Free roof inspection with deck photos before we talk money - GAF and Owens Corning certified installation
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AfterFast, Reliable Roof Inspection Across San Lorenzo
A roof inspection in San Lorenzo typically costs $180 – $390 for a standard single-family home, with most homeowners scheduling one in late summer before the first fall storm hits. That’s the smartest $250 you can spend on a house here. Brennan Roofing serves all of San Lorenzo with background-checked, uniformed technicians who arrive inside the promised window, inspect every roof plane and penetration, and put findings on paper with photos and a written price before any work starts. Call (361) 320-9467 to schedule yours.
Why Brennan Roofing Is San Lorenzo’s Preferred Roof Inspection Company
We know what a San Lorenzo roof looks like before we set foot on the ladder. Most of the houses here are original 1940s and 1950s ranches with wood shake or early composition shingles that have been through sixty or seventy East Bay summers. Our Roof Inspection teams work these roofs every week, and we know exactly where they fail: at valley ties where flat-roof additions meet the original low-slope section, at pipe jacks and skylights cut into old skip sheathing, at drip edges that were never installed correctly on the first go.
Travis Oakley runs our Bay Area operations, and he holds every job to the Garrison Standard: the price goes on paper before any work begins, the tech who inspects your roof is background-checked and in uniform, and every finding is backed by photos. Homeowners in San Lorenzo tell us the same thing: they just want to know what’s actually wrong, what it costs to fix, and whether it can wait. We answer those questions in plain English.
When you call, a live person answers. Not a voicemail queue. Even at midnight, someone picks up. That matters when you’ve got water coming through the ceiling on a November night off Bockman Road.
Roof Inspection Companies in San Lorenzo
Roof inspection companies in San Lorenzo handle three distinct jobs: a buyer’s inspection before closing, a maintenance inspection to catch problems before the rainy season, and a leak investigation when water has already shown up inside. Most local roofers treat these as quick walk-arounds. We don’t, because the housing stock here doesn’t tolerate a two-minute glance. A 1954 ranch off Via Arroyo with original skip sheathing and a torch-down addition tied in at a valley needs a real inspection, not a drive-by.
What a San Lorenzo Inspection Actually Covers
We walk every roof plane, inspect all flashing at chimneys, skylights, and valleys, check the decking condition from the attic side where accessible, and document ponding on low-slope sections. We photograph everything. You get a written condition report, not a verbal summary you have to remember.
Inspection Reports That Give You Numbers, Not Adjectives
Every Brennan Roofing inspection report includes a photo log and a priced repair list. If we find failed flashing at a valley, the report shows you a photo of it, tells you what it costs to fix, and whether it can wait six months or needs attention before the next rain. No vague language. No “should probably keep an eye on it” without a number attached.
Commercial Roof Inspection in San Lorenzo
Commercial roof inspection in San Lorenzo covers a different set of buildings: the retail strips along Hesperian Boulevard, the medical and professional offices on Bockman, the older industrial buildings south of the railroad tracks, and the multi-unit apartment properties scattered through the unincorporated neighborhoods. These roofs are mostly low-slope or flat, which means they fail differently than the residential ranches. Ponding water after a storm, failed seams in torch-down or modified bitumen, and unmaintained drains are the recurring themes.
Flat and Low-Slope Commercial Roofing
Commercial flat roofs in San Lorenzo take direct summer UV with no attic to buffer the heat. That cooks the membrane, opens seams, and shrinks flashing until the first real rain finds a path through. We inspect the entire membrane surface, pull back failing flashing to check what’s underneath, and photograph every defect with a measurement reference in the shot.
Commercial Inspection Reports That Hold Up to Scrutiny
Property managers and owners get the same standard residential clients get: a written report with photos, a condition assessment of each roof section, expected remaining service life on the membrane, and a priced repair scope divided into immediate, short-term, and monitor sections. If you’re budgeting for capital improvements over the next five years, the report tells you what to plan for. Travis Oakley personally reviews commercial inspections before they’re delivered. Call (361) 320-9467 to schedule a commercial inspection.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Lorenzo
We inspect and repair all roof types, and when repairs call for new materials, we install from lines including GAF, Atlas, and CertainTeed. If your San Lorenzo roof has a specific manufacturer’s product on it, we’ll match the repair to the existing system where it makes sense. We keep common repair components for GAF and CertainTeed systems stocked locally, which means a repair quote doesn’t sit for two weeks waiting on shipping. For older roofs where the original manufacturer no longer exists, we’ll recommend a material that works with what’s already there, not against it.
