Roof Repair in Portland, Maine

A rain leak or a thaw leak?

The weather when the stain grows is the best clue you have.

• It drips in a rainstorm with no snow on the roof. Water is getting through an opening: a flashing, a cracked or missing shingle, a pipe collar, a valley. That is a roof repair.
• It drips during a thaw, with snow up top and icicles at the edge. That points to an ice dam. The University of Minnesota Extension explains it: snow melts on the warmer upper roof, refreezes over the cold eave, and the water pooled behind the ridge of ice finds its way under the shingles and into the attic or the wall.
• It shows only with wind from one direction. Rain is being driven up under a lap or a flashing on that side of the house.

A thaw leak can be patched for the season, but the lasting fix is an ice barrier at the next re-roof plus air sealing and insulation in the attic. The ice dams page covers both.

Where older Maine roofs let water in

Most repairs end at one of these:

• Chimneys. Tired step and counter-flashing, mortar cracked where the counter-flashing is let in, and nothing to split the water on the high side. Section R903.2.2 calls for a saddle, or cricket, there once a chimney is more than 30 inches wide.
• Walls and dormers. At each roof-to-wall joint, R905.2.8.3 wants base flashing, step or continuous, with each leg no smaller than 4 inches. A cape with dormers has a lot of that joint.
• Valleys. Two slopes pour into one channel. Open metal valley lining is 24 inches wide at the least (R905.2.8.2), and pine needles and ice keep a valley wet.
• Pipe collars and vents. The rubber boot around a plumbing vent cracks long before the shingles around it wear out.
• Flashing metal itself. The code's floor is 0.019 inch, and it has to resist corrosion (R903.2.1). Thin or rusted pieces on old houses are usually the first to fail.
• Edges after a wind. Shingles lifted at the rakes and ridge in a coastal storm let the next rain in sideways.

First steps while it drips

1. Catch the water and clear what is under it. Buckets, towels and plastic. Move electronics and paper first.
2. Keep people out from under a sagging ceiling. Wet drywall that bellies down can fall.
3. Photograph it before you clean up. Maine's insurance bureau wants pictures or video taken before any repair, where that is possible.
4. Stay off an icy roof. The Maine Emergency Management Agency says no to ladders in ice and snow, and no to heat guns, hair dryers or open flames on roof ice.
5. For an ice-dam leak, University of Minnesota Extension describes a stopgap: on a mild day, run tap water from a hose to cut a channel through the dam, working up from its lower edge. It stops working within days.
6. Get it covered. A tarp fastened over the opening and past the ridge keeps water out until the real repair.

Tarps, temporary repairs and the insurer's timing

If storm damage caused the leak, the Maine Bureau of Insurance's storm FAQ sets the order of things: photos, then a stopgap such as a tarp over the hole so the damage does not spread, with the receipts kept for materials and labor. The lasting repair comes after the insurer's adjuster has looked, because doing it first can cost you the claim.

Two Maine rules matter on an emergency call:

• Who knocked first. When a roofer reached you first, at the door or by phone, Maine lets you void the deal by mailed notice within three full business days, and the roofer may not begin anything that attaches to the house while you still can. The statute has no emergency exception. When you made the first call, that law does not apply.
• Permits. Some towns let emergency work run ahead of the paperwork. Sanford's city code allows it when the permit is pulled the next business day.

Where a storm is involved, the storm damage page explains how claims work in Maine. The claim and the policy remain yours to manage.

How a leak gets traced

The search starts in the attic, with a flashlight, on a day when the roof is wet if possible. Water leaves a trail: a dark streak on the boards, a stained rafter, a rusty nail tip, a damp patch on the insulation. Follow it uphill to the highest point that is wet, because water only runs down from where it got in.

Then up on the roof, directly above that point: the flashing, valley, collar or shingle that sits there is checked first. When the cause is not obvious, the roof gets wet in sections with a hose, low sections first, while someone watches inside.

Capes are harder. Upstairs rooms under the slope leave little or no attic above the sloped part of the ceiling, and University of Minnesota Extension points out that these slanted sections often have little room for insulation, which is also where heat escapes and ice builds. A leak there can mean opening a small section of roofing to see the deck.

Each step is photographed, and the photos go with the written scope. If the trail leads to a roof that is worn out everywhere, the report says that.

Slate and cedar: repair in kind

Older roofs here are often slate or wood, and both can be repaired a piece at a time.

• Slate. The code allows existing slate to go back on during repair work, but not cracked, broken or damaged pieces (R908.5). Slate needs a solid deck and a slope of at least 4:12 (R905.6). Kennebunk's historic guidelines encourage keeping and repairing slate roofs, and York's ask for slate to be repaired or replaced in kind.
• Cedar. Wood shingles need a slope of at least 3:12 (R905.7). Split or missing shingles can be replaced singly, slid up under the course above. Some towns have fire rules for wood: Parsonsfield bans untreated wood shingles, and in Richmond's village a wood-shingled building gets fire-resistive shingles or another material at its next re-roof.

Inside Bath's historic overlay, the city's code favors saving original roofing, and where a piece has to go, the same material or a substitute that matches it. In Portland, the preservation standards prefer repairing a deteriorated historic feature over replacing it. The roof shingles page goes further into each material.

Do repairs need a permit?

Usually not for a small, like-for-like fix, but there are exceptions worth knowing:

• Kittery files roof repairs on a house under its maintenance permit. You still apply and pay $25, though the per-thousand fee skips the first $10,000 of the job.
• Phippsburg asks for a permit on most projects worth more than $1,000, and work begun before the permit pays four times the fee.
• Eliot calls shingling maintenance with no permit, but replacing the roof structure needs one.
• Hollis needs a permit once sheathing or framing is replaced, even on a re-roof that would otherwise be exempt.
• Baldwin skips the permit for non-structural repairs under $25,000.

The rule for your address is on its town page under roofing by town.

Patch or replace: where the line falls

Repair money is well spent on a roof with years left and one bad spot. It starts to be wasted when:

• the roof is near the 25-year mark the Bureau of Insurance's guide uses;
• it leaks in several places, or the same spot keeps coming back after repairs;
• thaw leaks recur every winter and the eaves have no ice barrier under them;
• the deck is soft in more than one spot;
• no shingle on the market comes close to the color or profile already on the roof.

The bill for a repair follows height and access, the area that has to be opened and matched, the flashing metal, and a permit fee where a town charges one. When the numbers point to a new roof, roof replacement covers what that involves here.

Common questions about roof repair in Portland

Where we work

Roof repair across greater Portland and southern Maine, from Casco Bay and the York County coast to the Sebago Lake towns. Each city has its own page with the permit rule and code edition that apply there: