CA Lic. #1160227 (C-39) · Beverly Hills and the LA County hillsides

Roofs too steep to walk

A lot of the housing stock above Sunset was built with pitch as the point — long unbroken slopes, deep hips, and shingle that runs from a high ridge down to an eave three stories off the ground. Those roofs are excellent at shedding water and awkward at everything else. You cannot walk one, which means the cheapest way to price it is from the driveway with binoculars, and the cheapest way to treat it is to skip the parts you cannot reach.

We do not price roofs from the driveway. The photos below are one Beverly Hills composition roof, treated with Roof Maxx over a working day.

A technician in a harness standing on a long steep composition slope, one hand on a rope grab riding a lifeline that runs up to an anchor at the ridge, the product hose trailing beside him — Beverly Hills — tied off to a ridge anchor before anyone steps on the slope

Getting to the shingle is most of the job

On a low-slope tract roof, access is a ladder against the eave and then your boots. On a pitch like this one, every course has to be reached deliberately — off a ladder hooked over the ridge, or from a rope, or by sitting the ridge and working the wand down. That is slower, and it is the difference between a roof that gets treated and a roof that gets treated where it was convenient.

A technician climbing a ridge-hook ladder laid up a steep composition slope, the ladder's standoff brackets holding it clear of the shingle — Beverly Hills — a hooked ladder is how you reach a slope this steep

Overhead view of a steep hip roof with the ladder hooked over the ridge and a wide band of shingle below it gone pale and milky with freshly applied Roof Maxx, the dry shingle above the ladder still darker gray — Beverly Hills — the pale band under the ladder is product that just went on

What fall protection looks like on a real day

Ask any roofer whether they use fall protection and the answer is yes. It is worth seeing what that means when nobody is being asked. This is the same setup we bring to a steep roof in Ventura County; the hillside just makes it obvious why.

A harness, worn all day

Not carried up and put on when a photo happens. The harness goes on at the truck, and it stays on until the last hose comes off the roof.

A lifeline anchored at the ridge

The anchor goes in first. A rope runs from it down the working slope, and a rope grab travels the rope with whoever is on it, so a slip is a short stop rather than a fall.

A ladder that hooks the ridge

Standoff brackets hold the rails off the shingle so the load spreads across the ladder instead of concentrating under a boot. On an aging roof that also keeps granules where they belong.

Ground control

Someone stays down with the pump and the hose. Product pressure, hose slack, and anything moving under the eave are handled from the ground, not by the person on the pitch.

A technician sitting astride a steep ridge in a fall-protection harness, leg straps buckled and a locking carabiner hanging from the waist D-ring, working the spray wand down the slope below him — Beverly Hills — harness on, wand reaching down the slope

A technician kneeling on a hooked ladder at the very edge of a steep roof, spraying the last course above the eave as mist drifts off the corner — Beverly Hills — the last course above the eave gets the same pass as the ridge

The eave is the course that gets skipped. It is the furthest from the anchor, the most exposed, and the one nobody sees from the street. It is also the first two feet of shingle to dry out and curl, because it sits over cold air with no warm deck behind it. Reaching it means going out to the edge on the ladder rather than spraying at it from higher up and calling it covered.

Why a steep roof is worth treating

Replacing one costs more

Steep pitch adds staging, fall protection, and days to a tear-off, and the bid reflects it. The gap between rejuvenating a sound shingle roof and replacing it is widest exactly where the roof is hardest to stand on.

The field is usually still good

Water leaves a steep slope fast, so the field often ages better than a shallow roof of the same year. What ages is the asphalt itself — it dries out and stops flexing whether or not water ever sat on it.

Flexibility is the failure

As a shingle ages, oil dries, the asphalt becomes brittle, expand-and-contract fails, and the shingle breaks. Treatment restores flexibility.

Roof Maxx certified dealer mark — Certified Roof Maxx Dealer · Dealer #10333

Asphalt shingles only. A steep tile roof is a different conversation, and we will tell you that on the phone rather than after we are up there. How rejuvenation works

Working in the hills

The street is narrow

Most of these lots have room for one truck and no room for a mistake. We stage tight, keep the lane passable, and run hose rather than move the truck twice.

The landscaping is not replaceable

Mature specimen trees and hedging come right up to the eaves. We plan the passes around what is under them and work the edge with the wand close in.

We are out of county here

Camarillo is home and Ventura County is the route. Los Angeles County work is real but scheduled around it, so ask early rather than the week you need it.

If the letter came from your insurer

Non-renewal notices citing roof condition land in Los Angeles County the same way they land in Ventura County, and the carrier wants the same thing either way: a licensed contractor on the roof, a written record of what was found, and an invoice for what was done.

What to do with an insurance letter

Have us look at your roof All service areas