, courses re-lay and reseal. Done well, the repair area is invisible from the street; a few damaged shingles replaced in the process match as closely as vintage allows.

How do I know if my flashing was the leak — or the roof?

Location tells most of the story: leaks at chimneys, skylights, walls, and valleys are flashing problems until proven otherwise; field leaks mid-slope implicate the roofing itself. Our leak-tracing process confirms rather than assumes, since the wrong diagnosis buys the wrong repair.