24/7 Emergency Roof Repair
1-2 Hour Response, 24/7/365

24/7 Emergency Roof Repair in the East Bay

East Bay Roofers is the East Bay's licensed roofing contractor that homeowners and property managers call for 24/7 emergency roof repair

Since 1988, we've provided emergency tarping, water mitigation, and temporary-to-permanent repairs for homes and businesses in Concord and across the entire East Bay. Here's what that looks like in practice:

What We Handle on an Emergency Call

Not every midnight leak is the same emergency, and the way we stabilize a wind-lifted ridge is different from how we handle a Monterey pine through the living room ceiling.

Here's the short list of what we see most often. Active leaks during a storm. The overwhelming majority of our calls. Water is coming in now, you don't know exactly where it's entering the roof, and the storm is forecast to run another 36 hours. We tarp the suspect area, set catch containers inside, and schedule a dry-weather inspection to find the actual entry point. Leaks almost never enter the attic where they show up on the ceiling — water tracks along rafters and underlayment before it drips. Tree and branch impact. The East Bay is full of mature Monterey pine, eucalyptus, coast live oak, and Valley oak, and in a Diablo wind event they drop limbs the size of small cars. We coordinate tree removal with arborist partners, then assess structural damage to rafters, decking, and ridge lines before we even talk about roofing material. A tree strike looks like a roof problem and is usually a framing problem. Wind-lifted sections. A 60 mph gust up a ridge line can peel a 10-square field of shingles like a banana. The exposed felt doesn't last a single storm cycle. We tarp the exposed deck, save as many shingles as we can for the permanent re-tie-in, and document the wind event date for the insurance claim. Fire and water damage. Less common, but we respond. After a kitchen fire that vents through the attic, or a neighboring structure fire that throws embers onto your roof, we stabilize vent penetrations, tarp compromised areas, and work with fire restoration contractors on the broader scope. Total flashing failures. Chimney flashings, wall-to-roof step flashing, valley metal — when these fail, water goes straight into the wall cavity, not into an attic where you'd see it coming. These are emergencies even when the leak looks small.

When You Actually Need an Emergency Call

You need the emergency line when water is coming in, when the roof deck is exposed to weather, or when something structural has changed.

Anything outside that window — a couple of lifted shingles, a cracked vent boot you spotted from the ground, a small ceiling stain that isn't growing — is a next-day repair, and you'll save money scheduling it during normal hours. Honest anecdote: I once drove 45 minutes to a Moraga house at 1 AM because the homeowner was certain her roof was failing. It was a cracked gutter seam spilling behind the fascia during a heavy rain. I sealed the seam with butyl, cleaned up, and wrote her up as a courtesy call. She insisted on paying something, so we charged the minimum trip. Point being — if you're not sure, call the line, describe what you're seeing, and the dispatcher will tell you whether it's a tonight problem or a tomorrow problem.

Response Time by Situation

• Life-safety (tree strike, partial collapse, structural compromise): 1-2 hour arrival anywhere in our service area
• Active interior leak during a storm: 2-4 hour arrival, sooner if we have a truck in your corridor
• Same-day request, no active leak: 4-8 hours or end-of-day
• Next-day minor: morning slot the following day We stage crews across the East Bay during storm season — Concord, Oakland, Walnut Creek, Dublin — specifically so we're not driving from Martinez to Fremont at 2 AM. In a normal week we dispatch five to ten emergency calls. In an atmospheric river week, we'll run sixty.

Our Tarping Materials (Yes, It Matters)

We get asked why tarping costs what it does.

Here's what's on the truck: - Heavy-duty UV-resistant poly tarp, rated UV-24 months. Not the same as the translucent blue tarp most hardware stores sell for $12.

• 1x3 furring strips, pressure-treated. Used to clamp the tarp edges against the roof surface so wind can't get underneath.
• Galvanized roofing nails, 1-1/4". The furring strips go through these into the decking. No staples, no screws, no bungees across the ridge.
• Butyl rubber sealant for any nail penetrations that will stay in place beyond the tarp life.
• Rope and bungee for wrapping around pipes, chimneys, and vent stacks where we can't nail. A properly installed tarp lasts 30-90 days in East Bay weather. A blue tarp held down by bricks lasts about one storm, which is why we get called back to the same house in a week.

Permanent Repair Materials

When the temporary repair is also the permanent repair — most vent boot, flashing, and small field repairs — we use the same products we use on full re-roofs. GAF Timberline HDZ or CertainTeed Landmark shingles for matching, GAF StormGuard ice and water shield for flashing underlayments, Oatey Master Flash or Perma-Boot for vent boots, and Karnak 19 trowel-grade roof cement for field sealant.

Brands matter because warranty coverage depends on documented materials.

Code Requirements for Emergency Repairs

Even emergency work falls under the California Residential Code CRC R90 5.2.8 governs flashing at walls, chimneys, and penetrations. CRC R908 applies to re-roofing scope when the repair extends beyond a single square.

