Why roofs fail
Ask anyone who repairs roofs where they leak and the answer is the same: not in the middle, but wherever the roof meets something else.
The six
What this region does to a roof
A winter that crosses the freezing line dozens of times, working every nail, sealant strip and joint with each pass. A July that cooks under-ventilated attics and ages coverings from below. A canopy that keeps valleys damp and gutters full in the older suburbs. And, on the pre-war and city stock, the specialty details — cornice gutters, brick counterflashing, parapets — that fail long before the shingle field does. Most of what ends a roof here traces back to one of those.