Patio cover roofing and leak repair in Phoenix

A patio cover is attached to your house along a ledger, a board bolted to the wall or a bracket fastened to the fascia, with rafters or panels running out to posts. Rain hitting the main roof often drains straight onto the patio cover, and the joint at the ledger is where it most likely gets in. On a lot of Valley homes, especially covers added after the house was built, that joint has little more than caulk holding water out. Caulk shrinks in Phoenix heat, and the next monsoon storm sends water behind the stucco.

Doing it right means flashing the ledger with metal that tucks behind the wall finish above it and laps over the patio roofing below. On stucco walls, that can mean cutting a clean line into the stucco to set a counter-flashing, then sealing it so water follows the metal down and out. Where the patio cover ties into the main roof at the eave, we flash that junction the same way we would any roof-to-wall transition.

Wood-framed patio covers built with the house often carry the same low-slope roofing as other flat sections: rolled roofing, built-up layers, foam or a coated membrane. These go through Phoenix UV fast because they're thin and lie nearly flat. When a patio cover roof is worn out, we tear it off to the deck, repair any rotted sheathing, and install a new membrane or foam system with a proper drip edge so water drains off the edge instead of curling back under.

Foam works well on patio covers that tie into a foam main roof, since the two can be sprayed as one continuous system with no seam at the house. Modified bitumen and TPO are good choices for covers that need a membrane. On covers where heat on the patio matters, a reflective coating makes the space below noticeably cooler. For a coating-only refresh on a sound surface, see our elastomeric coating page.

Many Valley homes have aluminum patio covers, including the wood-look style many people know by brand name, and insulated foam-core panel covers. These don't use roofing in the usual sense. The panels interlock or overlap, and water is kept out by the panel profile, screws with sealing washers and sealant at seams and the house connection. After years of heat, the sealant shrinks, washers dry out and screws back out as the panels expand and contract.

We go seam by seam, replacing failed sealant with a product rated for aluminum and UV, swapping worn screws and washers, and resealing the house connection with new flashing where it's missing. Bent or dented panels from monsoon winds can often be replaced one at a time. If a patio cover is beyond repair, we can rebuild the roof surface or talk through replacement options. And if water is getting into the house itself, tracing the leak into the main roof comes first.