Leak locator
Find Where Your Roof Leak Actually Starts
Water runs along battens and rafters before it drops, so the mark on your ceiling is often metres from where it got in. Two questions will narrow down where to actually look.
Leak locator
The Stain Is Rarely Below the Hole
Water entering a roof runs along battens and rafters before it drops, so the mark on your ceiling is often metres from where it got in. Answer both questions and this will suggest where to actually look.
Two questions about the leak
Where it shows, and what weather brings it on.
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Why water travels before it drips
Under almost every roof there is a slope, and under the covering there are battens, rafters and often a membrane. Water that gets past a tile or a flashing does not fall straight down. It runs along the first horizontal surface it meets until something interrupts it: a nail, a joint, a light fitting, a sag in the ceiling board.
That is why chasing the stain often wastes a callout. A mark in the middle of a bedroom can easily come from a failed flashing at the chimney several metres up the slope. The two things that narrow it down reliably are the position of the mark relative to roof features, and the weather conditions that trigger it.
The weather part matters more than most people expect. A roof that leaks in light rain has an opening. A roof that only leaks in heavy or prolonged rain is usually being overwhelmed somewhere rather than holed. A roof that only leaks when the wind blows is letting water in sideways, past laps and flashings that work fine in vertical rain.
Questions
Common questions
The ceiling stain is in the middle of the room. Does that mean the hole is directly above it?
Usually not. Water runs along battens and rafters before it finds a place to drop, so the entry point is often further up the slope, frequently at the nearest roof feature such as a chimney, valley or vent. The stain marks where water left the roof structure, not where it entered it.
Why does my roof only leak when it is windy?
Because wind changes the direction water travels. Tiles, laps and flashings are designed to shed water running downward. Driven sideways or upward, water can get under laps and behind flashings that are perfectly sound in ordinary rain. A wind-only leak usually points at flashing, ridge or lap detail rather than a hole.
The ceiling keeps dripping hours after the rain stopped. Is that normal?
It usually means water is being held somewhere before it reaches you, most often in saturated insulation or ponding on top of a ceiling board. It can also mean a slow path from a distant entry point. Either way the volume already in the roof is significant and the ceiling board should be checked for sagging.
Should I go up on the roof to look myself?
Not in the wet, and not on tile or fibre-cement without knowing where to put your weight. Wet roofs are the most common cause of serious falls in this trade, and cracked tiles from careless footing often create a second leak. Photographs from ground level and from inside the roof space are far safer and usually more useful.
Can a leak be repaired while it is still raining?
A temporary measure sometimes can, but a proper repair generally cannot. Sealants and membranes need a dry, clean surface to bond, and diagnosing the real entry point is much harder on a wet roof. In a Worcester winter it is often a case of containing the water, then returning between fronts.
Need the leak traced and repaired?
Send the result, your area and photos on WhatsApp.