Quite often home owners can be unaware that they may have a roof leak or issue with moisture coming into the house. It can be difficult to see if a roof is leaking from the exterior of the house as most often it requires climbing on to the roof. This is itself can be quite dangerous and for an untrained professional hazardous. The risks of inspecting your exterior roof slates are extremely high as there is a change of falling off the roof.
There are 5 common signs that your roof may be leaking.
Damp spots on your ceiling
Inspect all rooms in your house, you should be looking for a damp spot that appears on your ceiling. In some cases you will see a circular ring or discoloured watermark on your ceiling. You may see a brown or grey circular mark on your ceiling. If there is a heavy leak in the roof you may actually see the leak dripping down through the ceiling.
If you do see a discoloured watermark in the ceiling this is a sign of a previous leak as the plaster and paint have become discoloured.
Tip: If you spot a discoloured colour in a ceiling regardless if it is your home or viewing a property to buy. Make sure you take into account that the roof may require a repair as they may have been a leak.
Inspect your attic with a torch
The attic can be the quickest way to see if your roof is leaking. Quite often the roof leak may be caused by a loose or cracked slate. If you look at the attic beams for water dripping on them, damp spots or mould growing you need to contact a roofing contractor as soon as possible. This often relates to a roof slate that needs to be attended to as soon as possible.
Tip: Take a flashlight and search for any moisture on attic beams or dripping water. Another top tip would be to look for light coming through your attic. This would indicate that your roof has exposed gaps. This is often caused by the tiles being broken or shifted most likely after heavy winds.
Look for loose roof slates
If you can see any loose roof slates from the ground, you should be looking for slates that are slightly out of line. This can occur due to high winds lifting the roof slates. Unfortunately over time roof slates can become loose and shift. This is caused by the cement or adhesive detreating over time and not holding the slates in place.
Tip: Inspect your roof from the ground and do not attempt to climb on your own roof. Inspect your roof from the front, rear and side of your house. Ask a roofing specialist to check your roof.
4) Check the flashing around your chimney
Check the chimney flashing
The flashing around your chimney prevents rain and wind getting into your roof. If you see the flashing around your roof has come loose or looks slightly out of line, this may be the source of your roof leak.
Tip:Try and spot any bends or dents in the flashing around your chimney, quite often the flashing can be source of your roof leak. Again as a professional for assistance. This is not something home DIY can help 
with!
Improper Roof installation
Unfortunately over the years we have come across roofs that had not being correctly installed. We have seen this on home extensions or houses that required a new roof. In some cases small errors at the installation stage cause some a roof leak. For the average home owner they simply will not know what to look for when it comes to what to look for. If
This type of roof leak needs to be fixed with immediate action, quite simply because there is no small fixes or home DIY that can help an incorrect installation.
Tip:If all of the above checks fail you should call a specialist roofing contractor. In some cases it may only be a small installation issue that can cause the leak.
If you have a leak please feel free to call Tony or Anthony and we will be able to help you. We serve the greater Leinster area including all areas of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, West Meath. Please do not hesitate to contact us as no roofing job is to small or large.
We hope you found our blog helpful 🙂