Leaking Roof Valleys in Omaha
The dining-room stain on a Near South bungalow or a Millard split is usually the valley above it, or the joint where a 1970s add-on met the original eave. Caulk on that joint is how you buy the same leak next spring.
Updated
West Omaha and Elkhorn two-stories collect water in box valleys. East Lincoln porches dump onto a low slope that was never meant to be a roof. Ralston ranches hide a cricket behind a chimney that nobody has looked at since the last overlay. Those are three different repairs.
How we find it
We map the ceiling stain to the plane above it. Water runs. The wet spot in the hallway can be a valley eight feet over. If we cannot see it from the attic, we are on the roof with the flashing pulled, not guessing from the driveway.
What a real valley repair includes
- Open the metal — do not smear caulk on rusty W-valley.
- Ice-and-water in the valley, lapped the right direction.
- New metal cut to the actual pitch, not a leftover coil.
- The addition joint opened back to the original eave when that is the leak.
If every valley is cooked and the field is 20 years old, stop patching. That is when to replace. If it is one joint on a still-healthy roof, it is repair or a clean new plane on the addition.