Canoga Park, CA · March – November 2024 · LADWP / LADBS

You want a grey roof. The energy code has an opinion.

Two thousand one hundred and ten square feet, torn off to the deck: shingle on the pitched roof, torch-down on two low-slope sections. The hard part was not the work. It was finding a grey that the cool roof requirement would accept.

This was a full re-roof, so the new covering had to meet the city's cool roof requirement — a product labelled and certified by the Cool Roof Rating Council. Cool-rated products come in a wide range of colours and materials, but within the ranges priced for this project that requirement is what decided both the shingle and the low-slope membrane.

At a glance

Roof area

2,110 sq ft

Pitched roof

18 squares, composition shingle

Low-slope

Two sections, torch-down membrane

Shingle

Owens Corning TruDefinition Duration COOL Plus, Mystic Gray

Low-slope membrane

CertainTeed Flintlastic GTA CoolStar

Deck

Replaced — scope revised after tear-off

Permits

Roofing permit plus a supplemental

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

A complete tear-off on a single-storey house: two thousand one hundred and ten square feet, eighteen squares of shingle on the pitched planes, and two low-slope sections finished in torch-down membrane. Ordinary work, priced in March 2024 and signed in October.

The part worth writing down started with a colour. The owner wanted grey.

Replacing more than half a residential roof in the City of Los Angeles means the new covering has to be a cool roof product — labelled and certified by the Cool Roof Rating Council. The building department applies a minimum solar reflectance index to it. Reflectance is a colour problem: the darker the shade, the harder it is to reach the number.

We priced the job against one manufacturer's shingle line first, and checked the colour chart against the threshold. Not one grey shade in that line cleared it. The only colour in the range that did was a sandy tone — which is a perfectly good roof and not what the owner had asked for.

So we went to a line built for exactly this: a cool-rated shingle made in grey. The owner picked Mystic Gray in the TruDefinition Duration COOL Plus range, and that settled the pitched roof.

Then the low-slope sections raised the same question again. A grey slate torch-down exists and would have looked right next to a grey shingle, but the distributor confirmed it is not in the cool-rated line and would not have satisfied the requirement. Among the products evaluated for this project, the one that did qualify comes in its own colour, and that colour does not match the shingle.

There was no clever way around it, so we did the only honest thing: we wrote it down and sent it to the owner before the contract was signed, with a link to the membrane so he could see exactly what the flat sections would look like. He signed the same day, knowing the roof would read as two tones from the air.

One more thing changed on site. The contract excluded damaged plywood, as every roofing contract does, because nobody knows what is under a roof until it comes off. Here the deck needed replacing, and the paperwork followed the work: a supplemental permit went through in November and rewrote the scope from re-roofing over the existing sheathing to re-roofing over new sheathing. Both permits were finaled.

The photographs are a drone survey flown after the work closed out. On a roof with this many hips and valleys, it is the only way to see the whole thing at once — and the only way to check that the transitions between the pitched planes and the low-slope sections are clean.

How it ran

Seven months from first measurement to closed permits, with the colour question settled in a single day in October.

What we did

• Measured the roof and priced the pitched and low-slope sections as the two different jobs they are.
• Checked the owner's colour against the cool roof requirement before ordering, not after.
• Moved to a cool-rated shingle line when no grey in the first one cleared the threshold.
• Established that only one torch-down product on the low-slope sections would comply, and told the owner in writing that its colour would not match the shingle.
• Replaced the deck when tear-off showed it was needed, and put a supplemental permit through so the permit described the work actually done.
• Flew a drone survey after completion to document every plane and transition.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• You want a specific colour and have been told it is not allowed.
• Your roof has both pitched and flat sections and you are getting one price for both.
• You have been quoted for a re-roof and nobody has mentioned the cool roof requirement.
• You want to know what happens if the deck turns out to be rotten.
• Your Canoga Park property is served by LADWP, while permits are handled by LADBS.

Cali Energy in Canoga Park

Frequently asked questions

What is a cool roof, and when is it required?

It is a roof covering certified by the Cool Roof Rating Council for how much sunlight it reflects. A full residential re-roof in the City of Los Angeles normally has to use one, and the building department checks the product label. Whether a particular job triggers it depends on the scope, so it is worth confirming against the current requirement before materials are ordered.

Does that mean I cannot have a dark roof?

No — cool-rated products come in a wide range of colours. It does mean the colour has to come from a line built to reflect. On this project no grey shade in the first shingle range we priced cleared the threshold; the only qualifying colour in that range was a sandy tone. A cool-rated shingle line solved it, and the owner got grey.

Why are the flat sections a different colour?

Because among the torch-down products evaluated for this project, the grey one was not in the cool-rated line and the one that qualified comes in its own colour. We put that in writing to the owner, with a link to the material, before the contract was signed, so the two-tone result was a decision rather than a surprise.

What happens if the deck under the shingles is rotten?

It gets replaced, and the paperwork has to follow. A roofing contract normally excludes damaged plywood because nobody can see it until the old roof is off. Here the deck needed replacing, so a supplemental permit rewrote the work description from re-roofing over existing sheathing to re-roofing over new sheathing. Both permits were finaled.

Why photograph a roof with a drone?

On a roof with this many hips and valleys it is the only way to see every plane and every transition in one frame. It also gives the owner a record of the finished work that does not depend on anyone climbing back up.

Does Cali Energy do roofing as well as solar in Canoga Park?

Yes. Cali Energy holds B, C-10 and C-39 classifications under CSLB #1032379, which covers roofing, electrical and solar. Canoga Park is inside City of Los Angeles boundaries, so permits run through LADBS and interconnection through LADWP.

What this would look like on your roof

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This timeline reflects this property and this permitting path. Updated September 2026.