For licensed roofing contractors
You roof.
We do the electrical.
Solar detach and reset across San Diego County — panels off before you start, back on and commissioned when you are done. Nobody crosses the line, and nobody waits on the other trade.
Why you need us at all
The licence splits this job at the roof surface
CSLB is explicit: re-roofing is C-39, reinstalling a rooftop PV system is C-10 or C-46. A roofing contractor cannot lawfully take the array off and put it back — and we hold no roofing classification, so we will never be on the other side of your line.
You flash. We set and re-set the attachment; your crew seals and flashes every penetration as part of the roof system you warrant. Sealing a roof penetration is work on the roof, and we hold C-10 only — it is also commercially incoherent for us to warrant a roof whose seals another trade owns.
How a job runs
Five steps, and the surprises happen on paper
- 1
You send the pre-job form
One page, per address. Takes a minute.
- 2
$400 site assessment
A licensed electrician goes up before anything is removed, runs a five-point check-in and sends you written findings. The report is yours to keep, so the fee is not credited and not refundable.
- 3
You get a priced work order
Panels, arrays, racking, pitch, dates. No surprises — the survey already found them.
- 4
We detach. You roof.
Panels come off and are racked and protected. The roof is yours until you call us back.
- 5
We reset, commission and check out
The same five points, side by side with check-in, delivered with the invoice.
The survey is the part that makes the rest boring. Racking type, array count, pitch and existing damage become facts at quoting time instead of discoveries on the roof with your crew standing around.
Included
- Full electrical detach and reconnect
- New footings, sealed at our own penetrations
- Commissioning and energising
- Documented check-in and check-out, with the numbers
- Panels racked and protected while the roof is open
Quoted separately
- Rails and clamps where existing hardware cannot be reused — only footings are in the per-panel rate
- Railless systems (SolarCity/Tesla, Sunrun, Vivint) need new footings, abandoned penetrations sealed, retrofit kits and new rails
- Reverse-tilt racking, steep roofs above 29°, third and later arrays
- Repair of equipment already faulty at check-in
What the check-in actually is
Per-string readings, insulation resistance where the equipment allows, production data, and photographs of anything already damaged — sent to you before work starts. It is what makes “that fault was already there” a document instead of an argument.
Optional cover
We do not take over anyone else’s warranty
Modules, inverters, optimisers and batteries stay with the manufacturer, and anything they or the original installer cover stays the system owner’s to manage. What we warrant is our own workmanship. If you want more than that, it is sold as a product, with a price.
$1,500
Extended workmanship warranty
Our own work only — footings, seals at our penetrations, terminations, racking we supplied. Runs the lesser of five years and your remaining manufacturer cover, and we say which before taking payment.
$2,400
Warranty service & monitoring
We diagnose, file and chase the manufacturer claim, and fit the part they supply. Monitoring included. Cover ends if the manufacturer ceases trading — we will not stand behind a dead company’s warranty. String-inverter systems are priced at the survey.
$500
Monitoring transfer only
Visibility and reporting. Not an alarm service and not a promise to spot a fault. Included in the tier above, so never buy both.
Before any of it
One master agreement, then a work order per job
We sign the master subcontract once. After that every job is authorised by its own written work order — address, panel count, arrays, pitch, racking found, dates and price. Re-signing a master per job is how terms drift between jobs.
What is in it
- Scope, and the flashing allocation at the roof interface
- Work orders, change orders, and site conditions that were not on the order
- Payment terms, retention, and standby if the roof is not ready
- Schedule, storage, and who carries the open roof between detach and reset
- Insurance, certificates exchanged before anyone sets foot on site
- Indemnity, drafted inside the limits California places on construction indemnity
- Licensing warranties both ways, and notice if either licence changes
- Safety, including stop-work authority over our own scope
What we need from you
- Your CSLB licence number and classifications
- Your certificate of insurance — and the endorsement, not just the certificate
- The contact who signs
- With each work order: the property owner’s name and address, and the construction lender if there is one, so we can serve the preliminary notice the law requires of a subcontractor
It runs both ways. You are putting a subcontractor on your customer’s roof under your name, so we send you our COI with the endorsement, our bond, our W-9 and our comp position — and we name your company as additional insured on ours.
Trade pricing is by agreement and is not published. Your rate schedule is issued with the countersigned agreement and is confidential to your company.
Have a re-roof with panels on it?
Onboarding takes a few minutes: your licence, your certificate, the person who signs. Once those are checked we send the master subcontract for signature and you can raise your first work order.
Nothing on this page is an offer or a contract. The signed master subcontract and its work orders are. Always Electrical & Maintenance is a licensed C-10 electrical contractor, CSLB #944166, and does not perform roofing or structural work.
A note on the name: this is sometimes called an operating agreement in conversation. The document is a master subcontract between two licensed contractors, with each job on its own work order.