New roof installation

Where this shows up

New houses in Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Lehi, West Haven, Syracuse, Nibley, and the Washington Fields are an obvious part of the work. So are additions in older Provo, Ogden, and Salt Lake neighborhoods, ADUs, and detached garages that were framed without a clear plan for how the new valley hits the existing roof.

If you are the owner-builder, the roof still has to satisfy the same city inspection as a production house. If you are buying from a builder, this page is also about knowing which upgrades are worth doing before the shingles are on, because redoing them later is a replacement.

Sequencing with the rest of the build

Sheathing should be dry, gapped the way the panel stamp requires, and nailed on a pattern the roof can use. We do not want to shingle over a deck that was rained on for a week and closed up. Felt or synthetic underlayment is a drying-in step, not the finished roof, and it should not sit all winter as if it were one.

Penetrations need a plan. Plumbing vents, bath fans, a range hood, and a future solar layout are cheaper to flash while the roof is open. A swamp cooler dropped on a new shingle roof with a curb someone built on site is a leak we would rather design out.

• Coordination with the framer on valley and cricket framing
• Underlayment and ice-and-water before the finished roof, matched to elevation and shade
• Edge metal that the gutter installer can actually hang on
• A shingle, metal, or tile choice made before color-sensitive siding goes up
• City inspection scheduling that matches that building department

Upgrades owners regret skipping

The production default on much of the Wasatch Front is an architectural shingle. That is a sound roof when it is detailed. The regrets we hear later are about ventilation that was never calculated, a valley that dumps behind a chimney, and no thought for snow sliding onto a doorway. In St. George the parallel regret is a light-color conversation that never happened, or tile installed on a deck and underlayment that were detailed like shingles.

Metal on a new home costs more on day one and changes snow behavior. If you want it, decide before the gutters and the porch are designed. Standing seam will throw snow. The entry and the neighbor’s walk need a place for it.

Additions against an old roof

Tying a new gable into a 1990s roof is a flashing job first and a shingle job second. The old field may not be worth replacing, but the tie-in might force a larger area so the water has a path. We will draw that limit on the estimate instead of shingling “a bit extra” without saying why.