Historic Roof Replacement in Chevy Chase Canyon

Plan on four to eight weeks before the permit application is even accepted, and more if the first submission has to go back. The way to keep it at the short end is to document what is there properly -- photographs of the existing profile, eaves and ridge -- and to propose something that reads as the original rather than arguing for something that does not.

The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, applied to roof form and cladding. In practice the question is whether the finished roof reads as the original: same profile, compatible color and texture, and details like exposed rafter tails and open eaves left alone rather than modernized.

It depends on the slope. Glendale is Title 24 climate zone 9, and the steep-slope cool-roof requirement applies in zones 10 to 15 -- so a pitched roof here is generally outside it, and a quote charging you for it is worth a question. Low slope is different: that requirement applies in all sixteen zones with no exemption.

No. The inspection is free, the written quote is free, and there is no obligation attached to either. What we will not do is give you a price at the door without going up, and on a tile roof we will not quote at all until the salvageable tile has been counted.

It is a real rule and it is not California's. Several states apply a 25% threshold, above which a repaired roof has to be brought up to current code. California uses 50%: replace more than half the total roof area within any one-year period and the whole roof has to comply. If you have read about the 25% rule, that is why it does not match what a Glendale contractor tells you.