Roof repair and re-roofing
Roofing Burbank, CA
for the heat and the hills
Roofing Burbank houses means working with three forces: summer sun on the valley floor, dry offshore wind and, on the foothill streets, a fire code that asks for more. California Green Roofing is a licensed roofing contractor. Burbank homeowners get a written scope for every job, a City permit whenever the work needs one and a written 20-year workmanship warranty.
CSLB #1100046, bonded and insured
20-year written workmanship warranty
Open daily, 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Roofing Burbank guide
Climate and roofing
Burbank weather, and what it does to a roof
Burbank gets most of its rain in four months. At the airport weather station, about 11 of the city’s 14 inches fall between December and March, and an average year brings 54 days at 90 degrees or hotter. A roof here wears out in the dry months and shows it in the wet ones.
Hot sun
Attacks // oils, granules, attic
An average year also brings 7 days at 100 degrees or more, and a dark roof runs far hotter than the air above it. The oils that keep asphalt flexible bake out, granules loosen and the sealant strips stop holding. West and south slopes take the longest hours of sun, so they usually wear out first.
Heat swing
Attacks // nails, flashing, sealant
In August the normal high at the airport is 89 degrees and the normal low is 65, so a roof expands and contracts through a wide swing every day. Year after year that movement backs nails out, opens flashing joints and cracks the seal around pipes and vents, often before the shingles look worn from the street.
Santa Anas
Attacks // shingle tabs, ridge caps
The Weather Service describes Santa Ana winds as strong, hot, dust-bearing winds that come down from the inland deserts. They lift shingle tabs the heat has already unsealed, strip ridge caps and rake edges, and shift clay tile that was never fastened to current standards. Loose tabs and lifted caps after a wind event call for roof repair. Burbank’s older tile roofs need a closer look, because a shifted tile can hide torn underlayment.
Fire zone
Attacks // vents, eaves, tile gaps
The City’s general plan points to wildfire risk in two places: the Verdugo foothills in the northeast and the southwest edge near the studios. Inside a zone on the state fire hazard map, a Class A roof in Burbank is required, and embers find open vents, leaf-filled gutters and the gaps under tile first.
West slope // first to wear out
Repair versus replacement
Roof repair Burbank: when a fix beats a new roof
Can a Burbank roof be repaired instead of replaced? Often it can, and an honest roofer will say so. Four checks made on the roof itself decide between a whole new roof, a partial Burbank roof replacement and a simple roof repair. Burbank roofs get all four checks, and you get the result in writing, with photographs, before any scope is agreed.
The life left
in the roof
Life left // repair
Age alone decides nothing, but it sets the odds. A roof that is young for its material, with damage in one place, calls for roof repair. Burbank sun that has stripped granules from every slope tells a different story: that roof has run out of repairs worth making.
If the deck
is still sound
Soft boards // replace
We walk every slope and look at the sheathing from the attic. Soft spots, daylight between boards or water stains mean the deck has to be opened, and once it is open, patching over it rarely makes sense.
How many layers
the roof has
Second layer // tear off
Many older Burbank houses carry a second roof laid over the first. The building code does not allow a new covering over two existing layers, so the job goes back to the deck, and the deck is inspected while it is bare.
How far
the damage runs
One slope // partial
Heat and wind rarely wear a roof evenly. When one slope has failed and the others still have years left, replacing that slope alone is often the right call, as long as the new section ties into the old one at the ridge and valleys without a weak seam.
Housing stock
Roofing Burbank homes of every generation
Half of Burbank’s homes were built before 1960, and the median home dates from 1959, according to the Census Bureau. A house’s build year says a lot about what sits under its covering: board sheathing, a second layer, tile laid without modern fasteners.
Clay tile // a flat deck behind it
Built 1920 to 1939
Spanish Revival clay tile
With Spanish Revival houses, the tile comes first in roofing. Burbank’s examples pair clay barrel tile on the pitched sections with a flat roof hidden behind the parapet. Sound tile can go back on the roof: we lift it, lay new underlayment and set the same tile again, then rebuild the flat deck and its scuppers as a job of its own.
Built 1940 to 1949
Post-war shingle homes
About one Burbank home in five was built in the 1940s alone. Modest pitches, composition shingle on board sheathing that has seen eight decades, often a second roof laid over the first. These are the houses that most often go back to the deck.
Built 1950 to 1969
Ranch homes with wide eaves
Long, low hip roofs with wide eaves and one big expanse of shingle that takes the afternoon sun on every slope. Attic ventilation matters as much as the covering here, so a Burbank re-roof on a ranch house treats the roof and the attic as one system.
