Tile Roof Repair Project in South Pasadena, CA
At 509 Fair Oaks Ave, South Pasadena, CA 91030, Roof Replacement Inc completed a comprehensive tile roof repair on a multi-unit residential building featuring the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture common throughout the area. The scope included removing and resetting aged clay mission tiles across multiple roof planes, installing new synthetic underlayment, fabricating and fitting new metal flashing at several decorative chimneys and parapets, and repairing deteriorated wood decking at the eave edges. The finished roof preserves the building’s historic character while providing a properly waterproofed substrate beneath the original tile.
The photos show a roof that had reached the end of its underlayment’s serviceable life. The existing felt beneath the tiles had dried out and cracked, old tar-based flashing around the ornamental chimney stacks had failed, the parapet-to-roof transitions showed rust-stained metal and spalled stucco, and several sections of the wood deck boards at the eave overhangs had rotted through entirely. These conditions are consistent with a roof that had not received a full re-underlayment since original construction and had been patched incrementally over the years.
Project Gallery
Tile Removal and Deck Assessment
The crew carefully removed the existing clay mission tiles section by section, stacking salvageable tiles on the roof for reuse. Once the tiles were off, the underlying deck boards were inspected across all slopes. At the eave overhangs — particularly along the building’s alley-facing side — sections of the original board sheathing were found to be visibly rotted and structurally compromised. New plywood panels were cut and fastened over the affected areas before any new underlayment was applied, restoring a sound nailing surface for the tile reset.
Synthetic Underlayment Installation
With a clean deck, the team installed rolls of synthetic underlayment — visible in the photos as Westlake Royal TileSeal HT — across all roof planes. The material was lapped and fastened with cap fasteners per the manufacturer’s layout lines printed on the sheet face. Around each of the building’s ornamental chimney bases and at the hip and valley transitions, additional strips of self-adhering modified bitumen underlayment were torched or peeled and stuck into place to create redundant waterproofing at the highest-risk penetration zones.
Chimney Flashing and Penetration Waterproofing
Each of the building’s distinctive white-stucco chimney stacks — including the cylindrical turret-style vents and the rectangular column chimneys — received new sheet metal base flashing fabricated and bent on site. The flashing collars were set into fresh mortar at the chimney bases, lapped over the underlayment, and mechanically fastened. For the round chimney stacks, the crew applied a torched modified bitumen sheet in a step-cut pattern around the curved base to conform to the irregular geometry, then pressed the new metal collar over it. Fresh mortar was tooled into the joint between the flashing and the stucco to seal the transition.
Tile Reset and Mortar Work
Salvaged clay mission tiles were sorted and reset over the new underlayment using a mortar-set approach at the ridges, hips, and eave courses. Workers can be seen in the photos hand-placing tiles and troweling fresh mortar from Home Depot buckets, bedding each course and pressing the rake and ridge cap tiles into position. Where tiles had cracked or broken during removal, pieces were culled. The parapet cap tiles at the building’s stepped parapets were similarly re-bedded in mortar, and the metal counter-flashing at the parapet-to-tile interfaces was dressed back into place over the new base flashing.
Project Details
Roofing in South Pasadena, CA
South Pasadena sits in the San Gabriel Valley foothills where roofs face intense UV exposure, hot dry summers, and periodic Santa Ana wind events that can lift undertorqued tiles and drive wind-driven rain under improperly lapped underlayment. The area also carries a moderate wildfire ember risk given its proximity to the Angeles National Forest, making the fire-resistance rating of underlayment a practical consideration for local homeowners. Spanish Colonial and Mission Revival buildings are extremely common in South Pasadena, meaning clay and concrete mission tile roofs are the regional norm and require specialized re-bedding and flashing techniques that differ significantly from shingle roofing.
Our Service Area: South Pasadena, CA
Frequently Asked Questions
Need a Tile Roof Inspection in South Pasadena?
If your clay tile roof is showing signs of underlayment failure, cracked mortar at the ridges, or water intrusion around chimneys or parapets, Roof Replacement Inc is available to inspect the roof and walk you through what repair or re-roofing would involve. We serve South Pasadena and the surrounding San Gabriel Valley communities and are experienced with the Spanish Colonial and Mission Revival tile roofs common throughout the area.
