Emergency Roof Leak Repair in Madison, WI

The median Madison home was built in 1979, so most roofs here are on their second or third covering. That matters. Layers of old shingles hide decking that has gone soft, and every nail hole from a past installation is a place water can find. We see valleys worn down to the underlayment, ridge vents that were never cut deep enough, and step flashing reused from the original build because pulling the siding back was inconvenient. On a roof of that age, damage is rarely confined to one spot. It has usually been moving through the structure for a while before a ceiling stain shows up.

Flashing fails before shingles do. Chimney counterflashing pulls loose from the mortar, sidewall step flashing corrodes, and a plumbing boot splits around the collar after long exposure. Low-slope additions are another common source of trouble: a flat section tied into a pitched roof needs a real transition, and shingles lapped onto near-level decking hold water instead of shedding it. Attic moisture is worth checking as well, since weak ventilation rots sheathing quietly from underneath while the surface still looks sound. Replacement work is permitted through the City of Madison, and we handle that filing as part of the job.

Asphalt shingle covers most of the residential replacement work we do, and architectural laminate is what we install by default. It lays flatter, sheds cleaner at the valleys, and holds up under wind far better than the old three-tab. Standing seam metal suits a roof you plan to keep for decades, and it earns its place over additions and porches where a shingle system struggles at low pitch. Commercial and flat roofs run to single-ply membrane, TPO or EPDM, with the seams welded or bonded to suit the system. Flat roofs rarely fail out in the open field. They fail at the perimeter and the penetrations.

Half the decision gets made underneath the material. The median home here was built in 1979, so we open plenty of roofs onto decking, flashing and ventilation detailed to another era's standards, and none of that goes back under a new system untouched. Step flashing at the walls gets replaced, not reused. Chimney counterflashing gets cut in properly. Pitch, deck condition and the way a roof meets its walls decide the material more often than preference does, which is why a low-slope addition in Middleton and a steep main roof in town get specified differently. Long-term performance is a detail problem, not a brochure problem.

Most of our work is residential: replacement and repair on houses built around 1979, the median here, where the original roof has been covered over at least once. We have torn asphalt shingles down to the deck, replaced sheathing that moisture had softened, and rebuilt flashing at chimneys and sidewalls where someone had used caulk in place of metal. Some jobs are a single valley. Others run several days, because the leak was only the visible end of a longer problem. Drip edge and gutter apron get replaced along the way.

Commercial projects here tend toward flat and low-slope systems on storefronts, offices and small industrial buildings, where standing water and open seams do the damage. We patch, we recoat, and when the insulation below is saturated we pull the system off and rebuild from the deck up. Metal shows up on additions and outbuildings, usually needing fastener and panel repairs rather than full replacement. Part of the work sits outside the city, in Middleton and the surrounding area. We photograph the tear-offs and the finished decks.