A roof built for the solar above it — and one contractor responsible for both
Cali Energy handles standalone re-roofs, tile lift-and-relay, leak diagnosis and repair, solar detach-and-reset and combined roof-and-solar projects across Los Angeles. The C-39 roofing and C-10 electrical classifications sit on one CSLB number — #1032379 — so the waterproofing, the attachments and the array live in one written scope. Roof-only quotes are welcome, with no solar pitch attached.
Book a free roof inspectionWhat we actually do on a roof
Tile, composition and flat are different assemblies — underlayment, flashing and ventilation are specified per system, not copy-pasted between them.
Full re-roof
Tear-off down to the deck, deck repair where we find it, new underlayment, new flashing at every penetration, new ventilation. Every job runs on a 22-step written checklist — down to pulling every nail and a magnetic sweep of your yard at the end of each work day.
Tile lift and relay
Your clay or concrete tile comes off by hand, the underlayment underneath is replaced, and the same tile goes back down. The tile usually outlives what is under it — a common repair on older LA tile roofs.
Leak diagnosis and section repair
Finding where water enters is not the same as patching where it appears. We trace it, then repair the section properly instead of sealing the stain.
Detach and reset
Panels removed, racking stored, roof rebuilt, array reinstalled and recommissioned — all inside one contract, under the one license that carries both classifications.
Solar-ready re-roof
New roof designed for the array that is going on it: mount layout planned before the underlayment goes down, so penetrations are flashed during roofing rather than drilled afterwards.
Roofing on its own
No solar attached, no panel pitch while we are up there. If the roof is what you need, the roof is what we quote.
The gap between the roofer and the solar company — and how we closed it
A roof and a solar array are one physical system. On the pitched roofs most LA homes have, each structural attachment passes through the waterproofing layer — flashed correctly during roofing, that is routine work. The industry usually splits the roof and the array between two trades, and the seam between those trades is where leaks, delays and blame live.
We removed the seam instead of managing it: C-39 roofing and C-10 electrical on one CSLB number, one crew, one written scope. Here is what that means for you in practice.
You never buy the same roof twice
We sequence roof first, solar second — or handle detach-and-reset inside one contract — so you never pay to lift panels off a roof that should have been rebuilt before they went up.
One crew, one mobilization
One coordinated permit package, one schedule, one crew setting up on your house — not two companies with separate submittals and separate inspections months apart.
A warranty without a seam
Flashing, penetrations and the array are one contractor’s work — ours. If water ever shows up on your ceiling, there is exactly one phone number to call, and nobody for us to point at.
How the job runs
Roof first, solar second — one team coordinating every required inspection. This sequence is what removes the detach-and-reset bill from your project two years from now.
| # | Stage | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Inspection | Roof, attic, rafters and electrical panel — before anything is quoted. |
| 02 | Written scope | A line-item estimate that names tear-off or overlay and your roof type in writing. |
| 03 | Permits | Drawings and submittal to building & safety and the electrical department, plus fire department and utility where required. One party files and follows up — us. |
| 04 | Tear-off | Old roofing removed, or tile lifted and stacked by hand for relay. Debris hauled away — and the yard swept with a magnetic roller at the end of each work day. |
| 05 | Open-deck inspection | The deck is examined with the roof open. Real additional work, if any, is identified here in daylight — and agreed with you before it happens. |
| 06 | Underlayment and flashing | New synthetic underlayment, starter strip around the perimeter, edge metal matched to the roof, new flashing at every penetration, intake and exhaust ventilation. |
| 07 | Roofing installed | Tile relaid or new material laid. |
| 08 | City inspection | Signed off by the jurisdiction; closing the permit stays our job. |
| 09 | Array set (combined projects) | Panels mounted on the new roof, with penetrations flashed during the roofing stage rather than drilled after it. |
Money, upfront
What California law fixes, how payments follow the work — and a written line-item estimate before anything starts.
