It Always Starts Small
Six months ago, I got a call from a nice gentleman named Robert. He noticed a faint brown circle, maybe the size of a coffee cup, on the ceiling of his spare bedroom. He asked for an estimate. I sent my lead foreman, who found a cracked rubber pipe boot directly above the stain. The quote was $300 to replace the boot and reseal the surrounding shingles.
Robert decided it "wasn't that bad" and he would wait until spring.
The Snowball Effect
Last week, I got another call from Robert. This time, his tone was completely different. That coffee-cup-sized stain had turned into a massive, sagging bubble. When the drywall finally gave way, a slurry of wet, black mold-infested insulation crashed onto his guest bed.
I rushed out there. Because the leak was allowed to slowly seep into the attic over the past six months, the OSB decking on his roof had completely rotted out. The moisture had created a greenhouse effect in his attic, leading to widespread black mold on the rafters. What was originally a simple outer seal failure had compromised the structural integrity of a 150-square-foot section of his home.
The Final Bill
Remember that $300 quote? Here is what Robert ultimately had to pay for:
- Emergency tarping and water mitigation.
- A biohazard team to remove the black mold from the attic ($3,500).
- Replacing three rotted roof trusses and 5 sheets of decking ($2,200).
- Interior drywall replacement, insulation, and painting ($1,800).
- And finally, repairing the actual roof section itself ($4,500).
Total Cost: $12,000.
My Plea to You
As a seasoned roofer, Iām begging you: when water gives you a warning sign, listen to it. The initial cost to fix an exterior seal is negligible compared to the thousands of dollars in hidden rot, mold, and drywall damage that quickly follows. A roof leak does not heal itself. It only gets more expensive.