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Roof Repair in Anaheim, CA: Flatland Tracts and Anaheim Hills

Roof repair in Anaheim, CA, covers two very different kinds of homes: hillside houses in Anaheim Hills, inside the wildland-urban interface the Municipal Code places east of SR-55 and south of SR-91, and the 1950s-to-1970s tracts, apartments, and historic districts of the flatlands. Our roofers plan each job around fire exposure on one side of the city and the age of the roof deck on the other.

Licensed, bonded and insured, CSLB #1119699

Very High fire zone

5,904 acres (2025 map)

Built before 1980

About 70% of housing units

Reroof permit

Anaheim Building Division

Tile plan check

Roofing 6 lb/sq ft or more

Anaheim Hills is part of the City of Anaheim, not a separate city, so a reroof in the Weir Canyon area and a reroof in the Anaheim Colony go through the same Building Division at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd. The two houses face very different conditions, though, and the right roof for each starts with its location.

The housing mix shapes the work too. Multi-unit buildings make up 48.3% of Anaheim’s housing units, against 41.4% for single-family detached homes (ACS 2015-2019), so many roof decisions here are made by apartment owners and property managers.

Anaheim Hills and the wildland-urban interface

Anaheim Municipal Code Chapter 16.40 adopts CAL FIRE’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone map for the city (Ordinance 5523 in 1995, amended by Ordinance 6239 in 2012). The city’s fire hazard zone page describes the wildfire threat as “particularly in east Anaheim,” and the Very High areas follow the hillside and canyon edges, such as the land around Deer Canyon Park Preserve.

CAL FIRE’s March 24, 2025 table for local responsibility areas lists 5,904 acres of Very High, 847 acres of High, and 677 acres of Moderate fire hazard in Anaheim, 7,428 acres in all. The 2011 map showed 7,052 acres of Very High. The city’s fire marshal told ABC7 that the 2025 maps add about 300 acres to Anaheim’s fire hazard zones, all on the east end in Anaheim Hills.

Wildfire has reached Anaheim Hills several times since development began:

October 1982: the first major fire after development burned 17,000 acres and destroyed 14 homes.
November 2008: the Freeway Complex Fire spread in from Corona, forced the evacuation of about 3,100 homes in the Weir Canyon area, and burned 14 houses and 86 apartments.
October 2017: Canyon Fire 2 started on October 9 near the 91 Freeway and Gypsum Canyon Road, likely sparked by embers from the late-September Canyon Fire. It burned 9,217 acres, destroyed 25 structures, and led to the evacuation of more than 5,000 homes across Anaheim Hills, Orange, Orange Park Acres, and Tustin.

A 2025 City of Anaheim environmental document describes the Santa Ana winds here as strong, dry downslope winds that can exceed 75 mph, usually near the end of the dry season. Wind like that carries embers well ahead of a fire, and it also pulls up shingles, ridge cap, and tiles that were already loose.

Planning a Class A reroof in Anaheim Hills

Anaheim Hills started as a planned community. About 4,200 acres of the Nohl Ranch were deeded on October 30, 1970, the first neighborhood, Westridge, opened in July 1972, and most of the area was built in the 1970s using landform grading on the hillsides. Peralta Hills and Mohler Loop are older, built mainly in the 1940s and 1950s, while East Hills and The Highlands came after 1990. Roof construction and age can change from one neighborhood to the next.

When an Anaheim Hills roof is due for replacement, we recommend a Class A fire-rated roof assembly and close attention to the places where embers enter or collect: attic and eave vents, gaps at the eaves and under the ridge cap, and valleys and gutters that fill with leaves. We confirm the roof classification required for the address with the Building Division when we pull the permit.

Two Anaheim Public Utilities rebates and one city program fit well with a hillside reroof (details on the city’s fire safety page):

Attic vents: a $350 rebate for fire-resistant vents approved on CAL FIRE’s Building Materials Listing.
Attic insulation: a rebate of $0.35 per square foot, up to $750, for Class 1 (A) fire-rated insulation rated R-30 or higher.
Home assessment: a free one-on-one visit from the city’s Wildfire Mitigation Specialist.

Vents are easiest to replace while the roof is open during a tear-off, so choose them before the reroof starts.

Flatland tracts and Ranch houses built from 1950 to 1979

Citywide, most of Anaheim’s housing went up in three decades. Anaheim’s 2021-2029 Housing Element shows 23.2% of housing units were built in the 1950s, 17.4% in the 1960s, and 25.4% in the 1970s, and about 70% were built before 1980 (ACS 2015-2019).

The city’s Ranch style guide dates Anaheim’s Ranch houses to about 1935 to 1975 and describes low- to medium-pitched cross-gable and hipped roofs. Traditional Ranch homes often had wood shingles, Contemporary Ranch homes had built-up gravel roofs, and Hacienda Ranch homes had clay tile. Those built-up roofs are low-slope roofs, and torch-down modified bitumen with a mineral cap sheet is a common replacement, the same system we used on a low-slope reroof in Pomona.

On houses this age, the roof deck deserves a close look. Anaheim’s reroof bulletin requires dry-rotted and termite-damaged sheathing to be replaced before the sheathing inspection, so a sound bid for a 1950s or 1960s tear-off includes a plan for decking repairs. Our shingle replacement in Whittier, for example, included new plywood decking.

Historic districts and Mills Act homes

Anaheim’s Historic Preservation program covers four historic districts: Anaheim Colony, Five Points, Historic Palm, and Hoskins. The Colony follows the city’s original 1857 boundary, has its own design guidelines, and includes Ranch houses built on lots that had been subdivided earlier and left vacant.

The city’s Ranch style guide says concrete roof shingles are not an appropriate substitute for wood shingles on Traditional Ranch buildings. Before ordering a new roof for a historic house, talk with Historic Preservation staff; for Mills Act homes, their sign-off is required.

Anaheim's reroof bulletin, step by step

Anaheim’s “When is a Permit Required” bulletin (B804) lists re-roofs as work that needs a building permit and does not list a size exemption for roof repairs. The reroof bulletin (B820) says planning and zoning approval is not required, so the permit is pulled at the first-floor Building counter in City Hall. Here is what the bulletin asks for:

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