Connecticut winters are hard on roofs in a very specific way. It is not the cold itself — it is the number of times a roof crosses freezing and thaws again. Every one of those cycles expands water that has worked its way into a seam, then contracts it, and slowly opens a gap that was watertight in November.
By late March most of the damage from that cycle is visible if you know where to look. Here is how we inspect a roof after winter, in the order we do it.
Start from the ground with binoculars
You can learn a surprising amount without leaving the lawn. Walk the full perimeter and look at each roof plane against the sky, where the silhouette makes irregularities obvious.
- Missing, lifted, or curled shingles — especially along ridges and rake edges where wind gets underneath
- Dark patches in the shingle field, which usually mean granule loss and an aging surface
- Sagging along the ridge line or between rafters, a sign of moisture in the deck
- Gutters pulled away from the fascia, or downspouts separated at the elbows
- Shingle granules collecting in the gutters or at the base of downspouts
Then go into the attic — before you go on the roof
The attic tells you more than the roof surface does, and it is far safer to inspect. Go up on a bright day and turn off the lights.
Daylight coming through anywhere other than a vent is an obvious problem. Less obvious, and far more common, are dark staining on the underside of the sheathing, rusted nail points, damp or compressed insulation, and any smell of must. Each of those means moisture is reaching the deck, whether from a leak above or from condensation caused by poor ventilation.
Know what ice dam damage looks like
Ice dams form when heat escaping through the ceiling melts snow on the upper roof, the meltwater runs down to the cold eave, and it refreezes there. The ridge of ice that builds up holds standing water behind it, which then works backward under the shingles.
The evidence is usually indoors first: staining on the ceiling near an exterior wall, peeling paint at the top of a wall, or a damp patch at the corner of a room. Outdoors, look for heavy icicle formation along one particular section of eave — that is where the heat loss is.
The permanent fix is rarely on the roof surface. It is ice-and-water shield at the eaves, sealed air leaks in the ceiling below, and balanced attic ventilation that keeps the roof deck cold.
Check the flashing, because that is usually the leak
In our experience, most spring leak calls trace back to flashing rather than shingles. Chimneys, sidewalls, valleys, plumbing vent boots, and skylights are all places where the roof surface is interrupted and water has to be routed around something.
If a previous repair used caulk as the primary defense, expect it to have cracked over the winter. Sealant moves and shrinks with temperature; formed metal that overlaps correctly does not.
When to call someone
Call if you see any interior staining, any daylight in the attic, more than a couple of missing shingles, or granules accumulating heavily in your gutters. Those are all things that get more expensive the longer they wait.
Ever Pro Builders inspects roofs across our Connecticut service area at no charge, and we document what we find with photographs so you can see the actual condition rather than take a verbal description on faith. If a repair is the right answer we will say so — and if a roof still has years left, we will say that too.