Roof Leak Water Damage in Smyrna, GA
The storm came through around dinner with wind that bent the pines in the back yard sideways, and by bedtime there was a drip in the upstairs hall and a wet spot spreading across the bedroom ceiling. In the morning you found shingles in the yard and a patch of bare felt above the gable. This site puts you through to an independent local provider who dries out houses in Smyrna and across south Cobb after a roof leak.
Two jobs, not one: the roof and the house under it
The roofer stops new water from coming in. The cleanup crew deals with the water that already came in, and it is a separate job with a separate scope. Rain that got past the shingles soaked the decking, ran down a rafter, filled the insulation on the attic floor, and came through the ceiling at the low spot. By the time the drip shows, the insulation above it has been holding water for hours. A roof repair alone leaves all of that wet.
What the crew does in the attic first
The crew goes up with a flashlight and a meter, traces the water from the leak point along the rafters to where it landed, and pulls the insulation that reads wet. They meter the decking, the ceiling joists, the top plates of the walls the water ran into, and the ceiling drywall from below. Then air movers and a dehumidifier go into the attic and the rooms under the leak until the numbers match a dry part of the house. If the ceiling has sagged or stayed wet, it is opened at the low spot so the cavity can dry; that part of the work is ceiling water damage repair.
What to do while the roof is still open
Get a tarp on the roof or get a roofer to do it, because the next storm is never far off in a Georgia spring. Put a bucket under the drip. Move furniture and anything electrical out from under the wet ceiling and turn off the breaker for a light fixture in it. Photograph the ceiling, the yard full of shingles, and the attic if you can reach it safely. Save the date and time of the storm; the adjuster will ask.
What dries and what comes out
Rafters, decking, and joists nearly always dry in place. Blown-in or batt insulation that got wet comes out and goes back new, because it does not dry in an attic and it holds the moisture against the drywall below it. Ceiling drywall that reads dry after the equipment runs can stay; drywall that sagged or stayed wet for days comes down. Wall drywall the water ran into is cut at the wet line. Wood floors under a bad leak are handled the way water extraction handles any wet floor: dried in place if the crew gets to it in the first days.
Spring storms, straight-line winds, and Smyrna roofs
The storms that lift shingles in Smyrna come in March through June, when a squall line crosses from Alabama with straight-line winds and hail, and again in late summer when the remains of a Gulf hurricane stall over north Georgia. The week of September 15 to 22, 2009 dropped more than 20 inches on parts of Cobb and turned every weak spot in a roof into a leak. The tall pines and oaks on the older lots in Forest Hills, Cheney Woods, and Argyle Estates add a second failure: a limb through the decking, or a tree down across the ridge.
Roof age is the other factor. The 1950s and 1960s ranches have been reroofed two or three times, and the flashing around the chimney and the plumbing vents is where they leak. The townhomes built since 2000 have steep roofs with a lot of valleys and dormers, and the valleys are where the wind-driven rain gets under. A leak that soaked the attic above a bath or a laundry can also look like a plumbing failure from below, so the crew checks both before the source is blamed.
Wind and hail damage to a roof and the water that came in behind it are often covered under a homeowner policy; a roof that leaked for years because it wore out often is not. Nobody here has read your policy, and this site promises nothing about what it pays. The crew's photos of the wet insulation before it came out are what the adjuster works from.
Calling about a leaking roof
Say when the storm came through, where the drip is, and whether the roof has been tarped. Mention a sagging ceiling or wet insulation you can see. Keep the property address and a number we can call back within reach. Call (770) 830-3578.
