Roof repair
Roof repair and roof leak repair in Des Moines
The bathroom ceiling in a Beaverdale bungalow, the wall by the fireplace in a Johnston two-story, the corner of a garage in Ankeny where a bonus room sits above. Roof leaks in Des Moines show up in the same handful of places, and nearly all of them are a $300–$1,500 fix at one spot. We find the spot from the attic first, then price it.
Three seasons, three kinds of leak call
Roof repair Des Moines homeowners ask for follows the calendar more than most people realize.
February and March. A stain on an upstairs ceiling within three feet of a north-facing outside wall, after a week of freeze-thaw. That is meltwater backing up behind an ice dam; the roof itself is often fine. The ice is handled on the ice dam repair page; the shingle and decking damage it leaves is priced here.
April through August. A thunderstorm crosses Polk County from the Dallas County line and the calls are about shingles in the yard. A few lifted tabs on the windward slope is a repair. Bruising across a slope is a storm claim, and we'll tell you which you have before you call your agent.
October. Somebody cleans the gutters and spots a cracked pipe boot or a chimney caulked five times. Fixing that in October is the cheapest roof repair you'll ever pay for.
Prices for the part that actually failed
| What failed | What we do | Typical Des Moines price |
|---|---|---|
| Rubber pipe boot cracked at 10–15 years | New boot, shingles rewoven around it | $250 – $450 |
| Chimney flashing on a 1920s–50s brick chimney | Step flashing under the shingles, counter-flashing cut into the mortar | $600 – $1,500 |
| Valley worn thin or laid without membrane | Strip the valley, ice-and-water membrane, re-lay | $500 – $1,200 |
| Skylight flashing kit gone | New kit, or a new unit if the seal failed | $400 – $900 (unit $1,200 – $2,500) |
| Wind-lifted or missing shingles | Matched shingles, hand-sealed, underlayment patched | $300 – $800 |
| Dormer or sidewall step flashing short or missing | New step flashing, siding lifted and reset | $450 – $1,100 |
| Decking soft under any of the above | New plywood, $90–$150 per sheet | added to the job |
Roof leak repair in Des Moines lands between $300 and $1,500 on most visits. Past $2,500 on a roof older than about 18 years, we stop and show you what a replacement costs next to it.
Old side of town, new side of town
The city's 1910s–50s houses — Beaverdale, Drake, Highland Park, Union Park, the streets off Hubbell — fail at the chimney and the eaves. The brick chimneys are original and have been flashed with tar and caulk more often than with metal. Chimney flashing repair in Des Moines done properly means cutting a reglet into the mortar joint for the counter-flashing, which is why it outlasts a tube of sealant by decades. Under the shingles is often 1x plank decking with gaps; a patch there needs plywood laid over it first.
The suburbs built after 2000 — Ankeny, Waukee, Grimes, west Johnston — fail at the valleys and the vents. Those roofs went on fast, often with four nails per shingle and a closed-cut valley with no membrane. Shingle roof repair in Des Moines' newer subdivisions is mostly re-sealing a slope the derecho loosened and rebuilding valleys that have leaked since the first heavy rain. Skylight leak repair in Des Moines is a suburban job too; the 2000s houses have the skylights, and the flashing kits give out at about 20 years.
Finding the leak before we price it
The stain on the drywall is almost never below the hole. Water rides a rafter downhill until it hits a nail, then drops. So we go into the attic first, follow the dark trail on the underside of the decking uphill, and mark where it starts; on the roof we check every penetration near that mark. If nothing is obvious, one of us runs a hose on the slope in sections while the other watches from the attic hatch. Half an hour settles nearly every argument about where the water comes from.
In January the attic often shows frost on every nail tip and no trail at all. That is condensation from a bath fan or an unsealed hatch, not a leak. Read roof leak or condensation before you pay anyone.
The gutter that rotted the roof edge
Gutter and roof repair in Des Moines usually turn out to be the same job. A gutter pulled out of level by ice every winter dumps water behind itself, and after a few years the fascia and the first foot of decking are punky. We cut out the rot, sheet the edge, run membrane over it, replace the fascia and drip edge, and re-hang the gutter into solid wood. Re-hanging the gutter alone is how this becomes a yearly call.
Where the trucks go
All of the city, West Des Moines from Valley Junction to Jordan Creek, Ankeny, Urbandale, Johnston, Clive, Waukee, Grimes, Altoona, Pleasant Hill and Norwalk. Our guide to repair versus replacement covers the decision we make on every visit.
Other roofing services
Roof Replacement
Full tear-off, decking check, synthetic underlayment, ice-and-water at the eaves, wind-rated architectural shingles. One to two days, $9,000–$20,000 on most homes.
Roof Replacement →Storm Damage & Claims
Hail, derecho and wind damage documented from the roof, tarped if needed, and written up in a scope your adjuster can follow. No deductible games.
Storm Damage & Claims →Ice Dam Repair
Steam removal of the dam, repair of the damage underneath, and the attic air-sealing and ventilation work that stops it coming back next January.
Ice Dam Repair →Roof Inspection
A walked inspection with photos and a written report — for buying a house, filing a claim, or finding out how many winters the roof has left.
Roof Inspection →Questions we get asked
How soon can you get to a leaking roof in Des Moines?
A roof that is actively dripping goes ahead of everything else, and two or three days is normal outside of storm season. In the week after a hail or wind event we tarp first and come back for the permanent fix when the deck is dry. Water coming through a ceiling light means turn that circuit off and call us the same day.
Will the patch match my roof?
Close enough that you'll have to point it out. Most metro roofs are one of a few architectural shingle lines in charcoal, weathered wood or driftwood, and we carry those. On a roof that has faded for fifteen years, new shingles read a shade darker until they weather in.
Do you do roof repairs in the winter?
Yes. Boots, flashing and decking don't care about the cold. Shingles seal on their own above roughly 40°F; below that we hand-seal every one with roofing cement so wind can't get under them before spring. We clear snow and ice from the work area first, and we don't walk a roof that's glazed.
Can you handle repairs on my rental houses?
Yes. A lot of our repair work is for landlords around Drake, on the east side and in Highland Park. We'll schedule with the tenant directly, email photos and the invoice, and keep a file on each roof so you know what's been done where.
Need roof work in Des Moines?
Call for a free estimate. Mon–Sat 7am–7pm.