Roof Inspection Services in Madison, WI

Most leaks we trace start at the flashing, not the shingles. Step flashing behind siding, the rubber boot around a vent stack, counterflashing on a chimney: these fail first and let water run along the deck before it ever shows on a ceiling. We find the entry point, pull back enough roofing to see the damage underneath, replace soft decking, and rebuild the flashing with new metal. Caulk alone is a stopgap, and we don't leave one behind.

With the median Madison home built in 1979, plenty of roofs here carry a second layer of shingles over the first. We check for that, then walk the whole roof: granule loss, cupped or cracked tabs, nail pops, lifted ridge caps, soft spots in the decking. In the attic we look for daylight at the boards, damp insulation and water staining along the eaves. You get photos and a plain list of what needs doing now and what can wait.

A full replacement means stripping to the deck, not layering over. We tear off every layer and replace rotted or delaminated sheathing with 7/16" OSB or matching plywood. The area sees about 36 inches of snow a year, so ice and water shield goes along every eave and valley, where meltwater backs up under shingles. Synthetic underlayment covers the rest. Drip edge, pipe boots and step flashing are all new. Old flashing rarely outlasts a second roof.

Good materials installed badly fail early. Architectural shingles go down with six nails each, driven in the nailing strip rather than above it, so wind can't lift the tab. Starter strip runs along every eave and rake. Ridge vents are sized against soffit intake, because an attic that can't breathe breaks shingles down from underneath. Low-slope sections (porches, flat additions, dormers) get an EPDM or modified bitumen membrane instead of shingles, since shingles need pitch to shed water.

We walk the roof, not just the yard below it. That means checking every pipe boot, the step flashing where roof meets wall, the valleys, and the shingle edges for granule loss and cracking. Then we go into the attic with a light to look for water stains, damp insulation and daylight around nails. A soft spot underfoot tells us more than any photo from the driveway, so we mark each one.

Everything we found goes on paper, item by item. The estimate names the shingle line and color, the underlayment, how many sheets of decking we expect to replace, and which flashing gets reused or replaced. If the roof only needs repairs, it says so, and we price the repair instead of a full replacement. You get something you can hold next to another contractor's bid and compare line for line.

Tear-off starts at the ridge and works down, with tarps over the landscaping and a dumpster parked close to the eaves. We strip to bare wood: shingles, old felt, rusted drip edge, and every nail we can pull. If a second layer of shingles turns up underneath, it comes off too. Laying new materials over old ones hides the deck, and the deck is the part we need to see next.

Bare sheathing shows what the shingles were hiding. We walk every course, marking delaminated plywood, OSB that has swelled at the edges, and boards that flex between rafters. Rotted sections get cut back to solid framing and replaced with 7/16" OSB or plywood to match the existing thickness. Loose sheathing gets renailed. If rot reaches a rafter, we stop and show you first, because that is structural work, not roofing.

Along the eaves and in every valley, we lay self-adhered ice and water shield, rolled tight to the deck so it seals around each nail. With about 36 inches of snow a year here, the eaves are where meltwater backs up under shingles, so that membrane runs at least two feet past the inside wall line. Synthetic underlayment covers the rest of the field, lapped and fastened, with new drip edge at eaves and rakes.

Shingles go on from a starter strip at the eaves, six nails each in the nailing strip, courses kept straight with chalk lines. We install new step flashing at walls and new counterflashing at chimneys rather than bending old metal back into place. Pipe boots get replaced, since the rubber collars crack well before the shingles wear out. Ridge vent goes on last, matched to the soffit intake so the attic can actually breathe.

Once the ridge is capped, we walk the whole roof again the same way we did on day one. We look for exposed nail heads, lifted tabs, gaps in the flashing and any shingle that has not sealed down. Then we check the attic for light at the ridge and air moving through the vents. We handle the permit, and anything that fails our own walk gets fixed before we pack up.

Nails are what homeowners find for months afterward, so we run a magnetic sweeper across the lawn, driveway, beds and walkways, then run it again. Tarps come up, and debris goes into the dumpster, not your trash cans. We clear shingle grit out of the gutters and downspouts and pick up by hand what the magnet missed. The last thing we do is walk the property with you.