Common Problems With Roof Flashing Work I've Seen:
Clearly the #1 cause of roof failure is rusted steel roof flashing and improperly installed flashing, or lack there of. In my 20+ years experience from crawling up on several thousand roofs I've personally seen in most cases the Roofing Contractors will not re-flash many of these problem areas they were hired to fix in the first place, let alone flashed the right way. Homeowner very often cheated when the worse problem areas of their roof were not solved.

I've done several tear-offs where I removed 2 layers of composite shingles and the bottom layer of wood shakes, where the only flashing I found around the dormer was under the wood shakes, and of course it was very rusty and deteriorated. That means the last 2 reroofings they had done had not bother to reflash the dormers at all. I have yet to see evidence of a decent roofer in this area. No joke.

One of the problems stem from these workers come more from a hammer and nail mind-set. Not from a sheet metal worker's perspective like me, so these area of roofing escapes their private logic.

 Sadly ethical responsibility seems to be a thing of the past. I understand this is not just a local issue either, Improper roof flashing using just cheap steel is the standard across the Country. This thin steel flashing will not even last as long as the most inexpensive 20 year roofing shingles. Even if it does not rust all the way through it will cause unsightly rust stains down the roofing.

From what I have seen chimney flashing is the most neglected area of the roof, if re-flashed at all. More times than not it was never re-flashed during the last re-roof. I have personally seen thousands of examples of this close-up. In most cases they will just bend the old counter-flashing out and slip the new step-flashing under and just bend that rusty counter-flashing back down over it. Even if it were not rusty at all it is not going to last through the life of the new roof. Even though they were not willing to replace the old flashing they are not likely to bother notifying you the Homeowner of these rust issues that still need fixed, so you don't have a clue that the roofing job was never finished until you notice a leak, which means damage has already occurred.

Worse yet is how many homeowners are conned into paying to fully re-roofing their house because of these flashing leaks, instead of just replacing that flashing. These fancy talking salesman are much more motivated to sell a whole re-roofing package to unsuspecting Homeowners to make that big ticket sale, where in most cases even if they do actually replace that flashing they again will do this new work without the benefit of using rust-free metal like aluminum or copper. In many cases not even bothering to re-flash the problem areas as they had promised, and failing to solve the actual problem. This is one of the main reasons liability insurance for roofers is very hard to get and extremely costly these days, being around 500% more than any other type of construction work. That is very telling in it's self demonstrating irrefutable proof of what I'm saying here.

Most of roof flashing can be replaced without re-roofing the whole house (as seen above), but of course that is far less profitable for a Roofing Contractor, so that is rarely offered as an option for your consideration.  These roofers know better, but they still do the same kind of roofing with this cheap steel flashing that they just tore off of your house. They know will fail in short order, but they just don't care. It is said how this is the definition of insanity: doing the same thing and expecting different results. Sadder yet is how they are only saving around $200 on the average reroofing by not using aluminum that is about twice as thick and will not rust even if all the paint were to flake off decades later, still protecting your roof.

If that were not bad enough; Instead of flashing areas with metal; they will often use the cheapest caulking sold; called mastic. They just smear it around those problem areas. Mastic is just fibered tar with no UV protection. This will usually get the roof past their minimum required 1 year warranty that the Construction Contractors Boards require of any contractor, but not much more. This mastic tar will become brittle, crack, and peal away within a few years. If their work were to be inspected by a State Code Enforcement Inspector, it would not be approved. They are not to use mastic anywhere on a roof. That is a clear sign it was not properly flashed. Mastic is only to be used as an emergency patch to pacify the leak until a proper fix can be made, but it makes for a very messy clean-up. The roofing needs to be replace after a mastic attack, as seen in these photos:

We know this to be a very common intentional crime of Roofing Contractors, since pretty much any roofer has seen the evidence of these common issues when doing a tear-off of an old roof; i.e. very rusty steel flashing on the roof and mastic failure.  When they tear into a bad roof for replacement it tells a story of why this roof failed.  They would have to be complete morons to not see this clear evidence in front of their eyes. Yet, they continue to ignore this evidence and do the same shoddy work, since in most cases they are not required to file for a building permit to replace your roof year after year, and have not had to worry about an inspector double checking their work.

What about Lead Flashing?
Some clients have asked about using lead for this chimney flashing. It is some times use as the chimney is being first built, but I do not know how you could be able to get it in if the mortar when the more rigid thinner copper flashing is this difficult to quickly install before the mortar sets. I do not believe it's very good for the environment as well.

Here is an example of a Client installed chimney flashing kit I made for them:

Common signs of shoddy workmanship:
The most common mistake I see roofers do when they do bother to re-flash a chimney is to cut a shallow grove along the diagonal sides of the chimney to caulk a straight piece of flashing in, but these will not remain attached for long to the crumbly bricks and old mortar. Although that is not the worst problem; this sets up a fracture point for the chimney to crack and possible collapse in an Earth tremor. I have seen lots of evidence of this happening. So, keep in mind how if they do this to your chimney they have permanently damaged the chimney, where the only solution would be to rebuild the chimney down to the roof line with new bricks. If this has not yet been done to your chimney, you need to warn your roofer that you will require them to rebuild your chimney if they do this.

Even high quality silicone caulk should never be used to attach counter-flashing, because it is just rubbery and adds no structural strength to your compromised chimney. Just as with the useless effort of tuck-pointing a chimney to make the mortar grooves look nice again; the new granulated caulk in such a shallow groove has only the old crumbling mortar to stick to, so it will simply fall out within a few years. These groves need to be ground out a lot deeper than just 1/2" in order to have the upper and lower brick surface to adhere to, and only be filled back in with real mortar.  The groove needs to be at least 1.5" to 2" deep.  Anything short of that is a waste of time and money.

Over the last several decades so many roofing contractors were too cheap to spend a few extra dollars on  aluminum flashing that all the suppliers in our area decided not stock aluminum flashing any more.  It can be special ordered from a fabrication shop like mine, but of course that makes it just that much more expensive than mass produced stock.

My Roofing web page at: http://dmr-gutters.com/rf/roofs.htm goes into more detail about these terrible issue.  So don't leave without reading it over. It will help to save yourself a great deal of wasted cost and anguish down the road.

Can you make us a custom copper chimney flashing kit?
Yes, I seem to be the only shop willing to spend the time to work with Homeowners through e-mail to figure out these custom kits for them or their local installer to use. They are labeled and numbered in order of installation, and precut and bent to minimize customization needed at the job site. Below is some instruction and detailed photos to help give you a good idea of how to do this propperly.

For more information regarding custom chimney flashing kits I make for clients across the Country go to my Flashing Kits web page for more details:

http://copper-by-design.com/cc/cf-kits.htm

What about chimney flue pipe flange and other flashing?
As you can see from our web site I can also help with many other custom flashing needs. Although you may need to consider the physical contact of the copper flashing with steel pipes and the detrimental effect it will have on the steel through electrolysis. The steel will not harm the copper, but the copper will accelerate the deterioration of the steel. Stainless steel is compatible with copper. This chimney pipe for the wood stove in my wood shop corroded within a year and became unusable.

What If I Already Have This Kind Of Shoddy Workmanship On My House?
If you are are a victim of this all too common unethical business practice you can show your Contractor this web site. Then you should be able to deduct the cost of repairing your chimney and it's flashing even if you are going to do it yourself, plus the cost of cleaning off that black tar. I would encourage you to insist he has that tar removed and cleaned off by his workers as if it were never there. That ought to teach him a lesson. It is messy work and solvents on the roofing will damage the shingles and cause a terrible staining mess. If the contractor uses a solvent he'll then need to replace all the damaged and stained shingles at the same time.

Do not let them talk you into any other alternative, trying to minimize their damage. They will try to discredit me and say I do not know what I am talking about, but it is simple logic they cannot BS their way out of if you stand your ground. Roofers will claim that it can only be done this way when the chimney was first built by the brick mason, but I prove here that is simply not true.

Below are examples of jobs I've worked on that show these shoddy practices I've worked to repair.