Roof Leak RepairBased in Rockwall, TX

The Difference

The parts you do not see.

In this part of Texas, a handful of places account for most leaks. Rubber pipe boots crack and split after years in the sun, and water runs straight down the pipe. Step flashing along a wall or counter flashing on a chimney pulls loose or was never installed properly. Valleys, where two slopes meet and a lot of water runs together, wear through or were cut short. Exhaust vents and skylights lose their seals. And wind-lifted shingles near ridges and edges let rain blow underneath in a storm that comes in sideways.

Flashing is the one that most often defeats earlier repairs. A leak at a wall or chimney gets a bead of caulk along the top edge, it stops for a season, the caulk shrinks and cracks in the heat, and the leak is back. The fix that lasts removes the shingles along the flashing, re-sets or replaces the flashing so it laps correctly, and reinstalls the shingles over it.

Some leaks only show in a particular storm, when wind drives rain from one direction. If yours only appears in certain weather, note which way the storm came from and how hard it rained. That detail narrows the search more than almost anything else.

Once the source is fixed, it is worth dealing with what the water left behind. Wet insulation should be dried or replaced, soft decking at the entry point gets replaced, and a stained ceiling should only be painted once the leak has been through a rain without returning.

A leak repair usually costs far less than the damage a slow leak does inside a house, and most are priced in the hundreds rather than the thousands. The free inspection covers finding it, and the price for fixing it comes before any work starts.