Common Roof Inspection Problems We See in San Lorenzo Homes
- Original wood shake is curling and checking after decades of UV. The shake still looks fine from the street, but up close it’s brittle, split, and no longer shedding water. The first real rain drives through cracks you can’t even see from the ground.
- Skip sheathing has dry-rotted at valleys and penetrations. These 1940s-50s ranches used 1×6 boards spaced apart under the shingles. Once water gets past the shingle layer, that old sawn lumber rots fast, and the repair is structural, not cosmetic.
- Flat-roof additions pond water at the valley edge. San Lorenzo has thousands of low-slope additions tied into original gable roofs. The flashing at that transition fails first, and the ponding water stays there long after the rest of the roof has dried.
- Missing or damaged drip edge is a silent killer. Many of these homes never had proper drip edge installed, or what’s there is rusted through. Water wicks up under the shingles at the eaves, rots the fascia and the rafter tails, and the homeowner doesn’t know until the gutter pulls off.
Pricing for Roof Inspection in San Lorenzo, CA
A standard residential roof inspection in San Lorenzo runs $180 – $390 depending on roof size, access difficulty, and whether it’s a single-story ranch or a two-story home with multiple slopes. Leak investigations with a full diagnostic report fall in the same range. Commercial inspections start at $350 for a smaller single-tenant building and scale up with square footage. Every inspection quote is written before we arrive, and the price doesn’t move at the door. If the inspection turns up repair work, we price that separately with photos and a written line-item quote, so you decide what gets done and when.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Lorenzo
While this page covers Roof Inspection in San Lorenzo, our crews also run inspections in Castro Valley, San Leandro, Union City, and Oakland. If you’re a San Lorenzo homeowner with a rental property in one of those neighboring cities, we can handle both inspections on the same schedule.
Serving San Lorenzo, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Lorenzo area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Roof Inspection in San Lorenzo
Because San Lorenzo is unincorporated Alameda County, every roofing permit and inspection runs through County Building Services rather than a city counter. That means different paperwork, different scheduling, and different final sign-off timelines than what homeowners in San Leandro or Hayward experience. We handle the County process end to end: we pull the permit, schedule the inspection, meet the inspector on site, and close out the permit with the final sign-off. You don’t chase the County; we do. Call (361) 320-9467 and we’ll walk you through it.
Late August through mid-October is the window that catches the most failures in San Lorenzo. The summer UV has done its damage by then, but the first big storm hasn’t yet pushed water through the cracks. A spring-only inspection misses the exact problem this climate creates: shake and shingles baked all summer until they crack, then tested hard by a November downpour. Book in September and you’ll have the written report and a priced repair plan in hand before the first atmospheric river. Call (361) 320-9467 to schedule.
Failed flashing at valley ties is the most common finding, especially where a flat-roof addition meets the original low-slope section. After that: dry-rotted skip sheathing where leaks have been active for years, missing or rusted drip edge, cracked pipe jacks, and ponding on torch-down sections that have outlived their service life. We price every finding with a photo and a written number, so you know exactly what “fix it now” costs versus “watch it for two more years.”
Here’s the reality of working on San Lorenzo’s older ranches: opening a roof often reveals underlying conditions the original quote never accounted for, like dried-out skip sheathing, undersized framing at penetrations, or missing drip edge, and a County permit inspection sometimes triggers code upgrades. We handle it like this: inspection first, then allowances written into the contract for known unknowns, and if we find something new, it gets priced and approved in writing with photos before we touch it. We were called out to a 1952 single-story ranch off Via Verde after the first November storm pushed water through the ceiling near a flat-roof addition. Our tech pulled a few courses of the original wood shake, found the 1×6 skip-sheathing decking had dry-rotted at a valley where the low-slope addition tied in, and traced the leak to failed flashing rather than the roll roofing itself. We wrote the decking replacement, new ice and water shield, and drip edge as a priced allowance with photos before the homeowner approved anything. That’s the Garrison Code: nothing gets cut into without a number in front of you first.
Ask whether the price includes the full written report with photos, whether it covers every roof plane and penetration, and whether the inspector is the person who would do the repair work if something turns up. Some San Lorenzo roofers offer a “$99 roof inspection” that turns into a sales pitch for a new roof. Our $180 – $390 inspection is a diagnostic service: you get a written condition report and a priced repair list, and you owe us nothing beyond the inspection fee unless you choose to move forward. The quote you get is the price, in writing, before any work starts. Call (361) 320-9467 if you have questions, or to schedule a free estimate.
Written by Travis Oakley, Owner at Brennan Roofing, serving San Lorenzo and the East Bay.