Repairs to shingles, flashing, valleys and eaves, worked out from where the roof actually lets water in.
Fastest: call (833) 751-2102. Or send this and we call you back.
Roof repair means fixing the part of the roof that has failed, such as a lifted shingle, a cracked pipe boot, a split valley or a worn seal at a vent, instead of replacing the whole covering. On Palouse houses the trigger is usually winter: snow sits, thaws and refreezes at the eave, and the water that backs up finds the weakest seam first.
Most roof repairs in Moscow start indoors. A stain on a bedroom ceiling near an outside wall, a bubble in the paint at the top of a closet, or a drip that only shows after a thaw is usually the first sign. The stain is where the water ended up, not where it got in. A roof leaks where its covering or its seal has been opened, and on the Palouse the water usually travels a long way along the decking and the rafters before it shows.
The reason it happens here is the sequence of the year. A cold, snowy winter puts snow on the roof and lets it melt on the upper slopes while the eaves stay below freezing. That cycle lifts shingle tabs, works flashing loose at valleys and sidewalls, and pushes meltwater under a covering that was not built to hold back standing water. The dry, hot, bright summer that follows then bakes the same material, so a seam that opened in February can look sound by August and leak again in the next thaw.
Repair is the right answer for most of these faults when the decking underneath is sound and the roof is not at the end of its covering. Phones are answered 24/7 at (833) 751-2102, and a technician is sent as one is available. A visit on the same day happens only when a technician is free, and no arrival time is promised. The first job is to find the entry point, not the stain, and to say honestly whether a repair will hold or whether the covering has reached the point where replacing it makes more sense.
Do not climb onto a wet, icy or snow-covered roof to look at a leak, and never walk on shingles that are frozen or soaked, since they crack and the roof can be damaged under your weight. Use a flashlight in the attic to look at the underside of the decking, and avoid touching wiring you can see near the stain. If water is coming through a ceiling light or a fixture, turn off power to that circuit at the panel before you touch anything. A tarp or a bucket is a reasonable short-term measure, but the repair itself should be made by someone who can work on the roof safely.
Tell the call taker which room, which wall and which weather it followed. Snow, a thaw, a wind-driven rain and a heavy downpour point to different places on a roof. The description is what sends the right technician to the right part of the job, and it costs nothing to give.
The technician looks at the covering from ground level for lifted tabs, displaced metal and sagging lines, then goes into the attic with a light to look at the underside of the decking directly above the stain. Wet insulation, dark staining on the boards and daylight showing around a vent are the clues that matter.
Water tends to run along the roof and enter at a different spot from where it shows inside. Valleys, pipe boots, sidewall flashing and the edge where the roof meets a wall are the usual candidates. The technician traces the path upslope from the stain before deciding what to replace.
The failed shingle, flashing piece, boot or seal is replaced and the surrounding material is brought back into a proper lap. Patching a symptom with sealant over a lifted seam usually fails at the next thaw, so the repair removes the material that moved and rebuilds the overlap the roof was designed to have.
After the repair the technician checks the area for loose fasteners, tests the flashing with a hose or under a clear sky where that is practical, and notes which parts of the roof are nearing the end of their covering. That record is useful when the next repair is planned, and it shows the homeowner what was done and why.
A repair fixes a fault that has a cause you can point to, such as a lifted tab, a split boot or a failed valley. A replacement is the answer when the covering is worn across many slopes at once, or when the decking underneath has failed.
A roof that leaks in one place after one storm is usually a repair. A roof that leaks in several places after several winters, with granules lost across the slope and shingles curling at the edges, is telling you something about the covering as a whole. A technician should be able to show you both cases on the same roof and explain which applies to yours.
The question is also one of money, time and risk. A repair can be finished in a day or two in good weather, and it keeps the roof working while you decide. A replacement is a larger job that depends on a dry spell, a clear schedule and a plan for the old material. If a technician recommends replacement, ask what they found in the decking and why that finding changes the answer.
Some repairs can be done in winter, and some should wait for a dry, mild stretch. Snow, ice and low temperatures make the covering brittle and the surface unsafe to work on, so a temporary tarp is often the right first step.
Shingles are less pliable when cold, and sealant does not bond well to frozen or wet material. A technician will decide whether the repair can be made properly that day, or whether it should be done as a temporary cover and finished later. A tarp is a holding measure, not a permanent fix, and it should be removed and the roof properly repaired once the weather allows.
Working on snow or ice is the part a homeowner should never attempt. Stay off a snow-covered or iced roof, keep people and vehicles clear of the eave, and let the technician make the call on whether the roof can be worked on safely. An honest answer that the repair waits until spring is better than a rushed job in the cold.
The same spots fail because they are where the roof moves, collects water or gets the most sun. Valleys, pipe boots and flashing at walls are the usual places, and each one meets a different stress from snow, thaw and dry heat.
Freeze and thaw works the joints. Water that gets under a lapped joint freezes, expands, and lifts the material above it. Repeated over a winter, the joint opens a little more each time. The next thaw then finds a path that was not there before, and the same spot leaks again.
Dry summers add a different stress. Ultraviolet light and daily heating and cooling dry out sealants and make rubber collars brittle, so a boot that was sound in one season can crack by the next. This is why a repair should use the right material for the exposed location and why the spot should be looked at again after a winter, not just after the first leak.
The size of the fault, how steep and how accessible the roof is, the age of the building, and how many layers of covering are already on all move the price. The price is explained and approved before work starts, and no figure is given here.
