You Found a Roof Leak. Here Is What To Do First.

Protect the inside before the outside

Water that has reached your ceiling has already travelled through the deck and insulation. Your first job is containment, not diagnosis.

• Move furniture and electronics out of the area and put down a tarp or plastic sheeting.
• Place a bucket under the drip and, if the ceiling is bulging, pierce the low point with a small screwdriver to let the trapped water out in a controlled stream.
• Photograph everything — the ceiling, the walls, the floor, the contents. These photos matter later if a claim is involved.
• If water is near a light fixture or outlet, switch that circuit off at the panel.

Do not go on the roof

A wet roof is a fall risk, and in winter it is worse. Most leaks are not where the drip is — water runs along rafters and sheathing before it finds a place to fall — so walking the roof rarely tells a homeowner anything useful.

What a proper diagnosis looks like

The attic usually tells the story faster than the roof does. Staining on the underside of the deck, rusted nail shanks and damp insulation trace the water back to its entry point.

The usual culprits are penetrations rather than the field of the roof: pipe boots that have cracked with UV exposure, step flashing at a wall, chimney counter-flashing, skylight curbs and valleys. Ice damming at the eaves is a separate winter problem with a ventilation cause.

Temporary versus permanent

A tarp or a sealant is a stopgap that buys dry days, not a repair. Ask for the permanent fix to be scheduled and described in writing at the same time the temporary measure goes on.