Roof leak repairs, and the ceiling underneath

Roof leak repairs, not roof replacements

We want to be clear up front. CGS does roof repairs: replacing missing or damaged shingles, fixing flashing around chimneys, vents and skylights, and replacing soft sections of roof boards. We don’t tear off and replace whole roofs. If we look at your roof and it’s worn out everywhere, we’ll say so, and you’ll know it’s time to call a roofing company. Most leaks, though, come from one spot, and one spot can be fixed.

Why we look inside first

Water is sneaky. It gets in at a lifted shingle or a cracked vent boot, runs down the roof boards or along a rafter, and drips somewhere else entirely. So we start at the stain. In a colonial or high ranch, we go up in the attic and follow the wet wood back to where it’s coming in. In a cape, where the upstairs rooms sit right under the roof slope, there often isn’t an attic to look in, so we check the knee walls and the roof above very carefully.

The usual suspects

• Chimneys. The metal flashing where the chimney meets the roof loosens or rusts, and the caulk dries out.
• Plumbing vents. The rubber collar around the pipe cracks in the sun, and water runs straight down the pipe into a bathroom ceiling.
• Wind damage. A strong storm off the water can lift shingles and break their seal, even if nothing blows off.
• Dormers and valleys. Anywhere two parts of the roof meet collects water, and that’s where old repairs tend to fail.
• Ice at the edges. In a cold snap, ice can build up at the gutter line and push water back under the shingles.

Fixing the damage inside

Because we’re a carpentry and renovation crew, we don’t stop at the roof. We fix the ceiling too. Once the area is dry, we cut out any sheetrock that got soaked, check the insulation above it, patch the ceiling, prime over the stain with a stain-blocking primer so it doesn’t bleed through, and paint. You get one written price for both.

When a repair isn’t enough

Sometimes the leak we came to fix is a sign of a bigger problem. Shingles that crumble when you touch them, granules washing into the gutters, curled edges across the whole roof, or several leaks at once all point to a roof near the end of its life. In that case, patching one spot just moves the leak somewhere else. We’ll show you what we see, explain why a repair may not hold, and let you decide. If a full replacement is the right call, you’ll hear it from us, even though it isn’t work we do.

If it’s leaking now

Catch the water, move furniture and electronics out of the way, and keep people out from under a bulging ceiling. Then give us a call and tell us it’s urgent.