Serving Salt Lake City, UT & Nearby Areas
(385) 438-3591
Serving Salt Lake City, UT & Nearby Areas
(385) 438-3591
In this corner of roofing, a company saying no is usually telling you the truth. The one to watch is the one who says yes without proof.
Three jobs sit outside ordinary roofing: skylights, snow retention, and gutters. They are where the most expensive mistakes in this trade happen, and where the usual advice fails. In all three, the company that can prove it matters far more than the company that is willing.
· About a 12 minute read
In Utah specialty work, a roofer saying no is being honest with you. The one to watch is the one who says yes without any proof.
Mattie Tueller, Master Roofing
Most roofing questions are about your whole roof. These three are about one part of it, and they follow different rules.
A hole cut in the one surface of your house whose whole job is not having holes in it. Three types, three different waterproofing methods, and none of it is obvious.
Not decoration and not an upgrade. It is safety equipment holding a calculated weight on a slick surface for months at a time.
A cheap product sold at wildly different prices, where the winter behavior matters far more than the leaf-blocking everyone advertises.
Each one is a separate skill from putting a roof on. A company can be genuinely good at roofing and still not be equipped for any of them. That is not a criticism. It is how trades work.
Which flips the usual advice on its head. In ordinary roofing you are looking for a company willing to do the work. Here, willingness is the cheap part.
A roofer who declines skylight work is being honest with you. Turning down a job outside your competence is the right move, and it is worth respecting. What you should not accept is the company that has never installed one and says yes anyway.
So the question changes. Instead of who will do this, ask who can show me they have done this. The rest of this guide is what that proof looks like for each of the three.
Skylights have a bad reputation in Utah. It is earned, and it is aimed at the wrong thing.
Modern skylights from the major manufacturers are good products. When one leaks, the cause is almost always the flashing and how it was integrated with the roof, not the unit itself.
This is the detail that explains most failures. There are three main skylight types and each is waterproofed a different way.
That last one catches people who are trying to be careful. Adding sealant feels like extra protection. On the wrong unit it causes the problem it was meant to prevent.
Nobody knows this by instinct. Nothing in Utah licensing teaches it. So a competent roofer with no skylight training can install one, do everything the way they normally would, and still get it wrong.
Do not start by buying a new skylight. Replacing the unit without correcting the flashing method or the location just buys you a newer leak.
Ask two questions first. Which type of skylight do I have, and how was it flashed? Most of the time the glass above your head was never the problem, and the fix is at the edges rather than in the middle.
Two questions, and the speed of the answer tells you as much as the content. What training do you have on skylights, and how many have you actually installed? A factory-trained installer will answer both without pausing.
This is the part that costs people money, because a bad location looks exactly like a good one from inside the house.
You stand in the room and point at the ceiling. Nothing about that view tells you there is a valley six feet away dumping half the roof's water past that spot.
Trusses versus rafters is the one that surprises homeowners most. If your house is framed with trusses, the framing has already decided a great deal about where a skylight can go, before anyone talks about light.
An interior remodeler can cut the hole and finish the drywall beautifully. None of that work prevents a leak if the location was wrong. The constraints all live on the roof and in the attic.
So the order is: you choose the room and roughly where you want the light. Then someone goes up in the attic and on the roof and rules out what has to be ruled out.
A company that has not looked will simply say yes. That is a much nicer meeting and a much worse roof.
Ask early, because many companies will tell you the skylight is not being touched. That can be the honest answer from a company that does not do skylight work. It is still worth knowing before the crew arrives, since the flashing around it is exactly where the new roof meets the old problem.
Snow does not slide off asphalt shingles. Their granulated surface is rough enough to hold it in place. Snow absolutely slides off metal, because there is nothing on the surface for it to grip.
When it goes, it does not melt away politely. A whole slope's worth releases at once, as a slab, on whatever warm afternoon it chooses.
This is not really a mountain question. Damaging slides happen on low-elevation Wasatch Front homes too. The physics do not care whether the building is a four-story hotel or a rambler. Slick surface, warm afternoon, slab lets go.
Take the ten minute walk around your own house before the first storm. Stand at each eave and look up, then look down at what is beneath you.
If the answer under every eave is bare lawn, you have your answer and it cost you nothing. If the answer is your front door, you also have your answer.
Sizing the system is its own subject, and getting it wrong is genuinely dangerous. A guessed system can concentrate the load it catches and peel metal off a roof. That is covered in its own guide, because it deserves the room.
This is one of the few places in roofing where the actual number can be stated plainly.
Quality gutter screen runs somewhere around $8 a foot installed. That is the product and the labor.
Homeowners regularly show quotes from the big national brands that land at several times that for a job doing the same thing. And what is being installed is often screen of comparable quality.
The gap is not in the metal. It is in television advertising, lead generation, and a commissioned rep who drove to your house and spent an hour and a half at your kitchen table. Nobody itemizes that line on the contract.
To be fair, those companies are not installing garbage. Many do competent work with a decent product and stand behind it. You are simply also buying the machine that found you.
Measure your gutter runs and get one per-foot price from a local company. Walking into any in-home appointment already knowing what the category costs changes that conversation completely.
No guard means you never clean your gutters again. Fine grit, shingle granules, seeds, and pine needles still get through or pile up on top of the screen. Downspouts can still clog at the elbow. And a guard on a sagging or badly pitched gutter will not stop overflow.
What guards genuinely do is turn a regular chore into an occasional one. Going from cleaning three times a year to looking once is worth money. On a two story house, every ladder trip is a real risk. That is a strong honest pitch, and the industry decided it was not exciting enough.
Every gutter guard ad shows autumn leaves. Utah sorts these products in winter instead. What matters is how a guard handles snow sitting on it, ice forming through it, and months of melt cycles flexing it.
Foam inserts and flimsy plastic screens are the classic winter casualties, because they hold ice and collapse under load. Solid metal screen and well-built mesh, correctly fastened to sound gutters, winter well. Pick the type first. The brand can be whoever sells that type honestly.
Same principle in all three, different evidence. In each case you are asking someone to show their work rather than assert their confidence.
Manufacturer certification matters more here than almost anywhere else in roofing, because factory training is where installers actually learn the spec for each type.
A quote that names no snow load figure and shows no layout is an estimate of price rather than a design.
The pattern across all three. A company that has done the work answers quickly and specifically. A company that has not steers back toward the decision, the price, or the brochure. You are not testing their honesty. You are testing their depth.
And if a company cannot answer, that is not a reason to give up on the skylight or the snow guards. It is a reason to find someone who can.
None of these prove bad intent. Each one means this company is not the right one for this particular job.
The best roofing companies know what to say no to. That sounds like a limitation and it is the opposite. A company that declines work outside its competence is telling you exactly where its competence ends, which is information you cannot get any other way.
So take a no seriously rather than as a rejection. It is one of the few moments in this trade where somebody tells you what they actually believe about their own crew instead of what they can sell you.
Boring. A skylight that just lights the room. Snow retention you stop thinking about. Gutters that need one look a year.
None of it announces itself. That is the whole point, and it is why the proof has to come before the work rather than after it.
All four are free, none needs a ladder you have to step off, and together they make every specialty conversation shorter.
Stand under each eave and note what is beneath it. A walkway, a driveway, an entry, a deck, a gas meter, a neighbor's fence. If your roof is metal, this list is your snow retention answer.
Look at what is directly above the room you have in mind. Trusses or rafters, a flue nearby, or the underside of a valley. Ten minutes here saves a very disappointing conversation later.
A tape measure and five minutes gets you the linear feet. Then one per-foot price from a local company tells you what the category actually costs before anyone sits at your table.
From a ladder, without climbing on the roof. Sagging, standing water, debris matted on top of a screen, or a downspout that runs slow. Any of those needs fixing before a new product goes over it.
Then ask the two questions that work on every specialty. What training do you have on this, and how many have you done? You do not need to evaluate the answer technically. You are listening for whether it arrives quickly and specifically.
Specialty work is worth doing. A skylight in the right spot is one of the best things you can do to a room. Snow retention that was engineered properly is invisible for twenty years. The proof is just what has to come first.
We paid a lot of tuition to learn skylights. Not just the factory training in Reno, though we did that too. The real tuition was the early jobs where we made mistakes and had to work out why.
Those mistakes did not make roofs leak, because we are good roofers and we caught them. But there was much more to it than roofing around a hole. We found that out the way everyone does.
I want to be fair to the companies that say no to this work. Declining a job outside your competence is the honest move, and I respect it. I would much rather a homeowner hear no than hear yes from someone guessing.
Skylights do not have a bad reputation in Utah because skylights are bad. They have it because people who never learned to install them install a lot of them. Nothing in Utah licensing teaches the difference between the three types. So a competent roofer can do everything the way they normally would and still get it wrong.
One of the few rules Master Roofing holds without exception is that we do not touch anything we are not 90 percent good on. That rule has cost us work, and it is the reason I can tell you plainly when something is outside our lane.