A single boot on a low, easy roof is a different job from a valley that has to be opened across a steep, shaded slope. Access matters as much as size. A house on a hill may allow a truck and a dumpster close to the eave, or it may not, and that changes the work on the day. Older buildings often have more layers, older decking and unusual flashing details, and each of those takes time to find and correct properly.
The technician looks at these things during the visit and explains what they mean for the job. No price is printed on this page, because the cost depends on what the roof actually shows. You will be told what the repair involves and what it costs before any work starts, and you can decide then.
It depends on the size of the work and which side of the state line the house is on. In Moscow a full reroof is its own permit category, and a repair should be checked with the city before it begins.
Moscow's Building Safety Division, part of Community Development, handles plan review, inspections and building code administration for the city. It is the right office to ask whether a specific repair needs a permit at your address. A reroof is treated differently from a small repair, and the difference is worth confirming before a contract is signed.
In Pullman, Washington, reroofing is a listed permit category, and the city publishes its own criteria, including ice barrier underlayment. In Lapwai and on the Nez Perce Reservation, ask both the Nez Perce County planning office and the Nez Perce Tribe which permit applies to your property. Permit fees, forms and inspection steps differ by jurisdiction, so they are not printed here.
Individual lifted, creased or missing shingles are replaced, and the courses above them are checked for nail pops and sealant failure. On a roof that has been through several winters, the repair often shows that a whole slope is starting to lift together. A technician will say so when it is the case, because one new shingle on a tired slope rarely stops the next leak.
Valleys carry the most water on a snow-covered roof, and the metal in them is the first place movement shows. Sidewall flashing, where a roof meets a dormer or a wall, works the same way. Repair means replacing the metal or the sealed lap that has pulled apart, not caulking the seam shut, because a caulked seam only holds until the metal expands and contracts again.
The rubber collar around a plumbing vent is one of the most common leak points on a house roof, and it ages faster than the shingles around it. A replacement boot or a new flashing collar is usually a small job. It is still worth doing on schedule, because a cracked boot lets water run down the pipe and into the ceiling below without showing on the roof surface.
When the roof is opened and the decking is soft or dark, the repair widens to replacing the damaged boards and the wet insulation above the ceiling. This is the point where the job is no longer a simple patch, and the technician will stop and explain the extent before going further. Decking condition is judged when it is exposed, not guessed from the surface.
On the Palouse plateau the snow stays longer on the roof than it does down in the river valley. The eastern timbered towns such as Troy, Deary and Harvard hold their snow for more of the winter, which means more time for ice and meltwater to work at the flashing. Lower towns on the Snake River, such as Clarkston and Lapwai, see less of that load, though a thaw can still open the same kind of seam.
Moscow is a university town with a large share of rental housing, and the rooflines in the older neighborhoods vary a great deal. The dry summers and cold winters here age a covering in a different way from a humid climate, so a repair that works on a wetter coast may not hold on a Moscow roof without the right underlayment and flashing detail.
The state line runs through the service area. A repair on a house in Pullman or Colfax falls under Washington's rules, and one in Moscow or Troy falls under Idaho's. An Idaho registration does not authorize work in Washington, and a Washington registration does not authorize work in Idaho. The technician will say which set of rules applies before any work begins, and the permit office on that side is the one to confirm it with.
Tell us what's happening and we'll tell you honestly whether it's a quick fix, and what roof repair should cost.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Finding and sealing the path water takes into your Moscow or Palouse home, from attic stains to flashing at the eave.
Resetting or replacing the metal at valleys, chimneys, sidewalls and vent pipes that keeps water out of a Moscow roof.
Stopping eave ice dams on Palouse roofs through attic insulation, air sealing and ventilation, and safe removal when water is already getting in.
A look at the roof, gutters and attic before the first snow, to find the loose flashing and blocked gutter that cause winter leaks.
Neither Idaho nor Washington licenses roofing as a trade, but both require contractors to register with the state.
Owner-occupancy in Moscow is 40.0 percent, so most occupied homes in the city are rented.
Phones are answered 24/7, and a technician is sent as one is available. A visit on the same day happens only when a technician is free. No arrival time is promised, because a snowstorm or a road closure can change the schedule. The call taker will tell you what the next available step is.
A repair fixes the fault that was found, and the rest of the roof is checked for the same condition. Whether it holds for good depends on the material around the repair and the weather that follows. Some repairs are the last good fix before replacement, and the technician should say so. A repair is not a promise of a particular outcome.
Sealant can slow a drip on a short-term basis, but it often hides the real fault. A seam sealed over an open joint keeps water in the roof structure, and the stain can grow where you cannot see it. If you do use sealant as a stopgap, photograph the spot first so the technician can see what was there.
A repair works best when the new material matches the existing covering in weight, profile and color as closely as possible. Older shingles may be discontinued or weathered differently, so a perfect match is not always possible. The technician will show you the closest option and explain where the difference will show.
Clear the area around the stain, move valuables out from under the leak, and take a few photographs of the ceiling and the outside of the roof. Note when the water appears and what the weather was. Keep the attic access clear and do not go onto the roof yourself. This information helps the technician find the entry point faster.
Whether insurance applies depends on the cause of the damage and on your policy, and this page cannot answer that for you. Wind and tree damage are handled differently from slow leaks. Read your policy and talk to your insurer about the specific cause. The guide on storm damage and insurance claims in Idaho covers the general steps.