Longleaf Roofing

Why roofs fail

Ask anyone who repairs roofs where they leak and the answer is the same: not in the middle, but wherever the roof meets something else.

A roof almost never fails in the middle. It fails where it meets something else. Six places a roof gives way. Five of them are transitions.
Garage Point 1 — ridge caps 1 Ridge caps — the first to work loose Point 2 — the field of the roof 2 The field — granule loss and age Point 3 — valleys 3 Valleys carry runoff from two slopes at once Point 4 — flashing 4 Flashing — chimney, and where the garage roof meets the wall Point 5 — vent boot 5 Vent boot Point 6 — eaves and ice dams 6 Eaves — ice dams push water back uphill

The six

What this region does to a roof

Five hot months a year that dry the covering from above — and from below, in any attic that cannot breathe. Humidity that streaks every shaded slope with algae and never lets the edges fully dry. Pines that mat the valleys and gutters with straw. And flashing that outlives its sealant at every chimney and vent. Most of what ends a roof here traces back to one of those.

Roofing across the Carolina Piedmont →