Roof Leak Repair in Deptford Township, NJ

How the trace works

From the inside out. Where there is loft access we start under the deck and work uphill along whatever the water has been running on, which is usually a rafter and occasionally a cable. That narrows the search on the outside to a patch rather than a slope. Only once the entry point is confirmed does anything get costed. A figure produced before that is an estimate for a guess.

Where it usually turns out to be

• A metalwork joint

  More leaks trace back to chimney and sidewall junctions than to the covering itself.

• The valley

  Especially where someone has previously laid shingle over the metal instead of into it.

• A pipe collar

  Perished rubber with a crack too fine to pick out from ground level.

• The cold eave

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

• An old fixing

  Left by a bracket or an earlier patch, sealed at the time and perished long since.

• Not a leak at all

  Condensation on a cold deck, which looks identical from below and needs a different fix entirely.

Holding it until we arrive

Catch it in something, take a photograph while it is running, and time the gap between the rain beginning and the first drip. A short gap and a long one mean different kinds of fault. If plaster is bulging, put a deliberate hole in it at the lowest point over a bucket. Letting it come down on its own makes a far bigger mess than letting it drain.

Knowing it worked

An old stain stays visible after the water stops, so the test is growth rather than disappearance. Mark the edge with a pencil and watch it through the next two heavy spells. If the mark spreads past the pencil we come back and carry on looking, at no further cost. Putting a number on a leak makes it ours until it is dry.