i fought a leaky ceiling in a room addition for literally 4 years. the contractor tried this and that and everything under the sun to "fix" it, all to no avail. he would come and do some work, call it swell, the next time it rained i called him to tell him it was NOT swell. he said he'd be here tomorrow, it took him weeks to show up. i finally got sick of dealing with him and ended up hiring another contractor to look at his work and see what could be done. turns out, it was the same thing you're dealing with. they fixed it, once and for all. we've had some monsoon rains over the past few weeks and NO LEAKS. of course, they ended up having to pull an entire wall of drywall and replace it because it was covered in black mold. the first guy never even looked at that. ended up spending $1200+ to fix what shouldn't have cost me a red cent. it's infuriating! sorry you are having to deal with this still. i know just how frustrated you are!

I still wonder if anyone has looked at the boots around any exhaust pipes on the roof. They can look find and fall apart in your hands as one roofing person found out.

Alisande I'm so sorry you are STILL dealing with something that should have been fixed long ago. I hope that it gets taken care of promptly.

I remember details of the roofer and the mess. You truly have the worst luck in the world with roofers. I would think by now you ought to have lived through all the bad Karma you accumulated and have moved on to someone who could just do the simple job of properly roofing your house? Who ever heard of not flashing a dormer? That is something you could sue over. This is stupid. I mean seriously stupid. No one doesnt flash if they call themselves a roofer. I am sorry you are going through this.

^^^ this. I was coming here to comment on your previous horrible experience with your roofers.

I am so sorry your going through this. Your BEAUTIFUL old farm house does not deserve this. Hang in there.....

I'm sorry you're still dealing with this. Had this problem with my sunroom roof leaking and the company who built it told me there was nothing wrong with the roof, there obviously was. I hope they fix your roof for good soon.

Wow. Just wow. I am so sorry you are still dealing with this. When we remodeled that old farmhouse on the bayou, we went through something very similar to this. We paid for a roof and the contactor said he couldn't get the metal for a few months. I knew it was a lie. There are many places around that sell the metal. He tarped it but the addition we added on...the sun porch was left open and the floor warped.

My friend had recommended him and practically insisted he was a "craftsman".

Found out this wasn't the first time he had done something similar.

Ugh. Sorry.

What a hassle! I live in fear of roof leaks. It rains so seldom here that it's almost impossible to find and repair them. Plus, a one-year warranty on repairs is almost useless because of drought conditions. I hope you are able to get your roof repaired correctly soon and get back to enjoying your kitchen.

How awful. It's a wonder to me that you've encountered so much difficulty getting the problem fixed. Good luck for a quick resolution

Have you found that other trades contractors in your area are similarly consistently incompetent?

Wow, bad luck is piling atop the original bad luck - so sorry to hear this, hope you can get it fixed sooner rather than later!

Wish you could send all your rain out West to us - we could use it, LOL.

How long has this been going on? You are a much more patient woman than I am. I would go all "Beth Dutton" on their a$$.

I am really sorry that you are having so much trouble with your roof. Hope you can get it resolved

Oh so sorry that this is still ongoing for you. I hope this company will do the right thing and seal up your leaky roof! Sending good dry thoughts your way. Hugs!

Why can't anyone narrow down where the water is coming in? Can they not go up into the attic in your house? If that was me, I would be climbing up in my attic with a flashlight and finding the water spots on my ceiling of the attic to see exactly where the leak is! When water comes in, it leaves water spots on the wood. Seems ridiculous that a roofer cannot figure this out!

What a pain in the patootie! I'm so sorry you're still dealing with this.

Have you heard anything from the contractor?

Have you found that other trades contractors in your area are similarly consistently incompetent?

Not really. There's not a great deal of competition here, and that also means they tend to get swamped with work. Four months ago I called three tree services to get quotes on taking down a big tree, and I never heard back from any of them. A couple of weeks ago I called several HVAC people about getting a quote for a new heating system. One of them, who has done work for me in the past, is coming tomorrow. The second guy said he was super-busy but would email me a rough estimate. No email yet. I don't know what happened to the third guy.

Can they not go up into the attic in your house?

The leak isn't coming from the attic. If it were, it would have dripped from the attic down into the bedroom above the kitchen, and then into the kitchen. This is not happening. Water is getting under the shingles somewhere and running directly to the kitchen. It's not easy to figure out where that somewhere is.