For owners and managers
Apartment and multi-unit roofs
Four in ten Burbank homes are in buildings of five or more units, and more than half of the city’s homes are rented. Apartment buildings are their own kind of roofing. Burbank’s low-slope apartment roofs come as built-up, torch-down or single-ply, and we repair them, replace the ones that are finished with a modern membrane, and leave every drain and scupper clear.
The scope is written for the owner’s file, with a photograph of every finding, and the work is planned around the tenants rather than through them. On a larger low-slope re-roof, the state energy code can require a reflective cool roof surface, so we settle that before any material is ordered.
Membrane // drains kept clear
What we do
Our roofing services in Burbank
Four services cover most of the roofing Burbank homes need, from roof leak repair in Burbank to a full tear-off. Each one below opens its full method on its own page, written for the whole Los Angeles area.
Roof repairs
We trace water to where it gets in, fix the cause in matching material and hose-test the repair before we leave the roof.
Repair method
Roof replacements
Full or partial tear-offs to the deck, with new underlayment, flashing and attic ventilation built into the job.
Re-roof method
Roof inspections
A written report with photographs of every slope, for buyers, sellers and anyone heading into the rainy months.
Report details
Flat roofs
Parapet decks, garage roofs and apartment roofs restored or replaced, so water leaves by the drains again.
Flat roofing
Burbank permit and code
Do I need a permit to replace my roof in Burbank?
Yes. Re-roofing is a Tier 1 building permit in Burbank, the City’s streamlined category, and residents can apply online through the Citizen Access Portal or at the permit counter on North Third Street. The City of Burbank roof permit is one of three things that shape a re-roof here; the state energy code and the fire map are the other two.
A Burbank re-roof is permitted work from the first day to the last. We pull the permit in our name as the roofing contractor. Burbank’s inspectors check the work through to the final sign-off, which goes into your records. Selling soon? A roof certification documents the roof for the buyer as well.
Note 01 // Tier 1
Online or at the counter, closed by a final inspection.
Every Burbank ZIP code sits in climate zone 9 of the state energy code. A full re-roof on a steep-slope house needs an aged solar reflectance of at least 0.20 and a thermal emittance of at least 0.75, or a solar reflectance index of 16, and the City asks for a product certified by the Cool Roof Rating Council. Roofs weighing 25 pounds or more per square foot are exempt, and some attic insulation or duct layouts count as equivalent, so a Title 24 cool roof in Burbank is settled at the survey.
Note 02 // Cool roof
Climate zone 9, with a certified product.
Inside the state’s mapped fire hazard zones, the Wildland-Urban Interface Code requires a Class A roof assembly. It applies when a roof is replaced, or when half or more of it is replaced within 12 months, and any covering added in a repair must be Class A as well. The state updated its fire hazard map on March 24, 2025, and the map decides which addresses the rule covers.
Note 03 // Fire map
Class A in the mapped zones, checked by address.
Burbank phased out wood shake and shingle roofs under Ordinance 3296, with deadlines that have long passed. If an older house still hides wood shake under its composition layers, it comes off in the tear-off, and the deck below is checked like any other.
Note 04 // Shakes
Deadlines passed in 2014 and 2020.
How we do roofing
Burbank roof jobs, from first call to final
Every job moves through the same six steps, whether it is one cracked tile or a new roof on the whole house, because skipping a step is where trouble starts in roofing. Burbank’s permit and inspections fit into steps four and six, and the paperwork is yours at the end.
1
Your first call
Call or send us photos
Tell us what you see, where and since when. A few phone photos of the ceiling or the roof edge help us plan the visit, even for what looks like a small roof repair. Burbank addresses near the hills also get a fire map check before we arrive.
2
The roof survey
Every slope and attic
One of our roofers walks each slope, looks at the attic from below and photographs what matters. The survey answers the repair, partial or full question.
3
Your written scope
Photo for every item
You get a scope in plain language, each item next to the photograph that justifies it, so the decision stays yours and is easy to check.
4
The permit and a date
Tier 1 // your schedule
The Tier 1 permit is pulled, material is ordered to the scope, and the start date is set around your household.
5
The re-roof itself
Deck first, then layers
Old roofing comes off, the deck is repaired where it needs it, then underlayment, flashing, ventilation and the new covering go on. The yard is swept with a magnet for nails at the end of each day.
6
Final and your warranty
City final // warranty
After the City’s final inspection we walk the roof with you and hand over the permit final and a 20-year written warranty on our workmanship.
Partial // one slope, underlayment
Ridge // vent and cap shingles
Check before you hire
Roofing contractor Burbank homeowners can check
Roofing contractors in Burbank all promise good work, so the useful question is what you can check. Before hiring a roofing contractor, Burbank homeowners can look up the license, read the warranty and call us on any day of the week. We work as a licensed roofing contractor in Burbank and across Los Angeles.