In unincorporated Contra Costa County and most East Bay cities, minor emergency repairs under 100 square feet don't require a permit under CRC R105.2, but anything larger does — and the permit can be filed after the emergency is stabilized. We handle the filing. For homes in CAL FIRE Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (parts of Oakland hills, Berkeley hills, Orinda, Lafayette, Moraga, Danville, San Ramon, and the Alamo foothills), any repair using new roofing material has to comply with California Building Code Chapter 7A — Class A fire-rated assembly, ember-resistant vents, noncombustible gutters. We won't install a 3-tab shingle on a WUI-zone home just because it's 3 AM.

East Bay Cities We Serve for Emergency Response

We run emergency dispatch across all 38 East Bay cities we serve.

The highest-volume corridors are Concord, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Danville, Alamo, Dublin, Livermore, Martinez, Pleasant Hill, and Pittsburg. Outlying service extends to Fremont, Union City, San Leandro, Hayward, Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany, and the San Rafael/Marin corridor when crews are available. Full city list on our locations page.

Before the Next Storm

The cheapest emergency call is the one you never have to make.

Book a pre-season inspection in September or October — we check flashing, vent boots, ridge caps, valleys, and gutters, then hand you a written punch list. Fixing a cracked vent boot in October runs $225. The same boot failing at 2 AM in January and dumping water into your ceiling runs $4,500 in drywall, insulation, and flooring replacement, plus the emergency fee. It's not close.

What Happens After the Emergency

Once a roof is stabilized from an emergency event, the next step is usually a formal roof inspection report — both to confirm the damage scope and to produce documentation the insurance carrier needs.

Many emergency calls lead to roof repair scope that's more extensive than the initial tarp-and-patch, and some lead to full roof replacement on roofs that were already past their service life. Emergency calls on commercial roofing properties — flat membrane failures, drain backup events, seam separations — follow the same triage protocol as residential work but with different documentation for property managers and HOA boards. And on metal roofing systems, emergency response focuses on panel re-seating and fastener repair rather than the shingle-replacement techniques we use on composition roofs.

Call the Emergency Line

If water is coming in right now, stop reading and call (925) 722-4916.

A dispatcher is on the line 24/7/365. We're licensed C-39 , , fully insured, and we've been at the same Concord address since 1988.. No sales pitch at 2 AM — just a crew that shows up.

What Emergency Roof Repair Includes

An emergency call is about containment first: we get tarps on the leak fast, then stabilize the immediate failure. Common emergency fixes: sealing a lifted flashing seam with sealant and caulk, replacing a split vent boot collar, re-securing drip edge or fascia that wind peeled back, and covering exposed sheathing — osb or plywood — where shingles blew off. We check for soffit and interior damage, then schedule the permanent repair with underlayment and ice-and-water shield replacement where water got under the roof. We carry a mobile dumpster for torn-off debris. The emergency crew works at night and in the rain — that's the point of 24/7.

Roof System Details

Beyond the visible work, every emergency roof repair project on a roof touches the same system-level details. Valleys are flashed with corrosion-resistant metal so the heaviest water flow stays off the deck. Ice dams are addressed at the source — ice-and-water shield in the eaves and lower field plus balanced ridge vent and soffit vent airflow keeps the deck temperature even, so snowmelt doesn't refreeze at the eave and push water up under the shingles. The joist and rafter structure is checked for deflection before heavy materials go up. Gutter and downspout connections are confirmed at the eaves so the roof edge drains into the system instead of behind it — a roof and its gutters are one water-shedding assembly, and we treat them that way.

Quality & Materials Standards

Every material we install is specified to a standard, not just a price. Architectural shingles and three-tab shingle options are dimensional fiberglass-backed products with granulated mineral surfacing; standing-seam panel and corrugated panel metal roofs come in steel or aluminum with elastomeric coating options (including acrylic coating and silicone coating where the spec calls for them). TPO, EPDM, and built-up roof membranes are checked for tensile strength and coverage rate before they go up. Adhesive and roof cement are used where the membrane spec requires them, and fasteners are driven to the manufacturer's exact coverage rate — never guessed.

We also inspect for the failure modes that shorten roof life, and we're honest about what we find: blistering and blisters, buckling or warping, delamination and spalling, corrosion and erosion of metal, granulated loss, UV degradation, and deterioration that shows as flaking, cracking, or seepage at seams and eaves. Water that wicks up under a substrate rots sheathing and trusses; we fix the substrate, not the symptom. Drains, downspouts, and gutters are checked as part of the water path — a roof that drains is a roof that lasts.

Storm response is built into our process: hail damage and wind damage assessments document every dent, dislodged shingle, and lifted flashing for the adjuster. We handle claim documentation — including the deductible line items, depreciation schedules, and supplement paperwork insurance companies require — so the scope of work is approved before the crew arrives, and a tarp protects the interior until the permanent repair is scheduled. Crews work to a written scope of work with scaffold and safety harness protocols on every steep roof.