Tracing the wet area
The stain is where the water finally came through, not where it entered. Readings are taken across the ceiling, down the walls and into the room next door so the whole wet area is known before anything is opened up.
Roof Leak and Ceiling Water Damage
Rain that gets past a roof almost never drips where the hole is. It runs along the decking, soaks into attic insulation and then comes through at a light fitting or a drywall seam several feet away. Austin Restoration Pros handles the inside of that job, day or night: the wet ceiling, the insulation above it, the walls below and the drying.
- 24/7 Emergency Response
- Upfront Quotes
- Drying & Repairs
Signs Rain Is Getting In
- A brown ring on a ceiling that grows a little after every storm
- Drywall that sags, bulges or feels soft when you press it
- Paint blistering or a tape seam lifting across a ceiling
- Drips at a light fitting, a ceiling vent or the top of a wall
- Matted, gray insulation in the attic above that room
- A musty smell in an upstairs closet once the rain stops
Stay out from under a ceiling that is sagging, and do not pierce it to let the water out. A ceiling holding water is heavy and comes down in one piece. Move what you can from the room, put a container under an active drip, and if a light or fan is in that ceiling, switch the circuit off at the breaker only if you can reach the panel safely and dry.
What the Service Includes
Stopping the rain at the roof is a roofer's work, and so is any emergency tarp. Everything the water reached once it was inside the building is ours.
Ceiling and attic work
Soaked insulation holds water against the drywall and has to come out. Damaged ceiling board is cut back to a clean line, the framing and decking above are checked, and the cavity is opened enough for air to move through it.
Drying, then repairs
Equipment runs until the ceiling, top plates and wall cavity read the same as a dry part of the house. Then insulation, drywall, texture, paint and trim go back, with that scope priced and agreed in writing first.
Storm Damage on Austin Roofs
Spring and early summer here bring hail and wind-driven rain, and both do the same thing to a roof: they lift or bruise shingles, split boots around vent pipes and push water sideways under flashing. The leak that follows can be small enough that it only shows after the third or fourth storm, by which time the insulation above the ceiling has been damp for weeks. Older central Austin houses with low-slope additions and newer two-story homes with valleys over a bedroom both turn up regularly.
If the water has come a long way and reached carpet or wall bases, the job starts with extraction and then structural drying. Where the same storm also pushed water in at ground level, that side of it is covered on the storm and flood cleanup page, and anything that stayed damp for days may need mold remediation as well. Whether a wet ceiling is dried or taken out is explained in our restore-or-replace comparison.
Austin Restoration Pros covers Austin and the towns around it, including Cedar Park, where hail season keeps this work busy. See the full service area, or read the signs of hidden water damage if you are not sure yet what you are looking at.
Roof Leak Cleanup Questions
Do you fix the roof as well?
No. Austin Restoration Pros works on the inside of the building. A roofer stops the water and tarps the roof if that is needed, and that has to happen before drying is worth starting, otherwise the next storm undoes the work. We will say plainly when the roofer needs to go first.
What affects the cost of roof leak water damage repair?
How many rooms the water reached, how much insulation and ceiling board has to come out, whether it ran down inside a wall, and how long it had been leaking before anyone noticed. A single stain caught after one storm is a very different job from a ceiling that has been wet all spring.
Should I poke a hole in a sagging ceiling to drain it?
No. Advice to do that gets passed around, but a loaded ceiling can drop the whole sheet along with the insulation above it. Keep everyone out of the room, leave the lights in that ceiling off at the breaker if you can do it safely, and let the crew bring it down in a controlled way.
Does wet attic insulation have to be replaced?
Usually, yes, where it soaked. Blown-in insulation that gets wet packs down and stops working even after it dries, and it keeps the top of the ceiling damp while it sits there. Austin Restoration Pros removes the affected area, dries the framing and decking underneath, and quotes replacing what came out.
Deal with a roof leak in Austin
Tell us which rooms are affected and whether the ceiling is sagging anywhere.