Sonoma County Church Re-roof Project Secures Wedge Roofing ARMA Silver Award
Wedge Roofing has received the Silver Award in the 2026 ARMA (Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association) Excellence in Asphalt Roofing Awards Program for “California Mid-Century Gothic,” our restoration of the Community Church of Sebastopol in Sebastopol, California.
ARMA’s judges reviewed 82 submissions from across North America and scored each project in four categories: Why Asphalt, Project Challenges, Distinction, and Beauty. Our entry earned Silver for the combination of craft, difficulty, and execution on one of the most demanding steep-slope roofs in Northern California. We are proud to add this national award to our many 3rd-party recognitions of our workmanship across the SF Bay Area.
A roof defined by geometry
A building of profound importance to its faithful, as also to anyone passing along Highway 116, it was paramount to maintain the striking appearance. The church’s roof is a hyperbolic paraboloid, a saddle shape that twists as it rises. The pitch starts around 6/12 and keeps steepening until parts of the roof are truly vertical. The church’s silhouette is the roof. A project of this kind of complexity and care leveraged Wedge Roofing’s extensive experience repairing and re-roofing many other historical sites and historical buildings.
On a roof like this, there are no long straight reference lines. Every course has to hold its exposure while the curve tightens, and every transition has to manage water that doesn’t behave the way it does on a typical roof plane.
Rebuilding the ridge and bringing the skylights back
The root cause of the project was a long-term ridge cap failure. Over years, water worked through the old fiberglass and glass ridge assembly and into the structure, leading to dry rot that followed the leak path down the roof.
Removing the failing cap, rebuilding the ridge framing, we then installed a new Douglas-fir tongue-and-groove ridge deck designed to accept curb-mounted skylights. The new layout alternates operable solar units and fixed units, restoring controlled daylight at the ridge and ventilation while correcting the historic leak point.
Below the steep-slope work, the existing low-slope membrane was restored with a high-solids silicone coating so the full roof system could tie together cleanly across very different planes.
Steep-slope craft, modern safety discipline
Installing asphalt shingles on a surface that trends toward vertical is a different kind of work. Wedge Roofing was able to leverage its experience with complex angles and asphalt shingles, as accomplished in their 2019 Silver Award-winning ARMA project on a Geodesic Dome re-roof in Sonoma, CA.
For this project, the shingles also wouldn’t just “sit” in place the way they do on a typical steep-slope roof. They have to be placed, held, and fastened while our installers maintained alignment across a changing curve.
Our crews worked from closely spaced toe-jacks and planking with anchored lifelines and full fall protection. We used a six-nail high-wind fastening pattern where exposure and angle demanded it, with hand-sealing on the most exposed runs. The work felt closer to the old steep-slope lineage you see on Europe’s historic cathedrals than a modern production roof: careful, incremental progress with no tolerance for drift.
“The curve never repeats, and the pitch keeps climbing,” said Gary Harvey, President of Wedge Roofing. “You keep every course true, you fasten it the right way, and you do it safely. That’s the whole job.”
Recognized nationally, built locally
The project was completed in two mobilizations over about three weeks, scheduled around the building’s calendar and the pace of the structural repairs uncovered during tear-off.
Wedge Roofing’s president attended the International Roofing Expo (Jan 20–22 in Las Vegas) and accepted the Silver Award and prize in person, thanking the crew, staff, and the broader Wedge team for the work behind the recognition.
This national recognition now sits alongside other awards received for projects in Marin County, Sonoma County, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Wedge Roofing is celebrating 50 years of continuous operation since 1976 in Marin and Sonoma County.
Project Facts
- Project: Community Church of Sebastopol (Sebastopol, CA), visible from Highway 116
- Project name: California Mid-Century Gothic
- Award: 2026 ARMA Excellence in Asphalt Roofing Awards, Silver (judged on Why Asphalt, Project Challenges, Distinction, Beauty)
- Roof form: hyperbolic paraboloid (saddle shape); slopes from about 6/12 to true vertical
- Steep-slope area: about 6,000 sq ft of asphalt shingles (Owens Corning TruDefinition® Duration® Shingles in Brownwood)
- Underlayment: Owens Corning RhinoRoof® U20 synthetic underlayment
- Ridge daylighting: Velux curb-mounted skylights (operable solar units with integrated shade, plus fixed units)
- Low-slope restoration: about 2,800 sq ft of existing TPO restored with 60-mil high-solids silicone coating (Everest Systems, Silkoxy HS)
- Upper high-angle areas: about 600 sq ft of two-ply modified bitumen (CertainTeed Flintlastic)
- Timeline: two mobilizations over about three weeks (coordinated with GC dry-rot repairs)
Learn more
If you’d like to see related work, you can explore our shingle roofing services, skylights and drainage work, and the broader portfolio of completed projects across the North Bay.
