Water shows up in a third-floor ceiling and the homeowner assumes it's the shingles. It almost never is. On these three-story lots — 25 by 90 is about standard — the leak is coming off the little flat roof-deck over the living space, where a torch-down, TPO or PVC membrane is buried under a walking surface. Seams move. Drains clog. Somebody set a planter down on the field. Pull the pavers and the story's usually obvious.
Salt does the rest. A block off the sand, fasteners, drip edge and deck flashings corrode faster than anyone expects, so we spec metal accordingly instead of using whatever's on the truck. Access is the other half of the job. Walk streets and The Strand mean hand-carry or crane, and on the hill streets east of Valley Dr we stage material below and shuttle up. Dumpster placement is a permit conversation before it's a logistics one, and nobody gets much done on Hermosa Ave after noon in July.
Roof decks, salt air, and streets a truck can't fit down
Can you even get equipment to my house on a walk street?
Yes, but it changes the plan. Material gets hand-carried or craned in from the nearest street a truck can legally sit on, and we work that staging and the parking permits out before the crew shows up rather than on the morning of.
My roof deck leaks. Do I have to tear out the whole deck?
Not always. The surface comes up so we can see the membrane, and sometimes it's a seam, a drain or a flashing detail at the door threshold. If the field is failing or the substrate's wet, we'll say so and quote the replacement instead of patching over it.