Residential Roof Penetration & Curb Installation

Residential Roof Flashing & Penetrations

The wide field of shingles on a roof rarely leaks. The trouble starts wherever that field is cut, at a chimney, a plumbing vent, a skylight, or a wall, because those openings depend on metal flashing to stay watertight. Markit Roofing handles residential roof flashing on homes across Calgary and Edmonton, sealing the exact spots where water actually gets in.

Flashing causes more leaks on an Alberta home than any other part of the roof, and it is the most misdiagnosed too, because the shingles above usually look fine. Freeze-thaw movement cracks sealant, corrodes metal, and lifts flashing away from a chimney or wall. We fix the detail with metal rather than a smear of caulk that fails in a season. Book your flashing repair today.

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Where a Shingle Roof Really Springs Its Leaks

The pattern is always the same on a shingle roof. Water does not come through the middle of a shingle; it comes through the metal wherever the roof is interrupted. These transitions move, corrode, and dry out while the shingles around them still look new, which is exactly why flashing leaks are the most misread problem on an Alberta home. These are the spots where our residential roof flashing work is sealed.

Notice how none of these is the shingle itself. Each one is a joint, a seal, or a piece of metal doing a job the shingles cannot, and each fails on its own timeline. A pipe boot’s rubber cracks within years while the chimney flashing beside it corrodes slowly, so we assess every penetration, the kind of check that also runs as part of residential roof maintenance, rather than only the one that happens to be dripping.

Our Flashing and Sealing Process

Find the Real Entry Point

Water rarely enters where the ceiling stain appears, so the first job is finding the real source. A flashing leak travels several feet along the deck before it drips, so that the wet spot can be misleading. We work back through the attic to the penetration that lets it in, tracing the same path a residential roof inspection uses to find a hidden leak.

Where the source is unclear, we test rather than tear up sound roofing. A controlled water test reveals which detail is failing, so the repair targets the actual failure. Finding it right is half the job, because a reseal in the wrong place leaves the leak running.

Strip Back to Sound Roofing

Once we know the failing detail, we strip it back to sound roofing rather than seal over the problem. That means lifting the surrounding shingle courses, removing the old flashing or cracked boot, and clearing the failed caulk and corroded metal underneath. Sealing over a failed detail is why it leaked again for the last owner.

We check what the water already reached while the area is open, since a leak that ran for a season often wets the deck below. Any soft sheathing gets dealt with now, because covering it back up only hides rot that spreads and grows into a far bigger job later.

Fit the New Metal Flashing

With the area sound, we fit new metal cut and formed for the detail, not a generic patch. Around a chimney, that means individual step flashing woven into each shingle course, with counter-flashing let into a masonry joint above it, rather than a single strip of L-metal that fails in a few years.

For a pipe, we fit a new boot rated to outlast the thin rubber collars that crack in Alberta sun within a decade. Each penetration gets the specific flashing method it needs, matched to your shingle type, so the metal seals and the detail sheds water the way the roof field does.

Weave In and Seal It Down

The last step ties the new metal back into the roof so it sheds water as one surface. We reset the shingle courses over the flashing in the correct overlap, so each piece drains onto the one below, and nothing relies on sealant to hold water back. Caulk has a place as a secondary seal, never as the thing doing the work.

We finish by checking the detail sheds cleanly and blends into the surrounding roof, then confirm the repair against the leak we came to fix. Done this way, the detail moves with Alberta’s freeze-thaw cycles for years rather than reopening the first hard winter.

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Roof Penetrations We Flash on Alberta Homes

The rubber collar around a plumbing vent stack is one of the most common sources of leaks in a home, and one of the most predictable. Constant sun dries and cracks that rubber, and in Alberta’s high-altitude UV it usually fails within eight to twelve years, opening a direct path into the attic right beside a bathroom or kitchen. We replace failed boots with longer-lasting units, not another rubber collar destined to crack on the same schedule, and seal the base into the shingle courses so the pipe sheds water instead of channelling it inside.

Chimneys are the hardest detail on a home to keep dry because they require two separate layers of metal to work together. Step flashing interleaves with each shingle course up the sides, lapped at least two inches over the piece below, and counter-flashing sits in a cut masonry joint above it, overlapping the step flashing from the top. Skipping the counter-flashing or replacing both with a bead of caulk is why so many chimneys leak within a few winters. We build the detail the way it is meant to be built, and flag failing mortar that needs a mason.

Skylights bring in light and, when their flashing is wrong, water. Like a chimney, they rely on a layered flashing kit rather than sealant, and older units fail as their gaskets shrink and the surrounding flashing corrodes or lifts. Ice damming around a skylight forces water up under the shingles above it, a specifically Alberta problem. We properly reflash the unit, reseal where the glass meets the frame, and advise honestly when an aged, fogged skylight is better replaced than chased with repairs.

Anywhere the roof meets a vertical surface, a sidewall, or the cheek of a dormer, water tends to run behind the joint. Step flashing is the answer here too; each piece is lapped under a shingle course and up the wall behind the cladding, so water is carried back out onto the roof rather than down inside the wall. A single bent strip of flashing, or reliance on caulk at the joint, is a common shortcut we are called back to correct once it inevitably lets go, usually after water has already tracked down inside the wall cavity for a season or two.

Why Our Flashing Work Actually Stops the Leaks

Flashing is the most misdiagnosed problem on a home roof, which is why so many people pay for new shingles when the shingles were never leaking at all. Markit Roofing fixes the actual detail that is leaking, building every residential roof flashing repair in metal to last, across Calgary and Edmonton. We come at every penetration as roofers who understand water-shedding logic, not as a caulk-and-hope patch crew.

Metal Does the Sealing, Not Caulk

The lasting repair at any penetration is metal doing the sealing, with caulk only ever a secondary backup. A bead of roofing caulk over a failed joint holds for a summer or two, then breaks its bond as the metal moves, which is why a caulk-only fix is the most common reason we are called back to a detail someone else already sealed. We build the flashing so the metal sheds the water and the seal does not depend on a material that dries out.

Step Flashing Done Properly

Chimney and sidewall flashing only works when each piece of step flashing is interleaved with a shingle course, lapped so water is carried out onto the roof. The shortcut is a single strip of L-flashing run down the side, which fails within five to ten years as the joint opens. We take the time to step it properly, course by course, because that is the difference between a detail that lasts the life of the roof and one that leaks by the next Chinook.

We Find the True Leak Source

Because a flashing leak surfaces far from its source, finding the true entry point is most of the job, and getting it wrong means resealing the wrong detail while the real one keeps running. We trace the water back through the attic and, where it is not obvious, confirm it with a controlled water test before touching a shingle. You get the leak that is actually happening fixed, not the one that looked likely from the ceiling below.

Matched to Your Roof Shingles

New flashing only disappears into the roof if it matches what is already there, so we work to your shingle type and colour rather than fitting whatever is on the truck. Step flashing is sized to your courses, the boot suits your pipe, and the reset shingles blend into the field. The finished detail sheds water like the roof around it and looks like it was always part of it, not a repair patched over the top.

Built for Alberta Freeze-Thaw

Every residential roof flashing detail we build is made for the freeze-thaw cycling that tears ordinary flashing apart, expanding and contracting the metal and breaking any seal that relies on caulk alone. We use properly formed, correctly lapped metal that moves with the roof through the swings between a Calgary summer and a deep winter, so the detail keeps shedding water long after a caulked shortcut would have reopened and started leaking again.

Residential Roof Penetration & Curb Installation

Residential Roof Flashing & Penetrations

Where a Shingle Roof Really Springs Its Leaks

Our Flashing and Sealing Process

Find the Real Entry Point

Strip Back to Sound Roofing

Fit the New Metal Flashing

Weave In and Seal It Down

Have a new roofing project?

Roof Penetrations We Flash on Alberta Homes

Why Our Flashing Work Actually Stops the Leaks

Metal Does the Sealing, Not Caulk

Step Flashing Done Properly

We Find the True Leak Source

Matched to Your Roof Shingles

Built for Alberta Freeze-Thaw

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