Chimney and flashing leaks
Leaks around the chimney stack
EPDM is a rubber membrane used on flat roofs, bonded rather than welded, with seams made using tape or adhesive. It fails at those seams, at upstands where the material turns up a wall, and through shrinkage over time pulling the membrane away from its terminations. It is durable in the field and repairable almost indefinitely, so a leaking EPDM roof is rarely a replacement job.
Atlanta gets the full range — freeze-thaw cycling through winter, severe convective storms with hail and straight-line wind in spring and summer, and enough temperature swing between them to work every joint on the roof loose. Freeze-thaw is the quiet one: water finds a hairline gap in flashing, freezes overnight, expands, and opens it slightly wider, repeating through a Logan County winter until a joint that was watertight in October is leaking by March. Spring brings the loud damage, and derechos have put straight-line wind through this region at speeds that take ridge caps and whole shingle courses. Housing stock here is older than average, which means a lot of roofs where the flashing has already been through several decades of that cycle.
Atlanta has a population of about 1,669, and the housing stock here sets the pattern for what fails first on a roof.
Over many years, slightly — enough to put tension on upstands and terminations, which is where older rubber roofs most often fail. It is repairable by releasing and redressing the affected edge rather than recovering the roof.
No. They are different chemistries and the adhesives and tapes are not interchangeable. Using TPO products on EPDM produces a repair that looks fine and fails within a season.
Leaks around the chimney stack
Fasteners, washers and seams
Bruising and granule loss
What repairs actually cost here
Full tear-off and new covering
Replacing a failed roof window
You will get a straight answer on whether Atlanta needs someone out today or whether it can wait — before anyone quotes you for anything.
Call (706) 696-1888