Tamko Flashing Replacement in Seattle, WA

Tamko Flashing Replacement: The Seattle Owner’s Guide

Tamko flashing replacement in Seattle typically runs $340-$780 installed, depending on the location and how much surrounding material needs attention. We stock Tamko-compatible step flashing, counter flashing, and vent pipe flashing on every Ridgeline truck, and most replacements are completed in a single visit. If you’re seeing water stains on a ceiling or wall after a rain, failed flashing is often the culprit, not the shingles themselves.

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Flashing is the thin metal that seals where your roof meets a wall, chimney, skylight, or vent. On Tamko roofs, it’s usually galvanized steel or aluminum, sometimes with a painted finish to match the shingle color. Seattle’s wet winters and the freeze-thaw cycles we get in January and February are hard on these pieces. Water finds the gap, metal corrodes, sealant dries and cracks, and suddenly you’ve got a leak that shows up three rooms away from the actual problem.

Which Tamko Models This Applies To

Tamko flashing isn’t one-size-fits-all. The profile and fastening pattern differ across shingle lines, and matching it wrong creates a gap that water will find.

We most commonly replace flashing on these Tamko systems in Seattle:

• Heritage Series - the flagship laminate line; uses standard 8″ × 10″ step flashing with a 4″ exposure, but the painted finish must match the shingle color code or the repair becomes obvious from the street.
• Heritage Woodgate - heavier shingle with a deeper shadow line; requires extended-height step flashing (10″ × 12″) to cover the thicker butt edge properly.
• Elite Glass-Seal - the three-tab workhorse found on thousands of Seattle ranches built from the late 1980s through the mid-2000s; uses simpler 7″ × 8″ step flashing, but the nail placement is critical because the shingle exposure is narrower.
• Heritage Vintage - premium dimensional shingle; counter flashing here is often custom-bent on site to follow the irregular shingle edge.

To identify your Tamko shingle, look for the printed strip on the back of a loose shingle or check any leftover bundles in your garage. The color name and series are printed there. If you can’t find it, we carry a Tamko color-matching guide on every truck, and Neil Cavanaugh can usually eyeball the vintage within a year or two from the grain pattern.

On OEM versus aftermarket: Tamko-branded flashing is manufactured to their exact bend angles and paint specs, but it’s not always stocked locally. We use Tamko OEM when the job is large enough to special-order efficiently, and we use a premium aftermarket equivalent (same gauge metal, same Kynar paint finish, same warranty) for smaller repairs where the lead time doesn’t make sense. The performance is identical. The key is the gauge, never go below 26-gauge on Seattle roofs, the thinner stuff dimples in our hail events and corrodes faster in the salt air west of 15th Avenue.

Signs Your Tamko Flashing Replacement Is Failing

• Water stains on interior walls or ceilings, especially after wind-driven rain. Seattle’s southwesterly winter storms push water uphill against the grain of standard shingle overlap. When flashing has lifted or the sealant bead has cracked, that water enters behind the wall cladding and travels down studs, showing up far from the actual breach.
• Rust streaks running down the siding or brick below a roof-wall joint. This means the galvanized coating on the flashing has failed, usually at a bend or fastener hole. Once rust starts, the metal thins quickly, and in our climate, a rust hole can go from pinprick to leak in a single winter.
• Visible gaps where the flashing meets the wall or chimney. Caulk and roofing cement dry out. On Tamko systems installed before 2010, we regularly see butyl sealant that has turned to powder. The flashing itself may be sound, but the seal is gone, and every rainfall tests it.
• Shingles lifting or curling near a wall or penetration. This is often secondary damage. Water trapped behind failed flashing saturates the shingle substrate from underneath, causing the laminate layers to separate. By the time you see curling, the flashing has been failing for months.
• Daylight visible from the attic at chimney or dormer corners. This is the most definitive sign. If you can see light, water can enter. In older Seattle homes, especially in neighborhoods like Wallingford and Phinney Ridge with the original dormer construction, the corner flashing is often a single piece that fatigues at the bend after twenty years of thermal cycling.

Replacement Cost & What’s Included

Here’s what Tamko flashing replacement costs in the Seattle market, based on jobs we’ve completed in the past eighteen months:

The range depends on three things: how many shingles we need to disturb and replace, whether the underlying decking has taken moisture damage, and how accessible the location is. A straightforward wall section on a single-story home in West Seattle is at the lower end. A chimney on a steep 12/12 pitch in Magnolia, with scaffolding needed, is at the higher end.

Every flashing replacement includes new fasteners, compatible sealant, and any shingles we disturb. The price we quote is the price you pay. Work is backed by our 90-Day Done Right Promise, written, no paperwork runaround, if it’s not right, we make it right.

DIY or Call Us?

There’s a safe middle ground here, and then there’s the point where a ladder and good intentions stop being enough.

What you can check yourself: from the ground with binoculars, look for the signs above, rust, gaps, lifted shingles. From inside, check the attic after a rain for active drips or new stains. Note the location. That information saves us time and saves you money on the diagnosis.

What we don’t recommend doing yourself: removing shingles to access flashing, working on a roof with a pitch steeper than 4/12, or attempting to bend and install metal flashing without experience. Seattle’s roofs are wet eight months of the year, moss-covered and slick. The metal edges on flashing are sharp. The proper integration with the Tamko shingle system, overlapping each course correctly, sealing the nail penetrations, this is where leaks are born or prevented. We’ve been called to fix homeowner flashing repairs where the water intrusion was worse after the “fix” than before, usually because the step flashing was too short or the sealant was applied to a wet surface in a drizzle.

If you’re unsure, call us. A live person answers at (866) 850-9676, any hour, and we’ll give you a straight answer about whether it needs immediate attention or can wait for dry weather.

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