| Term | How it works |
|---|---|
| Deposit | Capped by California law at $1,000 or 10% of the contract price — whichever is less. The first installment lands on tear-off day, when the work is real. |
| Progress payments | Follow the work: by law, payments cannot exceed the value of completed work and delivered materials. |
| Final payment | On a roof-and-solar project — at final completion: inspection passed, utility sign-off, system energized. On roofing-only work — when the roof is complete; closing the city permit stays our job. |
| Start protection | If we fail to start within 20 days of the target start date, the payment schedule pushes back by the same delay. |
| Cancellation | California cancellation rights depend on the customer’s age, the contract type and where the agreement is signed — your agreement includes the notice that applies to your transaction. |
| Lien releases | You receive California’s statutory lien waivers for work you have paid for (Civil Code §8134, §8138) — protecting your home from contractor-side claims. |
Every estimate is written line by line after somebody has actually been on the roof. What moves the number: pitch, storeys and access — scaffolding on a three-storey house is its own line item — how many layers of old roofing are up there, tile breakage and whether your profile is still manufactured, deck condition once the roof is open, ventilation and valley runs, and the fire-rating and cool-roof requirements in your zone.
“Free roof replacement with solar panels” — what it actually is
There is no free roof. The phrase describes a roof rolled into a solar loan, so the roofing cost moves into your monthly payment instead of disappearing. It can genuinely pencil out when the roof is near end of life anyway: one mobilization, one coordinated permit process, no detach-and-reset bill later. It does not pencil out when your roof has fifteen years left — then you are financing work you do not need yet.
On tax credits: under current federal law, the Section 25D Residential Clean Energy Credit is not available for residential expenditures after December 31, 2025 — and it applied to the solar system, not to roofing as such. Confirm your situation with a tax professional. Our plain-English breakdown.
The warranty stack, split honestly
“50-year warranty” on a roofing page is almost always the shingle manufacturer’s paper, not the contractor’s. On our projects every layer has a name on it — and ours is on two of them.
| Layer | Who backs it | Term | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roofing material | The manufacturer | Manufacturer’s term | The roofing product itself. We install GAF on composition work, register the warranty and hand you the documentation. |
| Roofing workmanship roof-only projects | Cali Energy | 25 years on labor | Our installation work, for a quarter century. Transferable under certain conditions. |
| Workmanship roof-and-solar projects | Cali Energy | 25 years from PTO | The combined installation — covered repairs carried out at our cost, not yours. |
| Solar roof penetrations | Cali Energy | 5 years from PTO | Roof damage within a three-inch radius of any system penetration. |
The conditions, stated plainly
Penetration coverage assumes a roof with solid life left and no pre-existing leaks — if yours does not qualify, we say so before the install, not after the first rain. Permit fees are quoted separately. And what one contractor actually gives you: one written contract that covers both the roof and the array, instead of two contracts that each stop at the other’s edge.
Warranty service: Warranty Department, 19201 Parthenia St Unit E, Northridge, CA 91324 · +1‑323‑844‑7777.
Check any roofer in 30 seconds
California licenses roofing under its own classification, C-39 — and a B general-building license can also cover roofing inside a larger multi-trade project. A company can be perfectly legitimate and still not be licensed to re-roof your house, so check: type 1032379 into the CSLB license lookup and you will see classifications, status, the workers’ compensation carrier (State Compensation Insurance Fund) and the contractor bond (Arch Insurance, SU71064530000). Do this for every bid you receive, not only ours.
Which one is you
| Your situation | What we actually do |
|---|---|
| The roof is old and there is no solar yet | One scope covering both, one team coordinating every required inspection — and the array never has to come off later. |
| Solar is already up there and the roof is failing | Detach, re-roof, reset and recommission, handled inside a single contract. |
| The tile looks fine but the roof is decades old | Usually a lift and relay: the underlayment is what wore out, not the tile. |
| There is a leak in one spot | Diagnosis first, then a section repair scoped to the actual failure. |
| You only want the roof done | A standalone roofing estimate, with no solar pitch attached. |
| You genuinely don’t know what shape the roof is in | The most common answer. The inspection tells you, and it costs nothing. |
Two roofs, and what was hard about them
First time. Three inspections.
Full tile re-roof plus an 11.7 kW array (29 × REC 405AA) and a Tesla Powerwall 3, on a condo with a shared service panel. The homeowner opened by asking whether we could guarantee the roof would pass — a neighbour’s had just been failed. We wrote it into the contract. Three of three inspections passed first time; tile came off and went back on by hand.
