Sonoma Roof Replacement: A Real Job, Start to Finish

By Sutter Roofing Systems · 2026-07-20 · 5 min read

A roof replacement is easy to sell and hard to see. Once the shingles are on, every roof looks finished — the difference between a good one and a bad one is buried in the layers underneath.

So here's a real one. This is a recent roof replacement we completed in Sonoma, CA — a hillside home with multiple hips, a couple of skylights, and a river-rock chimney to flash around. We photographed it start to finish so you can see exactly what a Sonoma County roofing contractor should be doing on your roof, and why the parts you'll never see again are the parts that matter most.

Step 1 — Tear-off and a look at the deck

Every honest replacement starts by stripping the old system down to the wood. That's the only way to see what you're actually building on. On this home the old plywood decking was worn and patchy in spots, so we replaced the bad sections and re-nailed the rest to code before a single new layer went down.

Notice the trailer parked at the eave. Keeping tear-off debris off the lawn and out of the flower beds isn't cosmetic — a clean job site is how you protect the property and catch every stray nail before it ends up in a tire.

Step 2 — Sound decking, framed and ready

With the deck rebuilt, every penetration gets squared away before the roof gets covered — vent pipes, and in this case the curbs for two skylights. Get the framing and flashing details right here and they'll stay watertight for decades; rush them and they become the first place the roof leaks.

Step 3 — Underlayment: the layer that actually keeps water out

This is the step budget crews cut and homeowners never see. Over the new deck we roll a full synthetic underlayment — GAF FeltBuster — as a continuous water barrier under the shingles. Shingles shed most of the weather, but it's the underlayment that protects the wood during wind-driven rain and the years of small stuff that follow. It's also part of what keeps a manufacturer system warranty valid.

If you're comparing bids, ask each contractor what underlayment they use and whether they install a full manufacturer system. It's one of the fastest ways to tell a real roof from a cheap one — more on that in choosing the right roofing material for Sonoma County.

Step 4 — Architectural shingles and a finished roof

Then the roof comes together: architectural shingles laid up the slopes, ridge lines capped, valleys run clean, and every skylight, vent, and the river-rock chimney flashed and sealed. The result is a roof that looks sharp from the street and is built to handle Sonoma's summer heat and winter atmospheric rivers alike.

Why this matters when you hire

Two roofs can look identical on day one and be a decade apart in real life. The gap is everything in these photos: whether the decking got replaced instead of covered over, whether a full underlayment went down, whether the flashing details were solved or slapped on. You can't inspect that from the ground after the fact — which is why who you hire is the whole decision.

• Ask to see the decking before it's covered — a good crew wants you to look
• Confirm a full manufacturer underlayment and system, not just shingles
• Get the CSLB license number and verify it's active before you sign
• Expect a written, itemized estimate after a real site walk — not a phone number

Sutter Roofing Systems has roofed Sonoma County since 1986 — CSLB #1137426, GAF-certified systems, written workmanship warranties, and job sites we leave cleaner than we found them. If you want the full day-by-day version, read what to expect during a roof replacement or our behind-the-scenes look at a real job.