A leak traced to its real cause, and fixed without selling a roof you don't need

Chapter 01

The leak is rarely where the ceiling stain is

Water almost never travels straight down from where it enters the roof to where it shows up on a ceiling. It follows the underside of the decking, sometimes for feet, before it drips somewhere a homeowner actually notices. That's why chasing the stain instead of the roof usually misses the real problem.

The most common culprits Tim finds on a Rhode Island roof are a cracked or split vent boot around a plumbing stack, a handful of shingles lifted or blown loose by wind, and flashing at a chimney or valley that's pulled away or was never sealed right to begin with. Freeze-thaw cycling makes small gaps worse every winter, so a pinhole crack in a boot in October can be a real leak by February.

Storm damage is its own category: nor'easters and heavy wind can lift a whole section of shingles or drive water sideways under a ridge, and that needs to be looked at fast, not left until the next dry spell.