How To Tell If Your Roof Has A Leak

There are a few ways that shingles might start to look noticeably damaged.

How to tell if your roof has a leak. They never occur at a time which is convenient and they can lead to significant damage to the interior of your home. If your ceiling has a plastic vapor barrier between the drywall and the attic insulation push the insulation aside and look for flow stains on the plastic often water runs to openings in the vapor barrier such as at ceiling light fixtures. There s a water stain. You know the roof is bad if shingles are missing or obviously damaged or when water stains the ceiling or walls.

These signs will tell you that you may have a leak in your roof. Finding the actual spot where the roof leaks is difficult because water can enter the roof in one place and run down to another before it starts soaking into the ceiling. Gutter leaks usually start at rusty spots or seams that have opened up because of expansion and contraction. Some roof leaks are tough to locate.

Their effects can linger long after the repair has been made in the form of mold growth on the interior surfaces of your home. Both danger and the probability of structural erosion increase if unaddressed. If you glance at your roof you should see the shingles flat and uniform in color. Roof leaks present multiple challenges for homeowners.

Understanding this may help you determine whether or not to cover the repair out of pocket or file a homeowners insurance claim for the leaking roof. The underside of your roof may be obscured by insulation and that s actually helpful for finding the roof leak. Some leaks are large others are small and all of them can wreak havoc on your walls foundation and the exterior of your building. Insulation deteriorates more noticeably and more quickly than wood does.

If your gutter is still basically sound the easiest way to stop the leak is by covering the damaged area with roof and gutter repair tape available at home centers and hardware stores. Roof leaks are typically just signs of a much larger problem. Just remember that a small leak will not go away it will only get worse. Sometimes the water shows up at a ceiling spot distant from the leak.

If your roof is fewer than 15 years old it can probably be spot repaired instead of requiring a total replacement. However it may not look like that. Fortunately there are a few ways to figure out if your roof has a leak before the water causes thousands of dollars of damage to the ceiling and carpet. The goal is to find the leak before the entire roof goes bad.