Metal roofing
Metal Roof Leak Repair
Water almost never comes in where it shows up. We trace it back to the entry point and fix that, rather than sealing the spot underneath the stain.
A leak on a metal roof gets in at a fastener, a seam, a flashing or a penetration, then travels. It runs along the underside of a panel, across a purlin or down a rafter, and it drips wherever the path happens to stop. By the time it reaches your ceiling it can be a long way from where it started and usually further uphill.
This is why a repair that did not hold is almost always a repair aimed at the wrong place. Sealing the ceiling side of the problem does nothing at all. Sealing the roof directly above the stain works about as often as guessing.
The tracing is the job. Once you know where the water is actually entering, the fix itself is generally straightforward and generally small. In Bellingham the usual suspects are predictable: valleys packed with fir needles until water backs up under a panel edge, moss working in under the edges on a north slope that never dries, hardened fastener washers on an older exposed fastener roof, and chimney or sidewall flashings that were never right to begin with.
The problem
What this solves
An active leak you cannot locate
The stain is in the hallway and the entry point is fifteen feet away at a vent. Finding it is the work. What happens afterwards is usually simple.
A leak that has already been repaired once
Somebody sealed something and the water came back. That normally means the previous attempt was aimed at the exit rather than the entry, and we start again from the beginning rather than adding to it.
Water that only appears in bad weather
A roof that is dry in a drizzle and wet in a storm is telling you something specific. Wind driven water gets pushed uphill under laps and edges that handle vertical rain perfectly well. That narrows the search rather than complicating it.
The first visit
What the first visit covers
We start inside.
Where the water shows, what is above it, and which way the framing runs. That tells us where on the roof to be looking.
We go into the attic where there is access.
Daylight, staining, rust tracks on fasteners, wet insulation. The underside of a metal roof records where water has run and that record is usually readable.
We work the roof uphill from the evidence.
Checking details in the order they fail rather than sweeping the whole roof at random.
You get the repair priced in writing.
The specific entry point, what is being done about it, and what we are deliberately leaving alone.
The work
How a leak call runs
Call and description.
Where the water is showing, how long it has been happening, and whether it is running right now. An active leak gets treated as urgent.
Interior and attic inspection.
We start where the evidence is rather than on the roof.
Roof diagnosis.
Working uphill from the evidence through fasteners, seams, laps, valleys, penetrations and flashings.
We show you the entry point.
Photographs of the actual failure, because you cannot get up there and you should not have to take it on trust.
Written scope and repair.
The specific fix, then the fix itself.
Testing and cleanup.
Water tested where that is practical, then the site cleaned and the drive magneted.
Straight answers
Why us for a leak
We find it before we quote it
A price given from the driveway is a guess, and a guess on a leak is how you end up paying twice. The diagnosis comes first.
We know the local failure order
Needle load in valleys under the fir canopy. Moss under panel edges on north slopes. Corrosion at fasteners on the houses nearest the water. Edges lifted in a winter wind event. Checking the likely things first is not a shortcut, it is what experience in one place buys you.
What is genuinely wrong with leak repair as a service
Sometimes it does not hold, and anyone who promises otherwise is overselling. Water can enter at more than one point at once, and fixing the worst one reveals the second. On an old exposed fastener roof a leak is often the first symptom of a roof wide fastener problem, so the repair buys time rather than solving it. And if the deck has been wet long enough to soften, the repair turns into carpentry. We would rather set that expectation at the estimate than surprise you with it.
We tell you when it is bigger than a leak
If what you actually have is a roof at the end of its life presenting as one leak, you will hear that, with the reasons and the photographs. Selling six repairs on a roof that needs replacing is a way to make money and we are not interested in it.
Get the leak traced
Tell us where the water is showing and whether it is active. If it is running now, say so when you call.
Reviews
What customers say
Nothing yet, and we are not going to write our own.
There are no reviews on this page because there are no reviews yet
This is a new business. It has no review history, no star rating and no customer photographs, and every one of those would be trivial to fabricate and worth nothing to you.
The judgement you can actually make today is about how this company talks about its own product. There is a page on this site about what is wrong with metal roofs and who should not buy one, written by the company that only sells metal roofs. Read that instead of a testimonial, then decide.
What each review will carry when they exist
- Customer name and town
- Job type and date
- What we got right
- Star rating
Questions
Metal roof leak questions
Where do most metal roofs leak?
At the details, essentially never in the middle of a panel. Fasteners with hardened washers on an exposed fastener roof. End laps where two panels overlap. Valleys, particularly when they are holding needles and debris. Chimney and sidewall flashings. Penetrations added after the roof went on, which is a category of its own because they are frequently sealed rather than flashed. If you learn one thing about metal roofs, it is that the flat parts are fine and the interruptions are the problem.
Do metal roofs leak more than shingles?
No, and a well installed metal roof generally leaks less, for the straightforward reason that there are far fewer overlapping pieces to fail. Where metal gets its reputation is that a badly detailed metal roof leaks in ways that are harder to ignore, and that exposed fastener systems have thousands of gasketed holes with a finite life. The covering type is a smaller factor than the quality of the installation.
Why should you call a roofer before your insurance company?
Because you want to know what actually happened before you describe it to anyone. A roofer can tell you whether the damage is storm related or wear related, and those are treated completely differently by a carrier. Knowing which one you have, with photographs, puts you in a better position. That said, we do not file claims, we do not negotiate with adjusters, and anyone offering to handle your claim for you is worth a careful second look.
How to fix roof flashing around a chimney?
Properly, it is replaced rather than sealed. A chimney needs a base flashing at the front, step flashing up the sides worked in with the roof covering, counter flashing let into or surface mounted onto the masonry, and a saddle or cricket on the uphill side if the chimney is wide enough to dam water and debris behind it. Sealant across the joint is a repair to a flashing, not a flashing. On a metal roof the step and counter detail also has to allow the panel to move, which is where a lot of retrofitted chimney flashings fail.
What is the proper flashing for a chimney?
Metal, in two parts, with the counter flashing overlapping the base and step flashing so water is always directed onto the surface below it rather than into a joint. The material should be compatible with the roof panel, because dissimilar metals in contact in a wet climate corrode faster than either would alone. What it should not be is a single piece of trim caulked to the brick, which is the most common thing we find when we go looking for a leak at a chimney.
Coverage
Where we trace leaks
Bellingham, and the towns within about half an hour: Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine and Birch Bay. We also get out to Everson, Nooksack, Sumas, Deming and Point Roberts.
Report a leak
That is with us
We will get back to you within a working day. If water is coming in right now, call (360) 555-0142 rather than waiting on this.