Reroofing under an existing solar array, coordinated with your solar contractor so the work happens once and in the right order. Licensed AZ ROC #341859.
The most expensive roofing mistake in Arizona is putting a 25 year array on a 10 year roof.
Arizona has some of the highest residential solar adoption in the country, and Tucson is full of homes with an array installed sometime in the 2010s sitting on a roof that was already middle aged when the panels went up.
Those two things age on different clocks. A modern panel array is warrantied for 25 to 30 years. A Tucson tile roof's underlayment fails at 15 to 25. Asphalt shingle in this sun is often done at 18. Which means a large number of Tucson homes are now in the position of needing roof work on a plane that is completely covered by equipment nobody wants to touch.
There is no way around it. The array has to come off, the roof gets done properly, and the array goes back. What you can control is doing it once, in the right order, with the two trades talking to each other.
The alternative some contractors offer is reroofing around the panels. Avoid it. You end up with original failing roof under the array and new roof everywhere else, on the one plane you will have to pay to access again.
This determines everything else. On an owned system you decide who touches it and when. On a lease or a power purchase agreement the equipment belongs to someone else, they control removal, they set the fee, and their scheduling queue is often measured in weeks. Find your agreement before you find a roofer.
Most solar workmanship and production warranties require a licensed solar contractor for disconnection and reconnection. If a roofing crew does the electrical work, coverage can lapse. Read the warranty or call the installer and ask the question directly, in writing if you can.
If the array is coming off anyway, this is the moment to do the whole roof rather than the plane under the panels. Mobilizing twice is the expensive path. A free inspection before you commit tells you whether you are looking at a repair, one plane, or a full replacement.
We inspect everything we can reach, assess the accessible planes, and give you a written scope with a clear statement of what we cannot see until the panels are off. Nobody should be quoting the covered plane with certainty at this stage, and a contractor who does is guessing.
We contact your installer or lease holder, agree a removal date, and book our crew to start immediately after. The goal is to avoid a stripped or exposed roof sitting while trades wait on each other, which is where weather risk enters.
Your solar contractor disconnects, removes the modules, and removes the racking. Panels are stored on site, typically in the garage or on pallets, and the roof penetrations from the mounting feet are now exposed and inspectable for the first time.
We do the actual roofing: strip, deck repair, new underlayment and flashings, and reinstallation of tile or new shingle or foam depending on the system. We photograph the deck under where the array sat, which is usually the section no one has laid eyes on since installation.
Old racking penetrations get new flashings, not reused ones. This is the detail that determines whether the reroof holds. The most common leak on a reroofed solar home is at a mounting foot that was reset on top of new material with old hardware.
Your solar contractor reinstalls the racking and modules, reconnects, and where required arranges utility or jurisdictional reinspection before the system is re-energized. Confirm production is back to expected output rather than assuming it.
Solar removal and reinstall is billed by your solar contractor. Roofing is ours. Both are shown so you can budget the whole project.
| Service | Typical Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Roof inspection and written scope | Free | Done before the array comes off, with clear notes on what cannot yet be assessed. |
| Panel removal and reinstall, per panel | $200 – $450 | Billed by your solar provider. Tile roofs and two story homes sit at the top of the range. |
| Typical 18 to 24 panel Tucson array | $2,500 – $6,000 | Full removal and reinstallation of a common residential system. |
| New mounting flashings | $25 – $70 each | Per penetration. We recommend new at every mount point rather than reusing. |
| Tile lift and relay under the array | $4.50 – $7.00 / sq ft | The most common Tucson roof work on a solar home. See our underlayment page. |
| Shingle replacement under the array | $4.75 – $8.00 / sq ft | Tear off, deck repair, new system, on the planes the array covered. |
| Combined project, roof plus panel handling | $12,000 – $26,000 | Common all in range for a Tucson single family home with an existing array. |
Ranges reflect the Tucson and Southern Arizona market and are for planning. Solar removal figures are what local solar contractors typically charge, not our billing. Doing roof and array in one coordinated project rather than two separate mobilizations generally saves between $500 and $2,000.
The roofer finishes on a Thursday and the solar crew cannot come until the following month. The roof is fine, but you are without production for weeks longer than necessary. Agreeing both schedules before either starts is the fix.
Leased systems have the longest lead times and the least flexibility. Homeowners routinely book a roofer, then discover the lease company needs six weeks and charges a fee nobody budgeted.
A reset mounting foot on a brand new roof is the leak we get called out to fix a year later. New penetration flashings at every mount are not an upsell, they are the reason the work lasts.
The plane under the array keeps its original failing material. When it eventually leaks, you pay for panel removal a second time to fix a section that should have been done the first time.
Yes, on any full replacement. A roofer cannot strip, redeck and reroof the plane a panel array sits on while the array is bolted to it. Some contractors will offer to reroof around the panels. What you get is old roof under the array, new roof around it, and a set of penetrations nobody inspected, on the exact plane you can no longer access without paying to remove panels later.
It depends on who holds the warranty. If your system is under a workmanship or production warranty, that warranty usually requires a licensed solar contractor to disconnect and reconnect it. Having a roofer do the electrical work can void it. We coordinate with your solar provider rather than touching the electrical side, and we sequence our work around their schedule.
Budget roughly $200 to $450 per panel for removal and reinstallation together. A typical Tucson residential array of 18 to 24 panels usually lands between $2,500 and $6,000. Detached arrays, tile roofs, two story homes, and systems needing new mounting hardware or utility reinspection sit at the higher end.
Substantially, and this is the single most important thing to sort out first. On a leased or power purchase agreement system you do not own the equipment and you generally cannot authorize anyone to touch it. The lease holder schedules removal, sets the fee, and often has a queue measured in weeks. Start that conversation before you schedule any roof work.
Sometimes. Racking feet and flashings that are in good condition can often be reset, but on a roof old enough to need replacing they are frequently corroded or were poorly flashed originally. We recommend new flashings at every penetration on the new roof regardless, because a reused flashing on a new membrane is the most common source of a leak on a reroofed solar home.
Reroof first. Panels last 25 to 30 years. If your roof has 5 or 8 years left, installing solar on it means paying for removal and reinstall within the decade, plus the cost of the roof work, plus the downtime. Doing the roof before the array is the cheapest sequence by a wide margin and every reputable solar installer will tell you the same.
Usually the length of the roofing job plus scheduling gaps on either side, commonly one to three weeks total. On a tile lift and relay the roof portion alone runs three to six days. You are on utility power during that window and you lose the production, which in Tucson is worth planning around seasonally.
Yes. We would rather coordinate schedules with them than have you relay messages between two trades. We handle the roof, they handle the array and the electrical, and we agree the sequence in advance so the roof deck is not sitting exposed waiting on a crew that is booked out.
Free inspection and a written scope before the array comes off, across Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley and all of Southern Arizona.
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