If water is coming in right now, call. Fitchburg is our closest market at seven miles — nearer to our shop than much of Madison is. That matters most in the hour after something goes wrong, and it is the reason we can usually be on a Fitchburg roof the same afternoon rather than the next morning.
What kind of roof you have changes what has gone wrong and how it gets stabilised.
Ponding, not holes
A membrane roof rarely fails from a hole. It fails because water ponds at a low spot and works through a seam or a fastener. That means the entry point is often nowhere near the drip, and a tarp is not always the right stabilisation — sometimes a seam patch is.
The familiar failures
Missing shingles, lifted courses, failed pipe boots and flashing that has pulled loose at a chimney. Same as anywhere, and tarping works the way you would expect.
Where they meet
A leak at the line between your low-slope addition and the steep roof above it is the most common Fitchburg emergency call. It usually appears on the addition ceiling, which sends people looking at the wrong roof.
1970s shallow pitch
Shallow roofs hold snow longer, which gives it more time to melt and refreeze at the eave. Steam removal, never chipping — chipping damages the shingles you are trying to protect.
Seven miles out. Steep systems tarped, low-slope systems patched or sealed depending on the failure.
Seam and fastener failures on EPDM and TPO. A tarp on a flat roof is often the wrong answer.
On a mixed-system house the entry point is frequently on a different roof from the drip. We trace it.
The most common Fitchburg emergency. Often a repair rather than a replacement.
Steam, never chipping.
Photographed before anything is covered, because the adjuster cannot assess what is under a tarp.
If the damage came from a storm event, emergency mitigation is frequently covered by your policy. Keep the receipt and photograph everything before anything gets covered.
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Not necessarily, and this catches people out. On a mixed-system house the water frequently enters at the tie-in where the steep roof meets the low-slope one, then runs down and shows up on the addition ceiling. Repairing the sunroom roof when the leak is at the tie-in is how people pay twice.
You can, and often you should not. A tarp on a low-slope roof traps water rather than shedding it, and the fastenings needed to hold it down create new penetrations. If the failure is a seam or a fastener, a proper patch is faster, cheaper and more effective than a tarp. We will tell you which applies when we see it.
Faster than anywhere else we work. Seven miles from our shop on S. Stoughton Road, which is closer than much of Madison. Same-day and usually within a couple of hours. After a major storm the queue is longer because everyone calls at once, and we will give you a real time.
Put a bucket underneath and puncture it in the centre with a screwdriver to drain it in a controlled way. A ceiling that collapses on its own does far more damage than a small hole you made on purpose.
No. Wet roofs are how people get seriously hurt, and on a low-slope roof an improperly placed tarp makes the ponding worse. Contain the water inside and let us handle the roof.
A tarp is not — it buys weeks, not months. A properly executed membrane seam repair frequently is, and we will tell you honestly which one you have got rather than booking a replacement you may not need.
Get your free, no-obligation inspection today.
