Roofing

The roof takes Calgary weather head-on. Summer hail, heavy snow loads and repeated freeze-thaw cycles all work on it, and a chinook can melt a roof’s snow in an afternoon and refreeze the runoff overnight. Most roofing decisions here come back to how well a roof copes with that cycle.

The guides in this section cover pitched roofs and flat or low-slope roofs separately, because the materials, failure points and repair methods are different. Each one explains what drives the cost, when a permit is involved, and how hail damage and insurance claims change the order in which things should happen.

Three things to settle before calling a roofer

• Is there an insurance claim? After a storm, the City of Calgary advises contacting your insurer before any repair work.
• Repair or replace? A leak in one spot on an otherwise sound roof is a different job from a roof at the end of its life.
• Is the material changing? Like-for-like re-roofing usually needs no permit; some material changes do.

Roofing cost figures are compiled from local Calgary market pricing and shown as estimates, never as a quote for a particular roof.