The roofing supervisor called me this morning and said he'd come over in the next day or two to take a look himself.

Arkansas Girl, your comment at the plumbing vent gave me an idea. So did a message I received about a different possible issue from another member. So I emailed the roofing supervisor this morning with my thoughts. I think sometimes people pay more attention if something's in writing, and they tend to remember it better. I'll report back. Thank you!

What Arkansas Girl mentioned is exactly what was causing my basement to have water in it. In this area that rubber material is called a 'boot'. When I had my roof estimates done two of the companies saw that they needed to be replaced but the third never mentioned it.

Any protrusion through a roof, whether a chimney, a skylight, a vent stack (as mentioned), a vent exhaust for a natural gas appliance, etc, needs to have properly installed flashing (the sheet metal that carries water away from the opening) and sealing. Doing so is probably the main task a roofer has to face other than installing the roofing material. Since alisande learned during and afterwards that the person doing the roof replacement was not as qualified or capable as she thought, it's possible the work around the protrusions wasn't properly done.

Water may run down the opening from the roof but an actual leak at a vent stack pipe connection is quite rare. They run from the roof down to a sanitary drain line and contain only air. The drain lines they connect to are rarely so full of water such that a incomplete pipe to pipe connection on the top side would produce a leak.

The leak would be around the vent pipe where it goes through the roof. there is a hole in the sheathing and the roofing and the boot around the pipe covers over that over. It is an easy fix.

It is also common for a leak somewhere else to get under the roofing and run down underneath until the water finds an inlet in the sheathing. That sort of leak can cause a lot of rot in the roof sheathing. it is also why it is hard to find small leaks.

Good luck Alisande. I do hope your roofer will find your problem.

I also had a leak originating from failed sealant around the plumbing stack. The water ran down the outside of the pipe, and actually showed up on the wall 2 floors below (the pipe ran through the exterior wall, below the attic).

I have also experienced that water from a roof leak can track along the rafter or floor joist for some distance before it finds its final path downward - either by finally dripping, or by hitting a stud or wiring or something else, and tracking down that. It depends on the shape and construction of your roof, and also if there is a slope to your ceiling/floor joist. So it was that a leak that originated along the gutter showed up in the center of the room, dripping through the light fixture.

My most recent leak occurred after a new roof, gutters and siding went on the house after a tree fell on it. I started seeing water dripping from the bottom of the circuit breaker box onto the basement floor - when I followed the track, it wasn't coming from where the electric entered the house (as I expected), but was entering somewhere above and tracking down the external wall until it hit the top of the foundation block.

Fortunately I had a very good roofer to call (after the contractor responsible for the roof & siding ignored me); he actually found several suspect areas that should have been caulked but weren't, and a defect in the installation of one gutter in the same area. He didn't know exactly which was allowing the water in; he just fixed all of them and the leak has stopped. The bill? $230.

Had a call early this morning from the roofer who repaired the dormer. He said he stopped by yesterday while I was out, and found another dormer-related area that he fixed. It's in a direct line to the leak. He said he checked the chimney, and it was fine. He asked me to keep an eye on the leak today (rain in the forecast) and let him know what happens. He was reassuring--said if this doesn't fix the leak they'll keep trying until they find it, with no additional charges.

I'd planned to meet with a friend today, but I think I'll stay home and keep an eagle eye on the leak.

Alisande you need to call him and directly ask if he checked the flashing/boots around the exhaust pipes. Not just visual inspection but attempting to lift or move them. One of my leaks was because of a separation in one that looked solid until the inspector tried to move to see if it needed replacing and the top lifted completely off the the surface.

I do hope what was done works but if he did not do one he may not have even looked at the exhaust pipes.

Maifleur, we don't have any exhaust pipes coming through the roof. We used, to, but now an exhaust pipe goes up the side of the house.

I'm still home, being vigilant about monitoring the leak on this "rainy day," but it's 2:20 p.m. and we haven't had any rain yet.

You should be in our part of PA where it's pouring and I got rain in my powder room. It's still raining and they weren't forecasting it.

I hope you don't have a roof leak, Lily! 6:15 here, and still no rain. However, we're supposed to get it rather seriously tonight.

Our powder room leak only comes when there is a heavy downpour. We have to get our guy to the roof to check it out. It happens so seldomly but it's at the juncture where the first part of the 1840 old house had an addition added in 1859.