Metal Roof Repair in San Antonio, TX

Where a Metal Roof Actually Leaks

Almost never through the middle of a panel. On the San Antonio roofs we get called to, water is coming in at a plumbing vent boot that has split in the sun, a skylight curb flashed with caulk instead of metal, a chimney cricket that was never built, a satellite dish or a solar mount screwed straight through the panel, or an old antenna hole somebody forgot. On R-panel and other exposed-fastener roofs, it comes in at the screws: thousands of them, each with a neoprene washer that a Texas summer hardens and shrinks in ten to fifteen years. The stain on the ceiling tells you the leak exists. It rarely tells you where. Finding the entry point is the job, and it is the part most roofers skip on their way to quoting a new roof.

The Repairs We Do

Penetrations. Vent boots, skylight curbs and chimney flashings are rebuilt in metal with proper counter-flashing, not caulked over. This is the single most common repair in San Antonio and it fixes most of the "mystery" leaks we see. Fasteners. Backed-out and weeping screws on exposed-fastener roofs are replaced with oversized screws and new washers, every one of them, not just the ones visible from the yard. Seams and laps. Old sealant is cut out, the joint is cleaned and re-sealed with butyl tape or a metal-roof-rated sealant, and a mechanically seamed standing seam panel that has opened is re-crimped. Panels. A split, punctured or storm-lifted panel is swapped for a colour-matched panel in the same profile where the manufacturer still makes it. Edges and rust. Cut-edge rust on older Galvalume is treated and sealed; a panel that has rusted through is replaced rather than painted.

Hail Is Its Own Job

If the leak started the day of a storm, the repair and the insurance claim have to be handled together, and the inspection has to separate dents that don't matter from punctures and crushed flashing that do. That is a different visit with a different report, and it is described on the hail damage page. If you are not sure what is wrong, or you are buying a house with a metal roof, start with an inspection and let the report decide.

What a Repair Should Not Be

A tube of silicone from the hardware store. Caulk over a failed flashing buys one season and then traps water behind it. A screw tightened into a hole it has already enlarged buys less than that. And a whole new roof is not a repair: if a re-screw or half a dozen panels gets a sound roof another ten years, that is what we quote, in writing, with photos. If the panels have genuinely reached the end of their life, we say that instead and quote a standing seam replacement.

Roofs We Didn't Install

Most of our repair calls are on roofs put up by someone else, usually a general roofer who has since gone back to shingles, or the previous owner's brother-in-law. That is fine. We repair standing seam, R-panel, 5V crimp, metal shingle and stone-coated roofs across the metro: the older metal in New Braunfels and Gruene, the barn and shop roofs around Bulverde and Spring Branch, ridge-line houses in Boerne and Helotes, and the newer standing seam going up in Schertz and Cibolo and Fair Oaks Ranch.

How long does it take? Most repairs are a half day. Re-screwing a whole exposed-fastener roof is one to two days depending on the size.

Frequently asked questions