Roof Repair in Charleston

Where roofs here let water in

Nearly every repair call ends at one of these:

• Pipe collars. The rubber gasket around a plumbing vent dries, cracks and lets water run down the pipe, usually long before the shingles around it are worn.
• Walls and chimneys. Where a slope runs into a wall, R905.2.8.3 asks for base flashing, step or continuous, no smaller than 4 by 4 inches. R903.2.2 puts a cricket behind any chimney or penetration wider than 30 inches across the slope. Gaps there send water into the wall cavity.
• Valleys. The busiest channel on the roof. Open metal valley lining must be 24 inches wide or more (R905.2.8.2), and a valley packed with leaves and pine straw stays wet for days.
• Edges, hips and ridges. Wind gets its first grip where the roof ends. A shingle that has come unsealed lifts, creases and eventually tears off.
• Rusted metal. Flashing has to be corrosion-resistant metal, at least 0.019 inch thick, about 26-gauge galvanized (R903.2.1). Salt air finds the cheap pieces first; FEMA's coastal guidance calls for stainless steel roofing nails within 3,000 feet of salt water. The metal roofing page goes further into metals near the water.
• Skylights and bath or kitchen vents. A framed opening stays dry only as long as its flashing and the shingles lapped around it do.

Wind-driven rain and the edges of the roof

A shingle roof sheds water by gravity, one course overlapping the next. A hard onshore wind pushes water the other way, up under the laps and through any gap at the rakes and the ridge. That is why repairs after a tropical storm cluster at the edges, even on roofs that never leak in an ordinary rain.

FEMA's fact sheet on asphalt shingles in high-wind regions describes what holds an edge: a starter strip with its adhesive set at the eave, shingles at the rakes bedded in dabs of asphalt roof cement before the last nail goes in, and hip and ridge caps set in cement as well. It also says to check, once the sun has had time to activate the sealant, that the tabs have actually sealed. A shingle that never bonded is the first one the next storm takes.

Under South Carolina's changes to the code, drip edge on shingles is a code item only when the manufacturer's instructions call for it. On a repair at the edge, we put one back where the edge metal is rusted, bent or missing.

First steps while it drips

1. Catch it and protect what is below. Buckets, towels, plastic over furniture and floors. Move electronics and papers first.
2. Watch the ceiling. A drywall ceiling that sags and holds water can come down. Keep people out from under it.
3. Take pictures before anything is cleaned up. Date-stamped photos of the stain, the drip and any wet belongings help with any claim you may file later.
4. Stay off the roof. A wet, steep roof in wind is no place for anyone without fall protection.
5. Ask for a tarp. Emergency tarping is a temporary cover to keep water out until a real repair can be done.

If a storm caused the leak and you expect to file a claim, the storm damage page explains how claims and the state's roofing contract rules work. The claim and the policy stay in your hands.

Emergency tarping, and the paperwork after

A tarp is a stopgap, fastened over the damaged area and past the ridge so water cannot run in behind it. It buys days or weeks, not seasons.

Emergency work still has rules. Charleston County lets repairs start first in an emergency, as long as the permit application is filed by the next business day. Sullivan's Island cautions that emergency repairs are not automatically exempt from its permits. In Mount Pleasant's Old Village, temporary roof work to prevent damage needs no Certificate of Appropriateness.

If insurance may end up paying for the roof, South Carolina's roofing contract law, S.C. Code 40-59-25, holds back payment until your five-business-day cancellation window has passed, with one exception: work you confirm in writing was an emergency, needed to keep damage from spreading, can be billed right away. Ask for that confirmation to describe the tarping and nothing more.

Tracing a leak back to where it starts

We start inside. In the attic, with a light, the trail is usually visible: a darker streak on the underside of the deck, a stained rafter, a rusty nail tip that drips in the morning. We follow it uphill to the highest wet point, because water only runs down.

Then we go up. Whatever sits above that point gets checked first: a pipe collar, a wall flashing, a valley, a nail pop, a cracked shingle. Most of the time the cause is plain once you are standing on it. When it is not, we wet the roof in sections with a hose, starting low and working up, while someone watches the attic. That way the first drip names the section.

A cathedral ceiling or a low-slope section with no attic above takes longer, because there is no deck to look at from below. On those, the repair may start with a section of roofing opened up.

Every step is photographed, and the photos come with the written scope. If the cause turns out to be a roof that is simply worn out, we say that rather than sell you a patch that will not hold.

Do repairs need a permit here?

It depends on the office, and on the size of the job:

• City of Charleston: the city's roofing permit covers a roof repair or a re-coating as well as a full re-roof, with a final inspection.
• Unincorporated Charleston County: the county's code lists roof repair as permitted work. A job of $1,000 or less carries no fee unless an inspection is needed.
• Mount Pleasant: a job worth $1,000 or less, labor and materials together, skips the permit unless it needs an inspection.
• Goose Creek: a permit for any roofing work, though re-roofs and repairs move through a shorter review.

The rule for your address gets confirmed before the work, and the permit is pulled when one applies. The other towns are under roofing by city.

Historic roofs: repair comes first

In the city's historic districts, the preference for repair is written down. The Board of Architectural Review's roofing policy, adopted in December 2014 for the Old and Historic and Old City districts, says historic roofs should be repaired rather than replaced wherever possible, and that a historic roof may not be replaced outright unless it is documented as beyond reasonable repair. When one does have to go, it is replaced in kind.

Sullivan's Island's design guidelines say much the same about historic slate, tile and standing-seam metal: fix what is there, and use matching material only where a piece is damaged. On houses like these, a careful repair with matching material is often the only path the board will approve, and it keeps a roof that may have lasted a century in service.

What matching means for metal, slate and tile is covered on metal roofing.

Patch or replace: where the line falls

A repair earns its cost when the damage is confined to one spot and everything around it has life left. The balance tips toward replacing when:

• the roof is near or past the 20-year service life HUD's inspection guide gives a first layer of asphalt shingles;
• leaks are coming from several places at once, or the same spot keeps coming back;
• shingles are lifting or missing on more than one slope, a sign the adhesive has failed across the roof;
• the deck gives underfoot in several spots;
• a new shingle cannot be matched closely enough to live with.

What a repair costs comes down to access and height, how much material has to be opened up and matched, the metal and flashing involved, and the permit fee where one applies. If the numbers point toward a new roof, the roof replacement page covers what that involves here.

Common questions about roof repair in Charleston

Where we work

Roof repair across greater Charleston, from the sea islands and beach towns to Summerville, Goose Creek and Moncks Corner. Each city has its own page with the permit rule and code edition that apply there: