Flat roof leak detection
Water is coming in, the stain is nowhere near the source, and every patch so far has fixed the wrong spot. Electronic testing finds the breach itself and marks it on the roof and on a plan, so the next repair goes where the water enters. Over 75,000 leaks located.
Why flat roofs beat guesswork
A flat roof can be breached at any point in its life: a fastener dropped during construction, a trade walking it after handover, weather, age, a seam that never sealed. The breach is usually too small to see, and the water it lets in travels along the assembly before it shows inside. So the visible evidence (the stain, the drip, the wet tile) points at the wrong place, and repairs aimed at it fail one after another.
Electronic leak detection ends the guessing. It reads the membrane itself, registers every point where it is compromised, and produces a marked plan of each one. Repairs get aimed at breaches instead of symptoms, and each repair can be re-tested to prove it holds.
Two ways to test, carried in-house
High voltage
No water at all. A conductive brush sweeps the dry membrane and registers every breach down to pinholes, including on vertical surfaces and details. The most versatile method.
Low voltage
A thin film of water carries the signal and probes trace it to the breach. Tests finished roofs in service, in many cases through pavers or vegetation without lifting them.
Which one fits is a property of the roof: membrane, deck, overburden, wet or dry. Both are in-house, so the roof gets the right test, and the answer to "which one" is a phone call: (888) 696-6429.
When owners test a roof that isn't dripping
- Close-out of a new roof, before the warranty clock starts
- Real estate transactions: know what the roof is before it is yours
- New building enclosure commissioning
- Roofing warranty transfer
- Insurance claims
- Dispute resolution: an independent answer both sides can accept
Wondering whether the insulation is already wet? That is a different question with its own tools; see infrared and nuclear roof moisture surveys. A leak test finds where water gets in; a moisture survey maps where it already went.
Flat roof questions
Why can nobody find where my flat roof is leaking?
Because on a flat roof, water travels. It enters at a breach, runs along the membrane, the insulation, or the deck, and shows up inside the building somewhere else entirely. Patching under the drip fixes nothing. Electronic testing works from the membrane side and finds the entry point itself, which is the only place a repair actually stops the leak.
How small a leak can the test find?
Down to pinholes: breaches far too small to see, including ones that have not let enough water through to show inside yet. Most flat roof leaks start exactly that size and grow. Finding them early is the difference between a spot repair and replacing wet insulation across half the roof.
Does the roof have to be torn open to find the leak?
No. The test is non-destructive from start to finish: nothing is cut, cored or flooded. An electronic signal locates each breach, the technician marks it on the roof and on a plan, and the report documents every finding with photographs.
Why test a roof that is not leaking yet?
The common reasons owners test a dry roof: closing out a new roof before the warranty starts, a real estate transaction, transferring a roof warranty, commissioning a new building enclosure, an insurance claim, or a dispute that needs an independent answer. In each case the value is the same: a documented statement of where the roof stands, from a firm with no stake in the answer.
Tell us what the roof is doing
Where the water shows up, what the membrane is, roughly how big the roof is, and what has been tried. You will get a straight answer on which test fits and what it costs, and if testing is not the right move, we will say that instead.