So ask the training question and ask for the number. If a company cannot answer either one quickly, that is not a reason to give up on the skylight. It is a reason to find someone who can.
These three jobs punish the same mistake. Hiring the willing company instead of the able one.
Skylights leak because of how they were put in, so ask about training, type, and flashing. Snow retention is safety equipment, so start by walking your eaves and looking at what is underneath them. Gutter guards are a cheap product sold at wildly different prices, so get a per-foot number before anyone sits at your table.
In each case the useful question is the same. Not who will do this, but who can show me they have done this.
And when a company tells you no, take it as information rather than as a door closing. It is one of the few honest signals this trade gives you for free.
In specialty work the willing answer is cheap. Make somebody prove it instead.
Building codes, permit rules, and licensing requirements change over time, and they differ by city and county across Utah. Verify current requirements with your local building department before relying on anything here, and work with a licensed contractor who knows the rules in your jurisdiction.
This article is general information about Utah roofs, not an assessment of yours. Every roof is different, and no article can tell you what is actually happening on your specific house. Have a licensed roofing contractor look at it in person before you act on anything here.
Not by default, and that is not an insult to roofers. Most roofing companies decline skylight work entirely, which is the honest response to a job outside their training. The ones who take it on untrained are the reason skylights have their reputation. So ask two questions. What training do you have on skylights, and how many have you actually installed? A factory-trained installer answers both without pausing. If the answers are vague, that is not a reason to give up on the skylight. It is a reason to find a company that specializes in them.
Almost never because the skylight failed. Modern units from the major manufacturers are good products. Leaks come from how they were installed. The wrong flashing method for that type of unit. Sealant applied where the design does not want it. Or a location the roof was never going to tolerate. There are three main skylight types and each is waterproofed differently, and some must not have sealant applied at all. So if yours is leaking, find out which type you have and how it was flashed before you agree to buy anything new.
No, and the constraints are all on the roof rather than in the room. A valley collects and channels a large volume of water, so cutting an opening near one puts a hole in the path of that flow. Furnace and water heater flues usually cannot be moved, so they rule out the area around them. And it matters a great deal whether your house is framed with trusses or rafters. Truss members cannot be altered without approval from a registered design professional. Go up in the attic and look before anyone cuts anything.
Two questions decide it. First, does your roof surface shed snow? Metal and other smooth panels almost always do, because there is nothing for snow to grip. Asphalt shingles almost always do not. Second, is anything under those eaves worth protecting? A walkway, a driveway, an entry door, a deck, a gas meter, a neighbor's property. Take the ten minute walk around your house before the first storm. If the answer under every eave is bare lawn, you have your answer for free. If the answer is your front door, you also have your answer.
Yes. Sliding snow has dented cars, broken windows, and killed someone in Utah. That death is why Park City now requires snow retention on commercial buildings. A slick roof releases a whole slope's worth at once, as a slab. FEMA's guidance puts a foot of wet settled snow above 20 pounds per square foot. A section of roof only four feet wide has done real damage in one slide. It dented car hoods and broke windows in a Utah driveway. The physics do not care whether the building is a hotel or a rambler.
Guards are worth having on the right house. What is often not worth it is the price the national brands charge. Quality gutter screen runs somewhere around $8 a foot installed, product and labor. Brand-name in-home sales routes often run several times that for a comparable job. The gap is not in the metal. It is television advertising, lead generation, and a commissioned rep at your kitchen table. Measure your gutter runs and get one per-foot price from a local company before you sit through anyone's appointment.
No, and anyone promising that is overselling a genuinely good product. Fine grit, shingle granules, seeds, and pine needles still get through or pile up on top of the screen. The screen surface itself needs periodic clearing, which is a different job than cleaning out a gutter. Downspouts can still clog at the elbow. What guards really do is turn a regular chore into an occasional one, which on a two story house is worth real money. Put one date on your calendar each late fall, before the first freeze, and that is the job.
The one chosen for snow and ice rather than for leaves. Every ad in this category shows autumn. Utah sorts these products in January, when snow parks on the guard, the eave freezes around it, and months of melt cycles flex it. Foam inserts and flimsy plastic screens are the classic casualties, because they hold ice and collapse under load. Solid metal screen and well-built mesh, correctly fastened to gutters that were sound to begin with, winter well. Pick the type first and let the brand be whoever sells that type honestly.
We're here to see what's going on with your roof. A real assessment starts with your history and your attic, not a number from the driveway. You'll get a straight answer about what's up there, what it needs, and what it costs. Sometimes the honest answer is: your roof looks great.