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Roof Repair in Pasadena, CA: Leaks, Tile, and Flat Roofs
Our roof repair in Pasadena covers leaks, cracked clay tile, worn flat roofs, and failed flashing in a city where 29.4% of housing units were built before 1940. The weather has tested those roofs unevenly, from 43.13 inches of rain in the 2022-23 season to 9.22 inches in 2024-25.
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Every repair starts with finding where the water actually gets in, then fixing that spot and anything around it that is close to failing. If the roof is past repair, our page on roof replacement in Pasadena covers new roofs and the city’s reroof rules. If water is coming in right now, go to same-day roof repair in Pasadena for our 24/7 line.
Roof leak repair in Pasadena after a 43-inch season and a 9-inch season
Pasadena’s normal rainfall is 20.08 inches per July-to-June season, based on NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals. The last four seasons swung well above and below that:
2022-23
43.13 inches
2023-24
30.31 inches
2024-25
9.22 inches
2025-26 (preliminary)
23.84 inches
1991-2020 normal
20.08 inches
Source: NWS and WRCC data via the Los Angeles Almanac.
In a season like 2022-23, with more than twice the normal rain, leaks show up wherever water collects or runs on a roof: valleys, roof drains, the base of walls, and the flashing around chimneys, skylights, and vent pipes. Leak repair starts with tracing the water, which often enters several feet from where the ceiling stain shows. Once we find the entry point, we repair the roofing, underlayment, or flashing there and check the decking underneath for rot.
Flashing at chimneys, walls, and skylights
Flashing is the metal that seals the joint where a roof meets a chimney, a wall, a skylight, or another roof plane. On older houses, it is common to find flashing that was patched with roofing cement instead of replaced. A lasting repair removes the old metal, installs new step flashing and counterflashing, and laps the roofing back over it. On a clay tile repair at a chimney in Walnut, our crew replaced the damaged tiles and fitted new flashing around the chimney, the kind of flashing repair a tile-roofed Pasadena chimney needs when its metal fails.
Tile roof repair in Pasadena's Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean homes
Pasadena’s historic context statement dates the city’s Mediterranean Revival houses to 1910-1940 and its Spanish Colonial Revival houses to 1918-1952. Clay tile is the usual roof on both, and on roofs that old, the tile is rarely what fails first. Leaks usually trace back to the underlayment beneath the tile, to cracked or slipped tiles, or to flashing at walls and chimneys. Our tile roof repair work covers:
- Replacing cracked or broken tiles with the closest available match in profile and color.
- Lifting the tiles in a leaking area, replacing the underlayment and flashing beneath, and setting the same tiles back.
- Resetting slipped field tiles and reattaching loose ridge and hip tiles.
- Sealing tile transitions at chimneys, skylights, and roof-to-wall joints.
When the underlayment has failed across most of the roof, spot repairs stop paying off, and a full tile reset or replacement becomes the better use of the money.
Flat roof repair in Pasadena: ponding, drains, and seams
Flat and low-slope roofs turn up across Pasadena on Mid-century Modern houses (1945-1968 in the historic context statement), on porches and rear additions to older homes, and on apartment and commercial buildings. Their leaks tend to start in the same few places:
- Ponding water that stands for days after a storm and works into seams.
- Roof drains and scuppers clogged with leaves and debris.
- Blistered or split cap sheet and open seams on modified bitumen and torch-down roofs.
- Parapet walls and coping, where the membrane turns up the wall.
We cut out and patch damaged cap sheet, reseal seams, rebuild flashing at parapets and roof drains, and build up low spots where water stands. For property owners with apartment or commercial buildings, the practical step is a check of drains and seams before the rainy months, because a flat roof leak often reaches a tenant’s ceiling before anyone sees it from the roof. See flat roof repair for the full scope.
Pasadena code limits on wood shingle patches and board decking
Two parts of Pasadena’s 2025 building code amendments, as written in the November 2025 City Council packet, change what a repair on an older roof can involve. Confirm the adopted text with Building & Safety at (626) 744-4200 before you plan around them.
Wood shingle and shake roofs
The amendments bar new wood roof coverings on any structure in Pasadena’s Very High, High, and Moderate Fire Hazard Severity Zones, including fire-retardant-treated wood shingles and shakes. In the High and Very High zones, a worn section of an old wood roof cannot be patched with new wood. That limits like-for-like repairs on older Craftsman houses that still have wood roofs, and it can move the discussion from patching to replacing with a non-wood roof. The Moderate zone has one narrow exception, covered in the questions below.
Open board sheathing under the old roof
Many pre-1940 roofs were laid over open, spaced boards instead of solid decking, and Pasadena has 18,450 housing units built in 1939 or earlier (Census ACS 2023). When roofing is stripped down to those boards, PMC 14.04.060 requires at least 3/8-inch plywood over them, with panel edges aligned over rafters and boards, nailed with 6d common nails at 6 inches on center at supported edges and 12 inches at intermediate supports. That is why a repair on a pre-war house can grow once the old roofing is off. Damage under old roofing often stays hidden until then: on a shingle replacement in nearby Altadena, removing the old roof exposed water-damaged decking at the edge, and new plywood went down before the new shingles.
Roof repair in Pasadena or a new roof: how we decide
We recommend a repair when the damage is in one area and the rest of the roof has years left in it, and a replacement when it doesn’t. On a Pasadena roof, these questions usually settle it:
- Is there one leak, or several in different parts of the roof?
- Has the underlayment failed across the roof, or only around the leak?
- Is the decking sound, or will opening the roof mean plywood over board sheathing?
- Is the roof wood in a fire zone, where a like-for-like patch is not allowed?
- Will repeated patches over the next few rain seasons cost more than a new roof?
Our Pasadena roof repairs cover leak tracing, cracked and slipped clay tile, shingle and ridge cap repairs, flat roof patching and drain work, skylight leaks, and flashing at chimneys, walls, and vents. Overhead Roofing is licensed under CSLB #1119699 (C-39 Roofing), offers free estimates, and stands behind its work with a workmanship warranty. When replacement is the better answer, we will tell you why. Our guide to repair vs. replacement goes into more detail.
Pasadena roof repair questions
My roof stayed dry through the 2024-25 season. Why is it leaking now?
Because 2024-25 barely tested it. Pasadena got 9.22 inches of rain that season, less than half the 20.08-inch normal, so cracked flashing, slipped tiles, and dried-out sealant could go a full year without being tested by heavy rain. The 2025-26 season brought 23.84 inches (preliminary), above normal, and that is when weak spots left over from a dry year start to show.
Does a small roof repair in Pasadena need a permit?
Ask before assuming it doesn’t; the city’s Permit Center page does not list a size cutoff for repairs. Pasadena issues its own permits through the Building & Safety Division at the Permit Center on North Garfield Avenue (phone (626) 744-4200), and subtrade permits go through the city’s Citizen Self Service portal. A full reroof needs a building permit.
Can I repair a street-facing roof in a Pasadena landmark district without design review?
Routine maintenance and work not visible from the street are exempt under Bungalow Heaven’s published guidance. Any other exterior change except paint needs a Certificate of Appropriateness first, so a repair that changes the roof’s look, such as a different tile profile or color, needs one. Pasadena has more than 30 such districts, and the rules can be worded differently in each, so check with Planning for yours.
Can broken clay tiles on a 1920s Pasadena house be matched?
Usually closely enough, with some planning. Pasadena’s Spanish Colonial Revival houses date from 1918 to 1952, and older tile profiles and colors are not always made today. One common approach is to move sound original tiles to the street-facing slopes and put the closest new match on the back of the house. In a landmark district, that keeps the visible roof consistent with the original.
My Craftsman is in Pasadena's Moderate fire zone. Can its wood shingle roof be patched with wood?
Only through a narrow exception. Under the 2025 amendments as written in the November 2025 council packet, the fire code official may approve fire-resistive wood as part of a Class A listed assembly for repair or maintenance of an existing structure in the Moderate zone, if the owner shows good cause and necessity. Without that approval, no wood roof covering goes on. In the High and Very High zones, the exception does not apply.
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