Roofing in New Orleans is wind-driven rain under lifted edges, valleys on camelbacks, and low gallery roofs that scoop water into the wall. The yard does not have to flood for the ceiling to fail. Say whether the stain is in the gallery, under a valley, or beneath a boot, and whether it appears only when the rain comes with wind.
Uptown and Garden District roofs hide complicated planes, slate on some of the larger houses, metal, and asphalt, often with a nearly flat gallery or addition tied into the wall. Rain is blown uphill under the laps and runs sideways until it finds plaster. A camelback adds a valley and a short upper story that dumps onto a lower roof. Shotgun roofs are long and simple until a porch tie-in or a roof vent boot becomes the only leak.
Oak litter packs gutters and valleys so water stands and then backs under the edge. Step flashing at brick and stucco rots out. Skylight curbs and bath boots leak in a blow and get blamed on the whole field. Deck boards on old houses are often spaced sheathing, and a soft spot means the repair is wood, not only a surface. Termites may have already hollowed the gallery framing that the roof sits on. New shingles over that framing will not hold.
Wind can bruise or lift without stripping a slope bare. Look, if you can do it safely from a dormer window or an attic hatch, for daylight, wet boards, and nails that have rusted through. Granules in the downspout, a lifted eave you can see from the gallery, and a ceiling map that grows after each blow are enough to start. Slate that has slipped is a different material from three-tab that has lost its bond.
Call with the neighborhood and the form. Raised shotgun, camelback, center hall with a gallery, or a slab ranch in Gentilly, Lakeview, or the East. Metal, slate, or asphalt. Say which rooms stain and whether the leak needs wind. Mention a low porch that ties into the main wall. The trade needs the plane that took the sideways rain. Give them that plane, not a history of every storm you remember. Call the number on this page.