On a typical Bay Area house, our crew replaces the whole roof in three to four days. Day one is tear-off, day two is for dry rot and getting the underlayment down, day three is the build and day four is the finish and final cleanup. Your house is weathertight before the crew leaves each day, with one narrow exception explained below. This post walks through each day, what you can do before we arrive, and exactly how the job closes out.
By Van Naik, owner · Updated September 24, 2026
Every house is different, so start with what can stretch the schedule:
- More than one old roof. A hidden second layer means more to tear off.
- A lot of dry rot. Most houses have some. A few have a lot.
- Solar panels. They come off before we start and go back on after, which adds time on both ends.
- Your city's deck inspection. Some cities inspect the bare deck before the new roof goes on, and we work around their schedule.
- Weather. We watch the forecast the whole time and won't open a roof into rain.
If any of those apply, we'll tell you when we schedule the job, so the timeline you plan around is the real one.
Before day one: what we handle and what you handle
We handle: pulling and scheduling the permit, the dumpster, and getting materials delivered and staged.
You can help with a few things:
- Cars and driveway. Move vehicles out the night before. The dumpster and the material drop need room, and falling debris and cars don't mix. If there's a boat or trailer, let us know where it'll be.
- Pets. Keep them inside or away for the day. Tear-off is loud, and the yard is a work zone until cleanup.
- Attic. When the old roof comes off, dust and bits of debris can fall through into the attic or garage, especially on homes with skip sheathing. Cover or move anything stored there that you care about.
- Walls. Hammering shakes the house. Take down framed pictures and mirrors on top-floor walls.
- Working from home. Day one is the loudest by far. If you have calls, plan to take them somewhere else that day.
Tell us what you're protective of. New paint, fresh landscaping, a paver patio, the rose bed by the garage, the downspout your landscaper is about to redo. Whatever it is, tell us, and it goes into the crew's instructions for your job.
Day 1: tear-off
Setup. The crew arrives early. We lay tarps over landscaping and along the house to catch debris and cover windows and siding in the drop zone.
Tear-off. This is the loud, messy part. The crew strips everything down to the wood deck: every layer of old shingles, the old underlayment and the old metal. It all goes straight into the dumpster.
Recycling. We take all of the waste to city-approved transfer stations, and the old roofing material goes into mixed construction debris recycling. That means the same transfer stations that take your blue, black and green bins sort the debris into what can be recycled and what can't. For our jobs in 2026, 88% of materials have been recycled. One tear-off removes enough asphalt to pave about 200 feet of road.
Cleanup. Every day ends with a full cleanup: hard surfaces swept, magnetic rollers over the lawn, driveway and planters, and debris in the dumpster.
Day 2: the deck inspection
Part of a new roof is making sure that the deck it's installed onto can support the new roof for its life.
Deck inspection. With the deck bare, we check every board. We've been tearing off roofs since 1989, and we expect most houses to have at least some dry rot. When we find it:
- We photograph it before we touch it, and if you're home, we'll show you.
- We replace the boards the deck needs to be solid, and we leave sound wood alone.
- It's billed at our actual cost: $300 per person per day plus workers' comp and payroll tax, with lumber at what we paid for it. That rate is printed in your proposal before you sign.
- Extras can't go past $3,500 without your signature. If they would, the crew stops, shows you what they found, and needs your signed approval before doing more.
If your city inspects the deck, the inspector checks it next. If the inspector wants more wood replaced, we replace it at the same rate.
Dry-in. Before the crew leaves, the deck gets covered with underlayment. The one exception is a dry summer night with no rain in the forecast, and never two nights in a row. If your inspection is still a few days out, we dry the roof in anyway and pull the underlayment back when the inspector arrives. Your house never sits open waiting on a schedule.
Day 3: building the new roof
This is the day your roof goes from bare wood to a finished roof.
Underlayment. Matched to your roof's slope and your city's code. Standard and steep roofs get synthetic underlayment. Low-slope sections get 100% peel-and-stick, which seals around every nail.
New metal, all of it. New drip edge along the edges, new step flashing where the roof meets a wall, new pipe boots around every plumbing vent. Where a chimney or skylight is wide enough to trap water behind it, we install a saddle custom-made by a local sheet metal shop. Leaks almost always start at the metal, so we don't reuse any of it.
Ventilation. New low-profile O'Hagin exhaust vents, about one for every 300 square feet of roof, balanced with the intake vents your house already has.
Shingles. Then the part you picked: your product line and color. Valleys are done California cut, where the shingles on one slope run through the valley and the other slope is laid over them and trimmed along a straight line. Getting that overlap right is craft work.
Cleanup. Another full sweep and magnetic pass.
Day 4: finishing and final cleanup
Finishing. Ridge caps go on along the peaks. Pipe boots and vents get painted to match your roof. The crew checks every penetration and edge.
Final cleanup. The dumpster is loaded and hauled away. We clean out the gutters, sweep every hard surface again, and make one last magnetic pass over the whole property.
Walk-around. We walk the property with you, show you the finished roof, and go over anything you want to look at.
After the crew leaves: how the job closes out
Here's the order, so you know what's coming:
- Final invoice. The remaining balance, plus any work orders (like dry rot), plus the permit, billed at exactly what the city charged. If you've been following the payment schedule, that's $1,000 to get on the schedule, half of the original estimate when materials arrived, and the rest now.
- City final inspection. The inspector signs off on the finished roof.
- Warranty paperwork. Your manufacturer warranty registration, and our 10-year workmanship warranty on the installation.
Staying in touch during the job
You'll get daily photos so you can see what's happening on your roof, including anything we find under the old shingles. If you have a question at any point, call (925) 381-9162.
The good part
Most people spend weeks thinking about the noise and the mess. It's reasonable. Then, a few days later, the house looks sharper from the street, the vents match, the gutters are clean, and the next rain is just rain. One more big project is done and off your list.
Same crew from tear-off to cleanup. If you're getting ready for your job and have a question we didn't cover here, call us.
About the author. Van Naik owns Affordable Roofing Systems, a family-owned roofer based in Contra Costa County and serving the Bay Area since 1989. If you've read older reviews that mention Kelly, Kelly is the previous owner. The crew in those reviews still does the work. CSLB #1145218 (C-39). Owens Corning Preferred Contractor and CertainTeed Master Craftsman.