Roofing and Roof Repair in Long Beach, CA

Global Green Roofing handles roofing and roof repair across Long Beach, commercial roofs included. Three local rules to check first on a Long Beach re-roof: one- and two-family homes can get the permit online in one step, pitched roofs on houses in ZIP codes 90805, 90807 and 90808 fall under the zone 8 cool-roof rule, and homes in the 18 historic districts need a Certificate of Appropriateness first.

By our calculation from CAL FIRE's 2025 map data, the state map shows no Moderate, High or Very High fire hazard zone in Long Beach, with about 98% of the city's land classed non-wildland, and we found no area the city itself has designated High, Very High or wildland-urban interface. The Wildland-Urban Interface Code's Class A re-roof rule applies in those kinds of areas, so check a specific address on the State Fire Marshal's viewer.

• Permit officeLong Beach Community Development, Building & Safety Permit Center, 411 W. Ocean Blvd., 2nd Floor
• Reroof permitOnline and issued in one step for one- and two-family homes; no express permits in the Coastal Zone or historic districts
• Title 24 climate zone6 for most ZIP codes; 8 for 90805, 90807 and 90808, where pitched re-roofs on houses need a cool roof
• Historic districts18 districts; re-roofing needs a Certificate of Appropriateness (no fee) before work
• Housing ageMedian year built 1959; 79% of homes built before 1980

How do you get a reroof permit in Long Beach?

Re-roof permits come from the Building and Safety Bureau of Long Beach Community Development, whose Permit Center is at 411 W. Ocean Blvd., 2nd Floor. The routes and who qualifies:

• Online, issued in one step: re-roofs of one- and two-family dwellings and their garages and other accessory structures, outside business hours too. An owner's or contractor's agent attaches a letter of authorization or the city's FORM-006 proxy, and the permit is emailed after payment.
• Express, no plan review (bulletin IB-058): composition shingle or built-up re-roofs on houses, duplexes, apartment buildings and nonresidential buildings, over solid sheathing or at most one existing layer, with shingles of 6 psf or less. Not available in the Coastal Zone, in a historic district or on a qualified historical building.
• Everything else, including the addresses IB-058 excludes: ask the Permit Center how the re-roof is filed. The city notes that additional requirements may apply in historic districts and coastal zones.

Permitted work is inspected and approved in succession, with roof nailing among the items the city lists. The 2025 California codes have applied in Long Beach since January 1, 2026; our guide to roofing permits in California covers the state rules behind the permit.

What Global Green Roofing does on Long Beach roofs

On Long Beach houses we take on leak and storm repairs, full re-roofs, drone roof inspections, tile repair and tile lift and relay, and metal roofs in standing seam or stone-coated steel. The local rules set the material choices: a cool-rated product for a pitched re-roof in the zone 8 ZIP codes, and for a home in a historic district, shingles and tile from the colors and profiles the city's re-roofing application accepts, which rules out black and midnight shingles. Our tile roofing page explains lift and relay, which keeps original clay tile on the roof.

We also take commercial roofs, and flat and low-slope roofs are covered by our flat roofing service. Where solar panels are in the way, we arrange their removal and reinstallation around the re-roof.

Each job starts with an on-site visit, and you get a written proposal and see the photos we took, drone shots included when the roof was inspected from the air. During the work the crew cleans up daily with a nail magnet, and a final walkthrough with you ends the job.

Repair or re-roof on an older Long Beach home?

The Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey puts the median Long Beach home at 1959, with 79% built before 1980 and about 6% in 2000 or later. The city code lets you repair up to 100 square feet of roofing within any 12-month period, or apply hot or cold paint to a roof, without a building permit; anything larger is permitted work. Our roof repair service covers work on both sides of that line.

The city's reroof bulletin, IB-014, decides whether the old roof can stay underneath. Every layer comes off first when the existing roof is water soaked or deteriorated, when it is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile, or when it already carries two or more layers. Otherwise the express list allows new shingles over one existing layer on solid sheathing. California's energy code defines a roof replacement as removing the covering, repairing any damaged substrate and installing a new covering, so deck repair belongs in a tear-off scope.

What moves the price of a Long Beach re-roof: the roof area and pitch, how many layers come off, the condition of the deck once it is open, the material (shingle, tile, metal or a low-slope membrane), a cool-rated product in zone 8, and, in a historic district, the materials the review accepts. Rain affects timing: NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for Long Beach Airport, inside the city, put about 81% of its 12.02 inches a year in December through March and only 0.21 inches in June through September.

Which Long Beach re-roofs need a cool roof: zone 6 or zone 8?

Long Beach sits across two Title 24 climate zones. On the Energy Commission's ZIP list, 90805, 90807 and 90808 are zone 8 and the city's other residential ZIP codes are zone 6. The Commission's map draws the boundary through ZIP codes rather than along them: by our calculation, about 44% of the city's mapped area is zone 8, including parts of three ZIP codes the list calls zone 6. The Commission lets local building departments assign one zone to a split ZIP code, so addresses near the line are checked on its climate zone tool.

The zone decides the pitched-roof rule. A zone 8 house getting a new covering on over half of a steep-slope roof needs a product rated at 0.20 aged reflectance and 0.75 emittance, or SRI 16, unless the house already has R-38 insulation in the ceiling, a code-compliant radiant barrier in the attic, or R-2 continuous insulation at the deck. The "no ducts in the attic" alternative offered in some inland zones does not exist in zone 8. Zone 6 sets no cool-roof requirement for pitched re-roofs on houses, and flat or low-slope re-roofs need a reflectance of 0.63 in both zones.

The cool roof requirements guide sets out the exceptions in full.

What does a re-roof in a Long Beach historic district need?

The City Council has designated 18 historic districts, from Bluff Park, among the first in 1982, to California Heights and Wilton Street, and the city counts over 150 landmarks. Its historic preservation office lists re-roofing among the projects that need a Certificate of Appropriateness "before starting any work, even if a building permit is not required". The municipal code applies that to all modifications in a district, permit or not, and the city reviews non-contributing houses inside district boundaries as well. Re-roofing review carries no fee, and the application is emailed to the historic preservation office.

The re-roofing application compares the existing and proposed roof, with brand and color, and asks whether gutters and rafter tails stay, are matched or are replaced. Its material rules are specific:

• Composition shingles are dimensional with a 30-year minimum, and the application states: "No midnight or black shingles allowed."
• Composition shingle is the city's preferred stand-in for wood shingle on Craftsman, Victorian, Colonial Revival and American Foursquare houses.
• Clay tile is matched to Spanish, Mission, Mediterranean and Italian styles, and "clay tile coping must be reused on all flat roofs".
• Roll roofing is listed as unsuitable for most house styles, with an exception for Art Deco and Streamline Moderne homes with parapets.
• Drip edges, gutters and downspouts are placed where they show least and finished to match the roofing or the trim.

The Certificate does not replace the building permit. The city says building permit applications from district properties are flagged on submission, and applicants are asked to obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness or an authorized signature. The city describes Minerva Park Place and Wilton Street as districts of flat-roofed Spanish-style homes, and where such a roof has clay tile coping, the application says the coping goes back on.

Commercial and multifamily re-roofs in Long Beach

About 59% of occupied homes in Long Beach are rented, per the Census Bureau's 2024 survey, and apartment and commercial roofs follow different rules from houses. The one-step online permit covers only one- and two-family dwellings, but the city's express list still includes composition shingle and built-up re-roofs on apartment and nonresidential buildings outside the Coastal Zone and historic districts.

Title 24 starts earlier on these buildings: the cool-roof rule applies when more than half the roof or more than 2,000 square feet is altered, whichever is less. A commercial pitched roof needs an aged reflectance of 0.25 (or SRI 23) in both Long Beach zones, a low-slope roof on either type needs 0.63, and an apartment building's pitched roof needs 0.20 only in zone 8.

Commercial re-roofs also fall under the city's construction and demolition recycling ordinance, which covers "nonresidential building or structure additions and alterations whenever a permit is required for work". The applicant files a waste management plan and a deposit before the permit issues, against a 65% diversion rate; a house re-roof on its own is not covered, since residential work counts only when it adds size. Flat roofing covers TPO and other low-slope membranes.

Services and guides for roofs in Long Beach

• Cool Roofing: Rated products for zone 8 ZIP codes, where pitched re-roofs on houses need a cool roof.
• Flat Roofing: Low-slope re-roofs on houses, apartments and commercial buildings, which carry the 0.63 rule citywide.
• Roof Replacement: Tear-offs on 1950s roofs, filed online or through the Permit Center.
• Roof Inspection & Maintenance: Drone photos of the roof before you choose between a repair under 100 square feet and a re-roof.
• Cool Roof Requirements in California: What Title 24 Asks of a Re-Roof: Why zone 8 pitched roofs on houses need a cool roof and zone 6 ones do not.
• Do You Need a Roofing Permit in California?: The state rules behind Long Beach's online and express reroof permits.

Roofing in Long Beach: common questions

Other cities we cover are listed on our service areas page.