The metal that closes every hole in your roof — chimney, valleys, walls, vents.
Most roof leaks are not the shingles. They are the flashing.
Flashing is the metal that closes every hole in your roof — the chimney, the valleys, the walls, the vents. It is where roofs actually fail, and it is the first thing we photograph.
- We photograph the flashing before we quote anything
- Free inspection, typically within 24 hours — even if the answer is "you are fine"
- MHIC #111971 · A+ BBB Accredited
Two fields and one question. We photograph what we find and send it to you — even if the answer is that you do not need us.
What flashing actually is, in one paragraph
A roof is not waterproof because of shingles. Shingles shed water downhill. Everywhere the roof is interrupted — a chimney, a wall, a vent pipe, a skylight, a valley where two slopes meet — something has to close that gap, and that something is flashing: shaped metal, layered under the shingles so water runs over it rather than behind it.
That is the whole trick, and it is why flashing fails more often than shingles do. Shingles fail slowly, from sun and age, across the whole roof at once. Flashing fails at a single detail, usually because it was installed wrong or reused, and it does it silently until a ceiling stains.
The five places it goes wrong
1. Chimney flashing
The most common leak on a Maryland house. A masonry chimney needs two layers: step flashing woven into the shingle courses, and counter-flashing cut into the mortar joint above it and folded down over the step. If the counter-flashing was surface-mounted and sealed rather than let into the mortar, it is a caulk joint pretending to be metal, and caulk has a service life measured in a few years.
2. Step flashing at walls
Where a roof runs into a wall — a dormer cheek, a garage return — every shingle course needs its own piece of step flashing. The failure is a single long strip of metal instead of individual steps. It looks tidier and it funnels water behind the siding.
3. Valleys
Two slopes meeting carry the volume of both. An open metal valley or a properly woven closed valley handles it; a valley closed with nothing but shingle overlap and sealant does not, and Maryland's freeze-thaw cycle works ice into exactly that seam.
4. Pipe boots
The rubber collar around a plumbing vent. The rubber is the shortest-lived component on the entire roof — it cracks from UV long before the shingles are done. It is also the cheapest thing on the roof to get right, which is why finding a cracked one tells you something about who was up there last.
5. Drip edge
Metal at the eaves and rakes that carries water off the deck and into the gutter instead of behind it. Required by code on new work in Maryland. Frequently absent on older roofs, and the reason a fascia board rots while the shingles above it look fine.
Why we will not just seal it
You can stop most flashing leaks for a season with a tube of sealant. We do not sell that, for the same reason we do not sell roof repairs: it moves the problem into next year and charges you for the privilege.
Metal flashing installed correctly lasts as long as the roof over it. Sealant over failed flashing lasts two or three winters and hides the water damage accumulating underneath. If a contractor's answer to a chimney leak is caulk, the honest translation is "this will be your problem again, and by then the decking will be soft."
The question that actually matters: component or symptom?
This is the only genuinely useful thing an inspection tells you, and it is the reason ours is free.
If the roof is sound and one detail failed — a cracked pipe boot on a nine-year-old roof, drip edge missing on one rake — that is a component. It gets replaced, the roof carries on, and you should not be sold a roof.
If the flashing failed because the roof is finished — brittle shingles that crack when they are lifted, granules gone, decking that gives underfoot — then re-flashing is money spent on a roof that is going to be replaced anyway, and doing it first means paying to remove it later.
We photograph both cases the same way and show you the pictures. You get the answer whether or not you hire us.
What we look at, specifically
- Counter-flashing: let into the mortar, or surface-sealed?
- Step flashing: individual pieces per course, or one continuous strip?
- Is there a cricket behind the chimney? Above 30 inches wide, there should be.
- Pipe boots: cracked, UV-chalked, or collar lifting from the pipe?
- Valleys: metal, woven, or sealant?
- Drip edge present at eaves and rakes?
- Nail heads exposed in any flashing — every one is a future hole
- Mortar condition on the chimney itself, because new flashing into failing mortar is a short-lived repair regardless of who installs it
Straight answers
Is chimney flashing covered by insurance?
If it failed from a covered storm event — wind lifting the counter-flashing, a tree limb — usually yes. Age and gradual wear are not covered by any policy. We document the cause with photographs either way, and we are a licensed contractor rather than a public adjuster, so we do not negotiate or adjust your claim.
Can flashing be replaced without replacing the roof?
Often, yes — if the shingles around it are still flexible enough to lift without cracking. On a roof past roughly fifteen years in Maryland that becomes unlikely, because lifting brittle shingles to weave in new step flashing breaks them.
How long should flashing last?
Correctly installed metal flashing lasts the life of the roof over it. Rubber pipe boots do not — plan on those being the first thing to fail, often around year ten.
My roofer said he would reuse the existing flashing. Is that normal?
It is common and it is where a cheap quote hides. Reused chimney and wall flashing is the most frequent reason a brand-new roof leaks in its first two years. Our replacements include new flashing, and it is written into the scope rather than left to the crew on the day.
Find out which one you are looking at.
Free inspection, typically within 24 hours, with photographs of what we find. You keep the report either way. Or call (240) 880-2108.
- Full roof replacements — not patches
- Free 24-hour inspection with a photo report you keep
- MHIC #111971 · A+ BBB Accredited · GAF limited lifetime material warranty
Two fields and one question. A specialist calls you back to confirm a time.