Roof and internal leak paths
We assess visible staining, failed surfaces, roof details, pipe routes and ceiling voids to build a picture of where water is actually getting in, rather than just treating the ceiling where it happens to be showing. Water rarely travels in a straight line, a leak entering at a chimney flashing or a parapet gutter can track along a rafter and appear on a ceiling several feet from the actual entry point, which is why tracing the path matters as much as spotting the stain. Where specialist detection or plumbing isolation is required, such as tracing a hidden pipe leak under a solid floor or behind a shower wall, the repair scope can be coordinated around it, so the building fabric work starts as soon as the source is confirmed rather than waiting for a separate contractor to be found from scratch. Ceiling voids in particular can be misleading, a void often spans the full width of a room and connects to neighbouring rooms or the loft space, so water entering at one point can pool, run along a joist and drip down somewhere else entirely, which is why we trace the void itself rather than just working back from where the stain happens to be visible. In terraced and semi-detached properties, it's also worth checking whether a leak is genuinely internal or linked to a neighbouring property's roof or guttering, since shared or closely adjoining roofscapes mean a defect next door can sometimes show up as damage on your side of the party wall. Where that turns out to be the case, we'll say so plainly rather than repairing the same spot repeatedly, since the underlying fix in that scenario needs to happen on the neighbouring property, not on yours.