How To Find A Water Leak In Your Roof

The other person goes inside the attic with a bucket and a strong light.

How to find a water leak in your roof.

Again practice safety first. Looking for roof leaks on the outside of your house. If you don t want to wait for rain to look for the leak try bringing the garden hose up on the roof. Have a helper stationed in the attic with a flashlight.

Find a friend to help with the roof leak test. Excess rainwater or snowmelt with no downspout to flow through will eventually seep through your roof and walls resulting in leaks. The structure of an asphalt shingle roof makes it even more difficult because. If you notice that eaves or downspouts are clogged remove the clogging material pine needles leaves etc and restore the flow of water.

Run the water over the place where you think the leak might be located. Water testing for roof leaks. The hardest part of fixing a roof leak. 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.

Sometimes the water shows up at a ceiling spot distant from the leak. Roof leaks can be cause by missing shingles gaps in the metal flashing around chimneys and vent pipes or small holes in the roofing. Learning how to find a roof leak is easy but accomplishing the task can be frustrating. Some roof leaks are tough to locate.

A lot of times it s simply locating the problem. Be sure to start small. Roof leaks follow the path of least resistance which makes them difficult to find when you don t know where to look. Here s how it works.

If you can t find the cause of a leak from the attic or by visual inspection on the roof surface wait for dry weather and ask a friend to help you do a water test. The source of a leak often isn t obvious on the roof itself and it can be hard to pinpoint since the water may run down the roof decking and rafters before dripping onto the ceiling below. Projections or penetrations such as vents dormers and chimneys are frequent places for leaks. Don t go crazy with the water.

To do this one person goes onto the roof with a garden hose. Sure it s easy enough to spot water stains on the ceiling or mold growth sure signs of a leak. Water frequently enters the house near things that go through the roof. How to water test your roof for leaks.