Roof leak repair in Leesburg fixed at the source

Roofs built in the same era by the same handful of builders fail in the same places. Knowing the year your house was built narrows the search before we set up a ladder.

1947 to the 1970s: Silver Lake, Palmora Park, the downtown grid, the ranches off CR 44

Low pitches, plank or early plywood decking, Florida-room and carport additions tied in at a shallow angle, and usually a second layer of roofing. Leaks come from step flashing that has been caulked instead of replaced, closed valleys that hold water, the seam where an addition meets the main roof, and rotted decking at the eaves where gutters overflowed for decades. Chimneys on these homes often have no cricket on the uphill side.

1980 to 1992: Scottish Highlands, Pennbrooke Fairways, the first Plantation phases

First-generation 3-tab shingles that are now 30 to 45 years old if never replaced, neoprene pipe boots from the original build, drip edge that was never installed, and sheathing nailed to a pre-2002 schedule. Leaks: boots, nail pops lifting tabs, wind-broken seals on the sun-facing slopes, and gable-end rake edges where the first course has curled.

1990 to 1999: Highland Lakes, mid-Plantation, early Legacy streets

Early architectural shingles, metal ridge vents now rusting at the fasteners, and the first generation of off-ridge vents. Leaks: ridge vent end caps and nails, goose-neck vent seams, skylight curbs on the lanai side, and valleys where granule loss has thinned the shingles to the mat.

1999 to 2008: Royal Highlands, Legacy of Leesburg, late Plantation, first Arlington Ridge sections

Good roofs that are now 18 to 27 years old. Everything rubber or sealant-based is at end of life: pipe boots, skylight gaskets, sealant at satellite dish and solar mounts, and the mastic under exposed ridge nails. The shingles are usually fine; the accessories are not.

Manufactured homes: Hawthorne, Mid Florida Lakes, Lake Griffin Harbor, Lakeside Village, Coachwood Colony, Spanish Village

Seams on metal roofs, lap-screw fasteners that have backed out, J-rail edges, roof-over transitions and coatings that have chalked through. Covered in detail on the mobile home roofing page.

Before we arrive, the stain itself gives away a lot. We ask about it on the phone for a reason.

One rule of thumb: in a Florida summer, not every ceiling stain is a roof leak. Humid attics, sweating ductwork and overflowing condensate pans produce stains that look identical. We check the attic before we open the roof, which is why some of our leak calls end with "call your AC company" and no invoice.

If it is raining and water is coming in, this is the order of operations.

1. Breaker off for any room where water is near a light, fan or outlet.
2. Catch and contain. Bucket under the drip, plastic over furniture, towels on hardwood. Move anything electronic.
3. Drain a bulge. A drywall bubble is a bag of water. A small hole at the low point with a screwdriver lets it drain into the bucket instead of bringing the ceiling down.
4. Look in the attic, not on the roof. With a flashlight, from the hatch or the pull-down stairs, look uphill from the stain for wet insulation, dark decking or daylight. Do not walk on the ceiling joists if you are unsure of your footing; the drywall between them will not hold you.
5. Photograph the stain, the attic, the yard debris and any shingles or metal on the lawn, with the time showing.
6. Call the number at the top of this page. Active leaks go to the front of the schedule. For storm emergencies you can call any time; when it is safe to be on the roof we tarp or dry in the opening first and schedule the permanent repair after.

Do not go on the roof in the rain, and do not let a door-knocker go up there either. A wet shingle, metal or tile surface is where falls happen, and a stranger on your roof after a storm is also how unnecessary "damage" gets created. For a longer post-storm checklist see the main site's Leesburg storm damage guide.

Finding a leak is a process of elimination, done in a fixed order so nothing gets skipped.

1. Interview. When did it start, which storms trigger it, which wind direction, has anyone "fixed" it before, has anything been added to the roof (dish, solar, a new vent, a replaced skylight).
2. Attic first. We trace the water trail uphill from the stain on the underside of the decking. Water leaves a map: darkened wood, rusted nail tips, matted insulation. The highest wet point is usually within a few feet of the entry.
3. Roof surface, uphill of the wet point. Every penetration, flashing, valley and seam between the wet point and the ridge gets photographed and probed. Lifted tabs, split boots, nail pops, open laps and sealant that has let go are obvious once you know where to look.
4. Water test when nothing is obvious. One of us runs a hose on one suspect at a time, low to high, while the other watches from the attic. Tedious, but it turns "probably the skylight" into "the skylight."
5. Rule out the non-roof causes. Condensate lines, sweating ducts, bath fans venting into the attic, a window above the roofline, a gutter spilling behind the fascia.
6. Written findings. Photos, the cause, the repair scope and a written price, plus anything else near failure that you should know about even if you do not fix it today.

Our free inspection covers the whole roof, not just the leak, so the summary will also tell you whether the rest of the roof is sound. On a 25-year-old 3-tab roof that answer is sometimes "this leak is the first of several," and you deserve to hear it before you spend money on a patch.

Once the entry point is known, the repair is specific. These are the fixes we make most often in Leesburg and what each one includes.

• Pipe boot replacement. Lift the surrounding shingles, remove the split neoprene boot, install a new boot (lead or metal-collar where the slope faces the afternoon sun), re-lay and hand-seal the shingles. The most common Royal Highlands and Legacy leak repair.
• Step and kickout flashing. Remove the siding or stucco edge as needed, strip the old caulked metal, install new step flashing woven with each shingle course, add a kickout at the bottom to throw water into the gutter, and counterflash. The most common leak on 1960s and 1970s ranches with additions.
• Valley rebuild. Strip the valley, install peel-and-stick membrane, and lay either an open metal valley or a correctly cut closed valley with the overlap on the right side.
• Ridge and off-ridge vents. Replace rusted vents, seal end caps, renail with gasketed fasteners, and confirm the slot underneath was cut (sometimes it never was).
• Skylight reflash or replace. Reflash the curb with new step flashing and membrane; if the glazing gasket itself has failed, replace the unit.
• Wind-lifted shingle sections. Replace creased and torn shingles, hand-seal the field, and check the starter and rake edges.
• Decking patch. Where water has rotted the sheathing, cut back to solid wood on the rafters, install new plywood, membrane, underlayment and shingles.
• Chimney saddle and counterflashing. Add a cricket uphill of a wide chimney, reset counterflashing into the mortar joint, and replace the apron.

