Roof leak detection
Finding where the water actually gets in
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.
Dexter sits in Georgia's hail belt, where the spring storm line coming across the state tends to organise. Hail is the dominant roof killer here and it works slowly: the stone bruises the asphalt mat under the granule surface without breaking through, so the roof keeps water out for another season or two and then starts leaking from spots that were damaged years earlier. Add the summer heat load — Laurens County roofs run extremely hot, which ages the shingle and dries out the sealant around every penetration — and the failures cluster around pipe boots, flashing and anything with a rubber component.
Dexter has a population of about 655, 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.
Finding where the water actually gets in
Where two roof slopes meet
Missing, cracked or lifted shingles
Single-ply flat roof membrane
New build and full re-roof
Vinyl, fiber cement and wood
You will get a straight answer on whether Dexter needs someone out today or whether it can wait — before anyone quotes you for anything.
Call (229) 592-0097