Flat & Low-Slope Roofs
in Sherman Oaks & the Valley

The Valley has more flat roofs than people think: the torch-down over every garage conversion in Van Nuys and Valley Glen, the low-slope sections on the mid-century homes in Sherman Oaks and Studio City, the built-up roofs on the small commercial buildings along Ventura and Van Nuys Boulevards, and the parapet roofs on the Arts District townhomes. Almost all of them leak in the same three places: an open seam, a clogged or undersized scupper, and the transition where the flat section meets a wall or a pitched roof.

We fix the cause. A torch-down seam that has opened gets rewelded, a ponding area gets tapered insulation or a new drain, a parapet gets new counter-flashing and cap, and a roof that has reached the end of its membrane gets replaced with the right system: two-ply torch-down on small residential sections where it has always worked, or a heat-welded TPO single-ply on larger roofs where the seams are the risk and the white membrane keeps the building cool.

When the membrane is sound but tired, a reflective elastomeric or silicone coating restores the surface, meets the cool-roof reflectance the City asks for, and buys years for far less than a tear-off. We will tell you when a coating is the right call and when it would just be painting over a wet roof.

Every flat roof we install gets proper drainage, edge metal and flashing, and a permit where the work is a replacement. The photo above is one of ours: a low-slope Valley roof after a reflective coating.

Most residential flat roofs in the Valley were never designed as roofs. They were built over a garage conversion, an enclosed patio or a room addition, pitched a quarter inch to the foot if at all, and joined to the main shingle roof with a bead of sealant. The original torch-down was fine; the tie-in was not. Those are the repairs we see every winter in Van Nuys, Valley Glen, North Hollywood and Valley Village.

The mid-century post-and-beam homes in Sherman Oaks and Studio City are a different case: a whole low-slope roof with a built-up or torch-down membrane, often with foam or coating layers added over the decades. Those roofs get a proper tear-off and a TPO or two-ply torch-down system with new edge metal.

Commercial flats on Ventura, Van Nuys and Lankershim Boulevards are usually TPO or coating work scheduled around the tenant: early starts, sections finished the same day, and a cool-roof membrane that meets Title 24 Section 141.0(b)2B for nonresidential re-roofs.