Flat and low-slope roof leaks
Ponding, seams and parapet flashing
Slate lasts a century or more, and what fails first is almost always the fixings rather than the slate itself — nail sickness, where the fixings corrode and slates begin to slip, is the classic failure. Repair is specialised work: slates are refixed with hooks or tingles rather than simply nailed back, and walking the roof incorrectly breaks more than the original fault. Replacement is enormously expensive, so repair is nearly always the right call on a sound slate roof.
Katy is close enough to the Gulf to take the full force of tropical systems, and that is the storm profile that sets everything else. Hurricane wind is sustained for hours rather than gusting, which does something different to a roof — it works shingle tabs loose over an extended period and drives rain horizontally under courses that would shed any normal downpour. Then the heat and humidity do the slow damage. Roofs across Harris County run hot for most of the year, which ages the shingle and hardens every rubber and sealant component on it, and the humidity means that anything which gets wet inside the roof structure stays wet. A small leak here does considerably more damage over the same period than the same leak would further north, and mould becomes a problem much sooner.
Katy has a population of about 28,373, and the housing stock here sets the pattern for what fails first on a roof.
Corrosion of the original fixings, so slates lose their hold and begin slipping one after another even though the slate itself is sound. A few slips in quick succession is the sign, and it means the roof needs assessing as a whole rather than slate by slate.
Almost always. The material has decades of life left and replacement is extremely expensive. The constraint is finding someone who works on slate properly — bad access does more damage than the original fault.
Ponding, seams and parapet flashing
The boards behind the gutter
The sheathing under the shingles
Cedar shake roofs
Crown, cap and masonry
Clearing, repair and replacement
You will get a straight answer on whether Katy needs someone out today or whether it can wait — before anyone quotes you for anything.
Call (706) 696-1888