Roof Leak Repair in Wenonah, NJ

Working back up the track

Where there is a loft hatch we start underneath, following whatever the water has been running along, typically the underside of a rafter, now and then a run of cable. That reduces a whole slope to a patch worth examining. Only once the opening is confirmed does anything get a figure. A price produced before that point is a price for a guess.

Where they generally start

• Flashing joints

  More leaks trace back to chimneys and sidewalls than to the covering itself.

• Valleys

  Particularly where an earlier repair laid shingle across the metal instead of into it.

• Pipe collars

  Perished rubber with a split too fine to see from the ground.

• Ice at the eaves

  Melt refreezing at the cold edge and pushing water back under the lowest courses.

• Old fixings

  Left by an aerial or a previous patch, sealed once and perished since.

• Condensation

  A cold deck sweating, which looks the same from below and needs an entirely different fix.

What helps before we get there

Catch it in something, photograph it while it is running, and note the gap between the rain starting and the first drip. The delay itself tells us something: minutes point one way, a couple of hours quite another. Where plaster has begun to belly, piercing it at its lowest point with a bucket underneath is the tidier choice by a long way.

Knowing the fix held

A dried stain stays visible, so growth is the test rather than disappearance. Pencil the edge and watch it through two heavy spells. Any growth beyond that line brings us back to carry on looking, still at no charge.