Each of these is a repair with a 2-year workmanship warranty on the repaired area. When decking is involved or the repair is large enough to need a permit, we pull it from the City of Leesburg Building Division (501 W Meadow St, (352) 728-9700) for addresses inside the city or Lake County Building Services in Tavares ((352) 343-9653) for unincorporated addresses such as most of 34788. The broader roof repair page covers shingle, fascia and storm repairs that are not strictly leaks.

Leaks in Leesburg follow the calendar. Normal rainfall is 43.78 inches a year, and June alone averages 6.98 inches, so the first big June thunderstorm after a dry spring is when the phone rings. Sealant and boots that cracked over the winter in the sun have had no water on them for months; the first wind-driven downpour finds every one.

Wind direction matters more than most homeowners expect. Leesburg sits in Lake County's 130-140 mph design-wind band, but the leaks come from ordinary 40 to 60 mph gusts hitting the edge that faces the storm. NOAA logged 50-knot-plus wind here on March 30, 2021, April 25, 2023 and May 18, 2024, and 52-knot gusts in Fruitland Park in April 2021 did documented shingle and soffit damage. Hurricane Milton on October 9 and 10, 2024 brought a 72-knot gust and 8.89 inches of rain; Irma in 2017 brought 69 mph and more than 8 inches. A roof that has never leaked and then leaks in only one wind direction has usually lost a seal on that exposure.

Lightning is the other Florida leak nobody plans for. Florida leads the country in lightning density, and a strike on a tree, a mast or a metal vent can crack shingles or blow out a boot without any visible storm damage elsewhere on the roof. If a stain appears the day after a strike near the house, say so when you call.

We repair leaks whenever a repair will hold. Sometimes it will not, and we would rather tell you now than after you have paid for a patch.

• The shingles crack when lifted. Repairing a boot means lifting the courses around it. On a brittle 3-tab roof from the 1980s, every lift breaks three more shingles, and the repair causes the next leak.
• Multiple entry points on multiple slopes. Three leaks in three places on a 24-year-old roof is a roof at end of life, not three repairs.
• The 25% rule. On a roof built or last replaced before March 1, 2009, repairing more than 25% of any roof section within 12 months requires that section to be replaced to current code. Scattered damage across a slope reaches that threshold faster than people expect.
• Decking rot across the field. One soft spot at a leak is a patch. Soft decking in several places means water has been getting in for years.
• Two layers. Leak repairs through a second layer of shingles rarely seal. If your 1960s ranch has shingles over shingles, the honest fix is a tear-off.

If that is where you are, the roof replacement page explains the Lake County re-nail requirement for homes built before March 1, 2002, the secondary water barrier every re-roof now gets, decking terms, the 10-year workmanship warranty and the fact that financing is available. For roofs past 15 years, the free inspection also gives you the condition documentation Florida Statute 627.7011(5) lets you use with your insurer, provided the roof honestly has five or more years of life left.

Most Leesburg leaks were avoidable with an hour of attention a year. The habits that matter, in rough order of payoff:

• Clean gutters twice a year, after the oak pollen and catkins drop in spring and after the live-oak and pine needles come down in late fall. Overflow behind the fascia is the start of every rotted eave we open up.
• Trim limbs back so nothing scrapes the shingles or dumps debris into a valley. Branches rubbing in a breeze wear granules to the mat in a single season.
• Replace boots proactively around year 15 on a shingle roof. A boot swap on a dry day is cheap insurance; the same boot found by a stain is a drywall repair too.
• Look in the attic every August, the wettest stretch of the year, with a flashlight: dark decking, rusted nail tips or clumped insulation mean water is getting in somewhere even if no stain has appeared yet.
• Reseal anything bolted to the roof (satellite dish, solar mounts, antenna masts, lightning rods) every few years, or have it moved to a gable wall.
• Walk the yard after any named storm or 50-knot thunderstorm and photograph shingle fragments, granule drifts at the downspouts and bent ridge-vent metal before cleaning up.
• Book a free inspection before each hurricane season on any roof past 15 years, so the written record exists before the weather does.

We do not quote leak repairs by phone and we do not publish price lists, because the honest answer depends on the entry point, the pitch, the height, the decking and whether a permit is needed. What we can promise is the structure of the price:

• The free inspection and written findings cost nothing, whether or not you hire us.
• The written repair price covers the scope on the contract. That number is the number you pay.
• If we open the roof and find a hidden condition, we stop, photograph it and get your written approval before doing anything extra.
• Every leak repair carries a 2-year workmanship warranty on the repaired area and the Leak-Free Promise: if our work leaks, we are on site within 48 hours and fix it at no cost, with no claim forms, service fee or trip charge.
• Manufacturer warranties on boots, membranes and shingles are separate.

If a storm caused the leak and you decide to file a claim, we provide the photos and a written scope and will meet the adjuster on the roof. We are roofing contractors, not public adjusters: we do not file or negotiate claims, your carrier decides the outcome, and we never offer anything in exchange for an inspection or a claim. Read about the company on the about page, check the service area for which permit office covers your street, and see what customers wrote on the reviews page.