Why Flashing Is Where Roofs Leak First
A field of shingles is simple. Water runs down and off. The hard part is every place that field gets interrupted: the chimney, the plumbing stacks, the bath fans, the skylight curb, the valleys, and every wall the roof runs into. Those transitions are sealed with flashing, and flashing is where roofs live or die.
West Michigan is especially hard on it, because a flashing joint is two different materials that have to move together. The metal expands and contracts at one rate. The shingle around it moves at another. The chimney rocks on its own footing. The pipe shifts with the framing. Freeze-thaw works every one of those joints dozens of times a winter, ice dams push meltwater up under them, and sun and cold cycle the sealant until it lets go. A flashing detail that ignores that movement fails. One that accounts for it lasts as long as the roof.
The good news: flashing problems are almost always a repair, not a full replacement. Catch it early and you protect the decking, insulation, and drywall a slow leak would quietly destroy. If you want to understand the warning signs first, our flashing problems page walks through them.
Flashing We Repair and Replace
Every roof penetration and transition needs its own flashing detail. We repair all of them.
Chimney Flashing
The single most common leak point on West Michigan roofs, and the one we've rebuilt more than any other. We remove everything down to the deck, repair any rotted wood, wrap new ice and water shield up the masonry, install new step flashing woven into the shingle courses, and cut a new reglet into the mortar joint for continuous counter flashing. Not step-style counter flashing, and never surface-mounted metal held on with caulk. Both of those fail. See three of them in our gallery.
Vent and Pipe Boots
Rubber pipe boots dry out and split after 10 to 15 Michigan winters, and the pipe itself moves with the house and works the boot loose. We replace failed boots and B-vent collars with UV-stable, freeze-resistant components and lay the shingles back in correctly. It's a $500 fix that a handyman will charge you $500 to caulk over. Ask us how we know.
Skylight Flashing
Skylights leak at the head, sill, and side flashing when the counter flashing lifts or the kit was installed wrong. We re-flash the curb, replace worn gaskets, and integrate ice and water shield so the assembly sheds water again. If the unit itself is fogged or failed, we replace it, and we fix the interior trim the leak ruined while we're there.
Valley Flashing
Valleys carry the heaviest water and snowmelt load on the roof. We repair open-metal and closed-cut valleys, replace corroded valley metal, add membrane underneath for lakeshore snow load, and install a proper kick-out at the bottom of the valley so water is thrown onto the shingles instead of behind them. Missing kick-out is one of the three things we found on the valley leak in our gallery that two other companies couldn't fix.
Wall and Dormer Flashing
Where a roof meets a sidewall, dormer, or second story, step flashing has to tuck behind the siding, and there has to be kick-out flashing at the bottom to throw water back onto the roof. We correct reverse-lapped, reused, or missing pieces and add the kick-out. Reused step flashing is a giant red flag on any roof and almost always leaks.
Drip Edge and Rake Flashing
Missing or bent drip edge lets water wick back behind the fascia and rot the deck, and paired with an ice dam it's the leading cause of rotted eaves on older West Michigan homes. We install new drip edge and rake metal to direct runoff cleanly into the gutter.
How We Repair Flashing the Right Way
A lasting flashing repair is about layering metal correctly so gravity does the work. Sealant is a component of the repair, not the repair. Here's how ours goes.
- Step 1
Locate the True Source
Water often travels several feet before it drips inside, and one stain can be fed by two or three failures. We inspect the roof, the attic, and every penetration to find the actual failed flashing, not just where the stain shows. Then we look at everything else that could be feeding the same spot before we touch a shingle.
- Step 2
Remove and Assess
We lift the surrounding shingles, remove all the old flashing and failed sealant, and check the decking and underlayment for hidden rot or ice dam damage. If the wood is bad, it gets replaced. Nothing goes over rot.
- Step 3
Install New Flashing
New metal, formed and bent to the detail, woven and lapped so every piece tucks under the one above and over the one below. Ice and water shield at every joint. Kick-out where the wall meets the eave. Counter flashing cut into the masonry, not stuck to it. Everything tied back into the shingle courses so water sheds over, never behind.
- Step 4
Seal, Test, and Clean Up
We finish with the right sealant for each material it touches, chosen from the forty to sixty we carry, applied where the detail calls for it and nowhere else. Then we water-test the repair, sweep the site with a magnet, and hand you photos of what we found and what we did.
Flashing Materials We Use
We match the metal and the sealant to the detail, the substrate, and the climate. The right material outlasts the shingles around it.
- Aluminum, galvanized, or G-90 steel step and counter flashing, hand-formed with a siding brake to fit the detail
- Galvanized and G-90 valley metal
- Copper flashing for custom and historic homes
- Kick-out flashing at every wall-to-eave transition
- UV-stable rubber and lead-free pipe boots
- Ice and water shield membrane under every joint
- The right sealant for each pairing of materials, from the forty to sixty polyurethanes, modified polymers, silicones, and butyls we carry. Never household caulk, never exposed roofing tar.
Proper flashing is layered so gravity does the work. Sealant backs it up. It never replaces it.
Flashing Repair Cost in West Michigan
We price repairs in three tiers, and we'll tell you how they work, because most roofers won't.
Every repair starts at $500. That's the minimum, and it's not a number we picked. It's what it costs to put a W-2 tradesman with health insurance and a 401k, in a truck carrying tens of thousands of dollars in tools, at your house and back, with the office, the insurance, and the equipment behind him. We pay those bills twelve months a year. We can work maybe eight of them, and only on days it isn't raining, snowing, or too cold, with short daylight in spring and fall. We know how many working hours we actually get in a year, and that's what the rate is built on. A roofer charging less than that isn't charging enough to still be in business when your warranty comes due.
- Minor repairs: $500 to about $1,500. Small, contained problems. A pipe boot. A few shingles. A section of step flashing. A localized leak with no wood damage. Handled by one of our Level 2 technicians, usually a few hours to half a day.
- Moderate repairs: about $1,500 to $4,000. More complex, and handled by our highest-skilled Level 4 technicians. This is where most chimney re-flashes land. Skylight replacements, which typically run $2,000 to $3,000 per skylight depending on the size, the roof pitch, how many layers of roofing, and whether the interior trim needs to be redone. Improperly built valleys. Areas where multiple materials meet or the roof geometry makes things hard. Usually a full day.
- Major repairs: $4,000 and up. Structural issues, rebuilding sections of the roof, significant water damage, complex drainage or flashing problems, or a big fieldstone chimney on a steep roof, which can push a re-flash to $6,000 or $7,000. Multiple days, and often more than one trade.
Here's the honest part. We can give you those ranges. We can't tell you what your chimney or your skylight or your leak is going to cost until we've seen it. Chimney size, roof pitch, brick versus fieldstone, siding type, how many layers of roofing, and what's under the old flashing all move the number, and none of that shows in a phone call. Get us out for a free inspection, or send photos and get one of our inspectors on the phone. Either way you get a real number, in writing, before anyone touches the roof. And if flashing repair won't solve the problem, we'll tell you that too.
For proof, our gallery shows real flashing jobs with the actual time and price: chimneys at $1,500, $1,600, and $2,400 with deck repair, a pipe boot at $500, both valleys on one roof at $3,000, a skylight replacement at $3,800.
Active Leak Around a Chimney or Skylight?
A failing flashing joint dumps water into the attic every time it rains or the snow melts. If you see ceiling stains, dripping near a chimney chase, or water tracking down a skylight, call. We'll get a crew out before the damage spreads.
(616) 840-1927Why Choose Stellar Roofing Company for Flashing Repair
Flashing is a craft. There's no manual for it, so it gets passed down, from the person who figured out what works to the person standing next to them on the roof. If nobody on a crew was taught it right, they hide the joint under a bead of caulk and it fails again in a year.
We spent years as the company builders and other roofers called when the leak wouldn't stop. Chimneys re-caulked five times. Valleys that leaked through three contractors. That's where you learn what actually holds. Our tradesmen were trained by people who'd already torn apart thousands of failed roofs, and now they're the ones doing the training.
When you work with us, you get:
- Metal layered so the roof sheds water on its own, not caulk doing metal's job
- Ice and water shield at every joint, kick-out at every wall
- Continuous counter flashing cut into the masonry, never surface-mounted
- Attic-side leak tracing before anything gets opened up
- The right sealant for each material, from the forty to sixty we carry
- A repair-first answer, and a 10 to 15 year warranty on most flashing work
- West Michigan owned and operated since 2012
Our goal is simple: seal the joint correctly so the leak never comes back.
Roof Flashing Repair Questions
How do I know if my roof leak is a flashing problem?
Most roof leaks trace back to flashing rather than the shingles. Water stains on the ceiling near a chimney, skylight, or wall. Rust streaks on flashing metal. Cracked or missing sealant at joints. Drips that only show up during driving rain from one direction or during a winter thaw. Because water travels before it drips, and because one stain can have more than one source, the safest step is an inspection that checks the roof and the attic side together. Our flashing problems page covers the warning signs in detail.
Can flashing be repaired, or does it need full replacement?
In most cases a single detail can be rebuilt without touching the rest of the roof. We remove the failed metal and sealant, repair any wood, add ice and water shield, and install new flashing woven into the existing shingles. Full replacement of all the flashing is only needed when corrosion or damage is widespread, or when the roof around it is at the end of its life and due for replacement anyway.
How much does flashing repair cost in West Michigan?
Every repair starts at $500. From there, minor repairs like a pipe boot or a section of step flashing run $500 to about $1,500. Moderate repairs, where most chimney re-flashes and skylight replacements land, run about $1,500 to $4,000. Major repairs with structural work or a big fieldstone chimney on a steep roof run $4,000 and up. Those are ranges. Your number depends on the chimney, the pitch, the siding, the layers, and what's under the old flashing, and we can't see any of that from the phone. Get us out for a free inspection or send photos to one of our inspectors, and you get a real written number. Our gallery has real flashing jobs with real prices.
Why does chimney flashing leak so often in Michigan?
A chimney interrupts the roof on all four sides, so it needs step flashing woven into the shingles plus counter flashing set into the masonry. It also sits on its own footing and rocks independently of the roof, so every joint around it is moving. Freeze-thaw cracks the mortar and the sealant, ice dams push meltwater up under the flashing, and if the original installer reused the step flashing or surface-mounted the counter flashing and caulked it, it was going to leak from day one. We rebuild it the durable way.
Can you repair flashing around a skylight without replacing the skylight?
Yes. Skylights usually leak at the flashing and gaskets, not the glass. We re-flash the head, sill, and sides of the curb, replace worn seals, and integrate ice and water shield. Only if the unit itself is cracked, fogged, or failed do we recommend replacing it, and when we do, we fix the interior trim the leak damaged too.
How long does a flashing repair take?
Most flashing repairs are a few hours to a day. A pipe boot is an hour or two. A full chimney re-flash is three to five hours, longer if we find deck damage. Both valleys on one roof took us six hours. We give you a realistic timeline with your written estimate.