Roofs we work on · Leak Diagnosis
The Leak Is Almost Never Above the Stain
Water gets in at one place and appears somewhere else entirely. Diagnosing that properly is the whole job, and it is the part most often skipped in favor of sealing whatever is nearest.
Tell us the age of the roof and whether anything is actually leaking. Those two answers decide what conversation we are having.
2005
A whole region re-roofed in eighteen months, and it is finishing together
No leak
Most people here are replacing a roof that works. We will say so
Our crews
We inspect, we photograph, and our own people do the work
Licensed
A licensed Florida general contractor
Sealing the nearest plausible thing
Water enters at a penetration or a flashing, travels along a rafter, a batten or the top of a ceiling, and drops through at the first place it can. The stain on the ceiling therefore tells you very little about where the entry point is. The common response is to seal whatever is nearest above the stain, which sometimes works by luck and usually just moves the appearance of the problem a few feet.
How we actually find it
- Establish where the water appears and under what conditions.
- Work upslope from the stain rather than straight up from it.
- Check every penetration and flashing on that plane.
- Look at the tie-ins between roof sections and at walls.
- Test with water where the visual inspection is inconclusive.
Why an empty house makes this worse
On a property that is only occupied part of the year, a leak has usually been running for a while before anybody sees the stain. What arrives with us is therefore not just an entry point but whatever the water has been doing to the deck and the insulation in the meantime.
That is why we look at the deck condition around any long-standing leak rather than only at the entry point. Fixing where the water gets in and leaving a soft deck beneath it is half a repair.
How we handle it
- 01Inspect and photograph rather than guessing from the ceiling.
- 02Identify the actual entry point before quoting a repair.
- 03Repair the cause rather than the nearest suspicious detail.
- 04Say when we have not found it, instead of sealing hopefully.
Occasionally we do not find it on the first visit, and when that happens we say so rather than sealing three plausible things and invoicing for confidence. A leak that only shows in wind-driven rain from one direction can take a second look under the right conditions, which is frustrating and is better than the alternative.
Said plainly
Where we stop
We will not seal a series of possibilities and call it a repair. Where the source is genuinely uncertain we will tell you what we have ruled out, what we suspect and what it would take to confirm it. That is a less satisfying answer than a confident one and it is more likely to be true.
FAQ
Common questions
- Can you find a leak without opening anything up?
- Frequently yes, from the roof side, by working upslope and examining penetrations and flashings. Sometimes water testing is needed, and occasionally something has to be opened up to be certain.
- Why does it only leak sometimes?
- Wind direction and rainfall intensity both matter. A detail that sheds normal rain perfectly well can let water past when it is driven at it from a particular direction, which is why these are the hardest ones to pin down.
- Is a repair worth it on an older roof?
- It depends on what the inspection finds. On a roof with genuine life left, yes. On one at the end of its service life, a repair can be money spent twice, and we would rather show you the photographs and let you decide.
Treasure Coast specifics
The 2005 Cohort
Frances and Jeanne put most of this coast under new roofs across 2005 and 2006. Those roofs did not age independently, and they are not going to finish independently either.
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A Roof That Does Not Leak
The usual trigger for a roof replacement on this coast is not water in the house. It is a letter about the age of the roof, which is a genuinely uncomfortable position to be put in.
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Where Roofs Fail
Uplift starts at perimeters and corners. Water gets in at penetrations and flashings. The large open field of the roof, which is what a quote is usually priced by, is the part least likely to be the problem.
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The Two Inspections
These are two different documents produced by different people for different reasons, and owners conflate them constantly. Knowing which one you have, and which one you need, saves a surprising amount of confusion.
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How We Work Here
We are based in Fort Lauderdale and work up the Treasure Coast in scheduled blocks. On a coast where a replacement wave draws companies in from everywhere, being clear about who we are matters more than usual.
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More roofs we work on
Shingle Roofs
Asphalt shingle is what most of this coast was re-roofed with after 2004, which means a very large number of shingle roofs here started their service lives inside the same eighteen months.
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Tile Roofs
On a tile roof the tile is a rain screen and the underlayment is the waterproofing. Tile outlives underlayment comfortably, so most tile roof work here is really underlayment work.
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Metal Roofs
Metal genuinely lasts on this coast when it is specified and detailed properly. What decides that is rarely the panel. It is the fastener system, the coating and what happens at every edge and penetration.
Read more →
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.