Thirty hooks. Zero cracked tiles.
8.7 kW, 30 panels on clay tile, 30 roof hooks, plus a new 200 A main service panel. The previous installers had walked away, calling the tile too brittle to work on. Clay tile is not a reason to say no — it is a reason to send a crew that sets hooks instead of drilling through the profile.
4.9 on Google — read the reviews · A+ with the Better Business Bureau · Cali Energy on Yelp · 29 project pages by city
Frequently asked
Can one contractor handle both my roof and my solar in California?
Yes — if they hold both classifications. Roofing is C-39 and solar wiring falls under C-10, and most companies carry one or the other. Cali Energy holds both on CSLB #1032379, which is why the flashing and the array are one scope here.
What license does a roofer need in California, and how do I check it?
C-39 is the roofing classification; a B general building license can also cover roofing as part of a multi-trade project. Check any number free at the CSLB license lookup — ours is 1032379. Verify status, classifications, workers’ compensation and the bond before you sign anything.
Should I replace my roof before installing solar panels?
If the roof has less life left than the array — panels run 25+ years — then yes, before. Re-roofing under an existing array means detaching and resetting it, a cost you avoid entirely by sequencing the work correctly.
Do the panels have to come off to replace the roof?
Yes, they do — and the cost depends on system size, racking and roof access. That bill is exactly why the order of operations matters: re-roof first, or do the roof and the solar as one project, and it never exists.
Is a free roof replacement with solar panels real in California?
No. The roofing cost gets financed inside the solar loan and shows up in the monthly payment. It can still be the right move when the roof is near end of life, because you pay for one mobilization and one coordinated permit process instead of two.
How long does tile underlayment last, and what is a lift and relay?
The tile normally outlasts the underlayment beneath it. A lift and relay means taking the tile off by hand, replacing the underlayment and flashing, and putting the same tile back — a common repair on older LA tile roofs.
Do solar panels damage your roof or cause leaks?
Not when the mounts are flashed properly — and that is the point of hiring one contractor for both. Solar-related leaks usually trace back to penetrations, flashing or roofing disturbed during the install: work that falls between two companies when the roof and the array are split. Here it does not split — we flash every mount under our own roofing license and warrant the penetrations for five years from PTO.
Do I need a permit to replace my roof in Los Angeles, and does it have to be a cool roof?
A re-roof generally requires a permit, and Title 24 cool-roof and fire-rating requirements depend on your jurisdiction, roof type and climate zone. We confirm what applies to your specific address before filing rather than guessing.
Can you match my clay or concrete tile if some are broken or discontinued?
Often yes. Breakage during removal is normal and we plan for it; where a profile is discontinued we source salvage or blend replacements out of sight lines. This is one of the things we check during the inspection, not after.
Related reading
Sources & methodology
Key facts on this page were checked against the sources below on August 28, 2026. The license statistics come from a May 2026 snapshot of the CSLB register (30,031 Los Angeles County contractors in clear status).
- CSLB — C-39 roofing classification
- CSLB license lookup — Cali Energy #1032379
- CSLB — What should be in a home improvement contract
- CSLB — Contract warnings and exceptions (cancellation rights)
- California Civil Code §8134 — conditional waiver on progress payment
- California Civil Code §8138 — unconditional waiver on final payment
- Cool Roof Rating Council — Title 24 cool roof requirements
- LADBS — permit information
Tell us what the roof is doing
Tile, composition or flat; a leak in one spot or a full re-roof; solar already up there or on the wish list. We inspect for free, and the estimate comes back written and line-item — with no solar pitch if you only came for the roof.
Book a free roof inspection+1 (323) 844-7777
Free inspection · Line-item written estimate · Our team calls back within 30 minutes during business hours
Prepared by Cali Energy, August 28, 2026. This page is for general information and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Laws, codes, permit requirements and program terms change; confirm current requirements with the applicable AHJ or a licensed professional. See our Content Disclaimer. Cali Energy · 19201 Parthenia St, Unit E, Northridge, CA 91324 · CSLB #1032379 (B, C-10, C-39)