Roof guide
Five signs your roof is leaking
Most leaks give a warning before the ceiling stains. Here are the five we see most in Louisville.
1. Shingle grit in the gutters
Asphalt shingles shed their gravel coating as they wear. A little is normal. A gutter full of it, or bare shiny patches you can see from the yard, means the shingles have lost their armour and the next hard rain finds the seams.
2. Shingles in the yard or lifted tabs
After wind, walk the yard. A single tab on the grass is one open spot on the roof. Tabs that stand up at the edge instead of lying flat are already letting water under them.
3. A pipe boot with cracks
The rubber collar around each plumbing pipe on the roof dries out in the Kentucky sun. Cracks at the base are the single most common leak we fix. You can often see them from the ground with your phone zoomed in.
4. Rusty nail heads or dark streaks
Nails back out over time and their heads rust. Water follows the nail down. Dark streaks running down from a chimney or a wall usually mean the flashing there has opened up.
5. A faint stain, or a musty smell upstairs
The first stain is small and yellow, often in a corner or along a wall. A musty smell in a bedroom or closet under the roof means water is in the insulation already. Both mean call now, not next month.
What to do
Do not go on the roof. Take photos from the ground and from the attic if you can reach it. Then book a free roof check. We walk the whole roof, photograph what we find, and put any repair price in writing. If there is nothing wrong, the report says so and you keep it.
Book your free roof check
Tell us where the house is. We reply the same day.