Roofing Services
Roof Repair in Davenport and the Quad Cities
At a Glance
- Most leaks are flashing, not shingles
- Water travels, so the stain is rarely under the hole
- You get photos of the cause, before and after
- We will tell you when a repair is a waste of your money
People call about a repair when they see a stain. By then water has already been in the house for a while, because it takes time to soak through insulation and drywall. The job is to find where it entered, which is almost never directly above where it showed up.
Where Leaks Actually Start
After enough roofs you stop guessing. The order below is roughly how often each one turns out to be the cause on a house in this area.
- Step flashing where a roof meets a wall, usually beside a dormer
- Chimney flashing and the counter flashing cut into the brick
- Pipe boots, where the rubber collar around a vent pipe has split
- Valleys, where two roof planes dump water into one channel
- Nail pops, where a fastener has backed out and lifted a shingle
- Ice dam damage at the eaves, showing up months after winter
- Actual missing or broken shingles, which is the rarest of these
A pipe boot is a ten dollar part that fails around year twelve and floods a ceiling. Roofers see it constantly. Homeowners almost never do, because it sits flat and looks fine from the ground.
Water Travels Before It Drips
Water that gets past the shingles runs down the underside of the deck, along a rafter, across a ceiling joist and drops wherever it finds a seam. A stain in the middle of the living room can come from a leak twelve feet away and six feet higher.
This is why we do not patch where the stain is. We go into the attic when we can, follow the track back uphill, and find the entry point. A repair aimed at the stain is a repair that fails in the next hard rain.
What We Hand You Afterward
Every repair comes back with photos. One of the cause, close enough to see the failure. One of the repair finished. If we found something else while we were up there, that gets a photo too, with a note about whether it needs doing now or can wait a season.
When We Tell You Not to Repair It
A repair on a roof with five good years left is money well spent. The same repair on a twenty five year old roof buys a season and makes the eventual tear off no cheaper.
We will say so. A patch that holds until the roof is replaced anyway is sometimes exactly right, and we will do that too, as long as you know that is what you are buying. The honest version of this decision lives in Repair or Replace.
Questions About Roof Repair
How much does a roof repair cost?
Small flashing and pipe boot repairs are the common ones and they are the least expensive work we do. Anything larger gets a written price before we start. We do not begin work and hand you a number afterward.
Can you repair a leak in the rain?
We can stop it in the rain with a tarp. A lasting repair needs a dry surface, so the real fix is usually the next dry day. See our roof tarping page.
My ceiling is stained but nothing is dripping now. Do I still have a leak?
Probably, yes. A dry stain means water came in and stopped, not that the entry point closed. Stains almost always come back, and each round does more damage to the insulation above them.
Will a repair void my roof warranty?
A workmanship warranty from another company can be void if somebody else works on the roof. Manufacturer material warranties usually survive a repair done correctly. Check who warranties what before you call anybody.
Get It Looked At First
No sales call. A roofer looks at the roof and tells you what it needs.