Solar panels and roof repair: before, during and after

Before you go solar: inspect the underlayment

A solar array is a 25-year commitment bolted to your roof. If the roof under it is a 1990s tile roof on original felt, the felt has maybe five years left, and when it fails every panel has to come off to fix it. A tile relay before the install costs a relay. The same relay after the install costs the relay plus a per-panel remove-and-reset from the solar contractor, plus the inconvenience of a de-energised system. If your tile roof is 15 years or older, get the underlayment inspected (tile lifted, not a drone photo) before you sign the solar contract. If it needs replacing, do it first, and ask the solar installer to flash the mounts properly into the new underlayment.

Already have panels and a leak?

First, find out whether the leak is the array or the roof. Leaks at panel mounts, lag bolts through tile with a dab of sealant, are an installer problem and often an installer warranty item. Leaks elsewhere on the roof, or everywhere at once, are the underlayment. A roofer who walks the roof with the panels in place can usually tell which from where the water is showing and what the mounts look like. Either way the fix under the array means the panels come off, and the mistake to avoid is the one where the roofer will not touch the panels and the solar company will not touch the roof while your ceiling gets worse.

Who does what in a remove-and-reset

1. Roofer inspects, scopes the roof work, counts panels and standoffs, and coordinates dates with the solar contractor.
2. Solar contractor (your installer, or a licensed electrical contractor if the installer is gone) de-energises, labels and removes modules and racking, and sets them aside on site.
3. Roofer does the relay or repair, flashing every standoff location properly before the tile goes back.
4. Solar contractor reinstalls racking and modules on the flashed mounts and recommissions the system.
5. Roofer photographs the finished roof before and after the array goes back, for both warranty files.

The roof is quoted by the square; the remove-and-reset is a separate per-panel line. You see both numbers. More on solar remove & reset.

Keeping both warranties intact

Solar warranties typically require that the system be removed and reinstalled by a qualified solar or electrical contractor, not a roofer. Roofing workmanship warranties typically exclude damage caused by third parties, which is to say a solar crew drilling through new underlayment. The way both survive is documentation: photos of the roof before removal, after the roof work, and after reinstall, plus a written record of who did what. Ask for it, from both contractors.

The mount problem

A lot of valley arrays were installed with lag bolts straight through the tile into the rafter, a bead of sealant over the hole, and nothing else. That is a leak waiting for the sealant to age, which in this sun is a few years. The right detail is a flashed mount: a standoff that penetrates the underlayment through a proper flashing, with the tile cut and fitted around it. When your panels come off for roof work, that is the moment to fix every mount, and we price it into the scope.