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Water travels before it drops
It runs the underside of the deck and follows a rafter to the first low point. That is why the stain and the hole are rarely in the same place.
Roof Repair
Roof Leak Repair in Dayton, OH
The most common call we get. We trace where the water actually enters, which is rarely directly above the stain on your ceiling.
4.9 from 38 reviewsFree estimates across the Miami ValleyServing all of the Miami Valley
Free leak trace
Tell us when the stain appears, heavy rain only, every shower, or cold weather with no rain.
The trace is free
We do not charge for the hour it takes to find where water is actually getting in.
Attic and roof both
Half the leaks we solve get found from underneath before anyone goes up a ladder.
Photographs of the cause
Not of the stain. You see the thing that was actually letting water through.
The Problem
Is the leak where the stain is?
Almost never. Water runs along the deck and drops at the first low point it finds.
Which is why a leak repair starts with tracing rather than patching. Water gets in at the flashing or a split pipe boot. It then runs along the underside of the roof boards, follows a rafter, and shows up several feet away. Sometimes in a different room. Four things cause most of them here. Flashing where the roof meets a chimney or a wall. Pipe boots gone brittle. Valleys, where two roof slopes meet. And shingles the wind lifted that then resealed badly.
- The entry point traced, not guessed at
- No price quoted until we have found the cause
- Most leaks fixed the same day we find them
Why Us
Find the entry point, not just the stain
A number given over the phone for a leak nobody has traced is a guess with a decimal point in it. The trace is free, and it is what makes the price real. Typical repair prices are published too, so you know the range before we arrive.
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Four usual suspects
Flashing, pipe boots, valleys, and wind-lifted shingles that resealed badly. Between them they account for most of what we find.
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Only in heavy rain?
That means a gap small enough that only wind-driven rain gets through it. Small does not mean harmless. It means the water arrives when the weather is at its worst.
What We Do
More Roof Repair Services in Dayton
Everything we cover under Dayton roofing services, from a single slipped shingle to a full tear-off. Not sure which one you need? Call and we'll tell you straight.
Flat Roof Repair
Low-slope roofs on extensions, garages and porches. Ponding, split seams and failed membrane.
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Shingle Repair
Missing or lifted shingles after a storm. We match what we can and tell you honestly when a patch will show.
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Roof Flashing Repair
Chimneys, valleys, and where the roof meets a wall. Flashing gives out long before the shingles around it do.
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Metal Roof Repair
Loose fasteners, split laps and brittle pipe boots. On most metal roofs we see, the panels are sound and the hardware has moved.
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Roof Vent Repair
Split pipe boots, ridge vents that do nothing, and attics never ventilated to modern code. Often the cheapest leak on the roof to put right.
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Soffit & Fascia Repair
The first wood to rot on most Dayton houses, and nearly always a gutter or ice-dam problem that has been running for two winters.
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The Difference
Why we will not quote a leak over the phone
Every leak looks the same from the inside. A brown ring on a ceiling. From the outside it could be a pipe boot worth a couple of hundred dollars or a chimney flashing rebuild with soft wood under it. A number given before anyone has looked is either padded to cover the worst case or low enough to need revising later.
So we come out, trace it, and price the actual fault. It costs us the callers who want a figure on the phone. It also means the price you agree to is the price you pay.
More of these come from the low ranch roofs in Kettering than anywhere else. Shallow ranch roofs move water slowly, so a small fault at a joint has time to find its way in.
How It Works
How we find a leak
Tracing first, patching second. Usually the one visit.
- 1
You tell us when it appears
Heavy rain only, every shower, or winter with no rain at all? That splits the possibilities before we arrive.
- 2
We start in the attic
Following stains up the rafters to where water actually enters. Quicker and drier than guessing from above.
- 3
Then the roof, at that point
Boots, flashing, valley or lifted shingles, opened up enough to confirm rather than assume.
- 4
Repaired and water-tested
Hosed at the entry point before we leave, so you are not waiting for the next storm to find out.
Reviews
What Dayton homeowners say
4.9 average from 38 reviews
“We had a leak over the back bedroom for almost two years and kept putting a bucket under it. The team found the problem in about ten minutes. It turned out to be the flashing around the chimney, not the shingles. They fixed it that same afternoon. I wish we had called sooner.”
“We had a full tear-off on our 1950s ranch. The crew arrived at 7 every morning and finished the job in three days. They even swept the entire driveway with a magnetic roller so our kids wouldn't pick up any nails. The final price was exactly what we were quoted.”
“After the hail last June, our insurance company questioned whether the damage was from the storm or simply the age of the roof. The team inspected everything, took detailed photos, and joined the call with our adjuster. The claim was approved. I don't think we would have managed it on our own.”
“Good work at a fair price. I gave four stars because our job had to be pushed back a week due to rain, and I had already taken the day off. They did call ahead and kept us informed instead of simply not showing up, which I appreciated.”
“A tree came down on our garage roof at around nine at night. Someone actually answered the phone, which I wasn't expecting. They had the roof tarped before midnight and came back the following week for the permanent repair. Great response when we needed help.”
“We had new seamless gutters and gutter guards installed around the whole house. They made the gutters right there on site, which I hadn't seen before. We've had two heavy storms since the installation and nothing has overflowed onto the patio. That was exactly the problem we wanted fixed.”
“I booked a roof inspection expecting to hear that we needed a full replacement because that's what the previous two companies told us. After inspecting it, they said our roof probably had about five years left and told us to call back when the time came. They didn't charge us for the inspection. That honesty is why they'll get the job when we eventually replace it.”
“This is the second time we've used them. They installed our gutters a couple of years ago, and we recently hired them again for a full roof replacement. We even had the same crew leader both times. The quote was clearly itemized, so we could see exactly what we were paying for, including the wood underneath repairs.”
More about Roof Leak Repair in Dayton
Finding where the water actually gets in
Water almost never enters directly above the stain. It runs along the underside of the roof boards, follows a rafter, and drops at the first low point it finds. That is often several feet away, and sometimes on the other side of the room. That is why a leak repair starts with tracing rather than patching.
Around here it comes down to four things. The metal seal where the roof meets a chimney or a wall. A cracked rubber collar around a vent pipe. The channels where two roof slopes run together. And shingles that lifted in a gust and never bonded back down. Ice damming causes a fifth kind every January, and that one is a ventilation problem rather than a roof problem.
What it costs to fix
Most leak repairs land between $438 and $2,796, averaging around $1,555. A split pipe boot is at the bottom of that. Rebuilding a chimney flashing detail, or opening up a section where the wood underneath has gone soft, is at the top. The stain on your ceiling is rarely right under the leak. So we quote once we have found the cause, not before. A price over the phone, for a leak nobody has looked at, is a guess.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my roof only leaking in heavy rain?
Usually because the entry point is a small gap that light rain does not push water through, wind-driven rain does. Flashing and valley leaks behave exactly this way. It is not a sign the problem is minor; it is a sign it will get worse.
Can a roof leak be fixed without replacing the roof?
Most of the time, yes. If the roof is otherwise sound and the leak is a flashing, boot or valley problem, it is a repair. Replacement becomes the honest answer when more than about a quarter of the roof is failing or the shingle line is discontinued and a patch would show.
Free Estimate
We find the leak before we price it
The trace costs nothing. A number over the phone for a leak nobody has looked at is a guess.
- Response
- Same day
- Quotes
- Always free
- Covering
- the Miami Valley