Sheet // Roofing Burbank, CA
Company
California Green Roofing
License
CSLB #1100046
Coverage
Bonded and insured
Warranty
20-year written warranty
Hours
Open daily, 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Yard
Reseda, across the valley
Finished // new ranch roof
ZIP schedule
Roofing Burbank, ZIP code by ZIP code
Burbank’s homes sit in five ZIP codes, and the housing in each one has aged differently, so the typical roof job changes from one ZIP code to the next. Census figures show it: the median home in 91506 dates from 1949, while most homes in downtown 91502 are in buildings of five or more units. About four tenths of 91504’s land lies inside the City of Los Angeles, where the roofing permit comes from Los Angeles instead.
ZIP
Area
Exposure
Typical work
91501
Northeast Burbank
Foothills, wildfire risk
Class A re-roofs and flat roofs
91502
Downtown Burbank
Sun on apartment roofs
Membranes, drains and parapets
91504
North Burbank
Sun on 1950s homes
Ranch re-roofs and attic vents
91505
West Burbank, airport
Sun on 1940s homes
Post-war shingle back to the deck
91506
South Burbank
Sun on the oldest homes
Tile relaid, old decks rebuilt
Common questions
Questions about roofing Burbank homes
Straight answers to the questions people ask a roofing contractor. Burbank homeowners tend to ask them before committing to a scope, and a few of the answers are not what a salesperson would say.
Can a new roof go over an old roof?
Sometimes. You can put a new roof over an old roof in Burbank only when there is a single layer today, the deck under it is sound and dry, and the old covering is not tile or wood shake. Inside a mapped fire zone, anything laid on top must also be Class A. In practice, a tear-off is often the cleaner job, because it lets us see the deck.
What makes a roof a Title 24 cool roof?
A roof covering that reflects more sunlight and gives off more heat than a standard one, rated by the Cool Roof Rating Council. On a Title 24 cool roof in Burbank, that rating label carries the reflectance and emittance values the energy code asks for, which is why the City wants the certified product named on the plans. Light single-ply membranes, coated metal and cool-rated shingles and tile can all qualify.
Is a Class A roof required in Burbank?
Only inside the zones on the state fire hazard map, where a replaced roof and any covering added in a repair must be Class A. The map decides each address, so we check yours before the scope is written. Clay and concrete tile and most modern asphalt shingles already carry a Class A rating, so near the hills the rule changes the details, such as valley flashing and vents, more often than the material.
Can a roof repair happen in the rain?
Burbank leaks get handled in two stages. During rain we can dry the roof in so water stops reaching the ceiling. The permanent repair waits for a dry roof, because sealants and self-adhering underlayment need a dry surface to bond. Summer is the season for planned roof repair. Burbank’s driest months, June through September, bring well under an inch of rain between them.
How do I check a roofing contractor?
Look the license up before you hire any roofing contractor. Burbank residents can search the number on the Contractors State License Board website, and the record shows whether the license is active, its classification, its bond and its workers’ compensation status. Ours is CSLB #1100046, and we are licensed and insured. The same check works for all the roofing companies in Burbank you are comparing, and any of the roofers in Burbank you call should give you the number the first time you ask.
Should I re-roof before I sell my home?
Not always. Buyers and their inspectors look at the roof closely, but a sound roof with a few repairs often serves a sale better than a rushed replacement. Book a roof inspection in Burbank before listing, or a roof certification, and the report tells both sides where the roof stands. A Burbank re-roof makes sense before a sale only when that report says the roof is at the end of its life.
How long do tile roofs last in Burbank?
The tile itself often outlasts what sits under it. Clay and concrete tile shed sun and water for decades, but the roof underlayment in Burbank sits under tile that bakes all summer, and when a tile roof leaks, worn underlayment or flashing is the usual cause. Sound tile can be lifted and relaid over new underlayment. Tile is one of the more particular parts of roofing. Burbank’s plan check, on projects that need one, even asks for the tile’s evaluation report and its weight on the drawings.
Is a roof fine if the ceiling is dry?
Not always. Heat can strip granules, unseal shingles and dry out flashing long before water reaches the ceiling, and a second layer can hide a soft deck. A survey from the roof and the attic finds those signs early. Catching them in summer is the quiet advantage of planned roofing. Burbank’s first winter storm finds whatever was missed.
Book a survey
Book a roof survey in Burbank
Tell us about the roof and where it is. One of our roofers walks it and leaves a written scope with photographs. Sometimes the answer is a small roof repair. Burbank’s Tier 1 permit comes in when it is a partial re-roof or a whole new roof. Calls about roofing, Burbank or anywhere in Los Angeles, are answered every day from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. If you are comparing roofers near Burbank, ask each of them for the same.
Roof survey // Burbank
Call
Service area
Burbank and Los Angeles, California
License
CSLB #1100046, bonded and insured
Hours
Open daily, 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM