Fallen Tree Roof Damage Repair in Campbell, CA

Tree fell on your roof in Campbell, CA? Start with safety

A limb that comes through a roof can bring wiring, ceiling material and rain in with it. Before anyone thinks about repairs:

• Get people and pets out of rooms under the damage, and keep those doors closed.
• Keep well away from any downed or sagging power line, including one touching the tree. Call 911 or your electric utility (PG&E serves most of the area) and treat the line as live.
• Smell gas? Leave the house and call the gas utility or 911 from outside.
• Shut off power to rooms where water is reaching ceiling fixtures, if the panel is safe to reach.
• Don't climb onto the roof or into the tree. A trunk resting on a roof can shift as the wind moves it or as it's cut.
• Photograph everything from a safe spot: the tree, the roof, the inside damage and the stump or broken limb it came from.

PG&E's guidance is to assume a downed line is live, stay at least 25 feet away and call 9-1-1, then PG&E. Keep children and pets back too.

Branch through the roof or resting on it: how serious is it?

Don't judge by the size of the limb alone. A heavy oak branch can crack rafters without breaking through, and a redwood limb with a sharp broken stub can spear the decking cleanly.

Tree crew, roofer, insurer: who does what, and in what order

1. The utility makes any downed lines safe.
2. A tree service or arborist cuts and lifts the tree or limb off the roof, ideally rigged or craned so pieces don't drop back onto the house.
3. We photograph the damage, check the attic and cover the opening with a tarp or temporary sheathing.
4. Your insurer sends an adjuster; we can meet them and explain the roof damage. Our roof insurance claims page covers the paperwork.
5. Framing repair, if rafters or trusses are broken, comes before the roof is rebuilt, and permits may apply.
6. We replace decking, underlayment and roofing, and repair gutters and fascia hit in the fall.

Tree removal is a job for a tree service; we handle the roof. Many homeowners call both at once, so the opening can be covered soon after the limb comes off rather than sitting open. If water is already inside, the steps on our emergency roof leak repair page help protect the rooms in the meantime.

Our part is the roof, done the way our reviews describe: a family-run team that photographs the damage for you and your insurer, puts the repair in a free written estimate, and cleans the yard of roofing debris each day. If a smaller limb only cracked a few shingles, we will say so and keep the repair small.

Tree on house roof repair: rebuilding from the decking up

A tree-damage roof repair covers everything between the rafters and the gutter that the fall broke. On a typical job that includes:

• Temporary cover of the opening once the limb is lifted off.
• Decking: broken plywood or board sheathing cut back to sound wood and replaced.
• Underlayment and roofing woven into the surrounding roof.
• Flashing, vents and ridge pieces bent or crushed in the impact.
• Gutters, fascia and soffit along the edge where the limb landed.

Roof decking repair after a tree

Once the tree is off and the opening covered, the repair works from the bottom up. Broken plywood or board sheathing is cut back to sound wood and replaced. Older South Bay homes may have board sheathing rather than plywood under the roofing, and the repair has to tie into whatever is there.

Underlayment, roofing and edges

New underlayment laps under the existing layers uphill, and new shingles or tiles are woven into the old so water keeps flowing over, not under. Gutters, fascia and soffit damaged in the fall are repaired at the same time.

When framing is broken

Cracked rafters or trusses are structural work. It usually needs a building permit, and sometimes an engineer. Campbell's Building Division (or, for unincorporated addresses, the County Planning and Development Department) can tell you what's required. We schedule the roofing around the framing repair.

Storm tree damage in Campbell's older, tree-lined neighborhoods

Many Campbell, Los Gatos and Saratoga streets sit under mature valley oaks, sycamores, pines and redwoods that were planted, or left standing, when the neighborhoods were built in the 1950s to 1970s. Those trees are a big part of the area's character, and in winter they are also the main source of roof punctures. Soaked soil loosens roots just as wind loads heavy crowns.

The atmospheric rivers of late December 2022 and January 2023 showed this clearly, with trees and limbs falling throughout Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains, under tall redwoods and on steep lots, carry the same risk with harder access for both tree crews and roofers.

An arborist's look at limbs over the roof before the rains, and branches kept trimmed back from the roof surface, lower the odds.

Tree ordinances, permits and licenses after a limb strike

Several cities around us protect large trees. Los Altos regulates removal and heavy pruning of protected trees, and Menlo Park and Atherton require a permit before a heritage tree is removed. A storm-broken tree may be treated differently, but check with the city before the stump and trunk are taken out, and photograph the tree first. Framing repairs go through the City of Campbell Building Division inside city limits, or the County for unincorporated addresses. Tree work, like roofing, needs a CSLB license once a job reaches $1,000; verify both contractors at cslb.ca.gov.

How is fallen limb roof repair priced?

In two parts. Emergency work, covering the opening and any return trip to re-secure it, carries a charge we explain before the crew starts. The lasting repair is quoted free, in writing and itemized, once the tree is off and the damage can be seen in full.

The price depends on the size of the opening, how much decking and framing broke, the roofing material and how hard the area is to reach. Tree removal is billed by the tree service separately.

• Framing: a cracked rafter or truss adds structural work and, sometimes, an engineer.
• Board sheathing: older homes may need boards milled or shimmed to meet the new plywood.
• Roof material: tile and shake are slower to weave in than shingles, and matching can take time.
• Edges: gutters, fascia and soffit hit by the limb are priced as separate lines.
• Return visits: re-covering if the tree crew can only come after another storm.