Roofing in Pittsburgh means a pitched roof on a hill, often steep, with valleys, dormers, and a chimney that the wind in the valley likes to test. Ice dams form at the eaves when the attic is warm. Snow slides onto a porch roof, a lower addition, or the steps. Some houses still wear older slate or a later shingle over a roof that was never simple. A flat parapet is the exception. If you have one, say flat. Otherwise talk about the slope and the eave.
The leak's timing is the hill's timing. Drips while snow is melting point at ice. Drips in a wind-driven rain point at flashing, a lifted edge, or a valley. The uphill side of a house can hold a drift. The downhill side can tear a gutter loose when ice lets go. Look from the ground, from a window, from across the step street. Do not climb a steep frozen roof. Daylight in the attic, granules in the spout, and frost on the nails are enough to start.
Say whether a previous layer is still underneath, if you know. Say if the attic is hot enough to melt snow from below. That is an ice-dam factory. Flashing at sidewalls and chimneys fails on these complicated roofs more often than the middle of a shingle. Access may be steps rather than a driveway to the eave. A porch roof that caught a slide is a different repair from the main slope. Describe both if both are hurt.
Say leak, age, or storm. Ask about underlayment at the eaves, ventilation, and how water leaves once it is under the ice. A patch in the field will not stop backup from a frozen gutter. If you need a dry-in before the next snow, say so. If the deck may be soft under a long leak, say what the ceiling looks like. Slate, if you still have it, is not a shingle job. Name the material you can see.
Leave the flat row roof in the other city. Roofing in Pittsburgh is pitch, ice, and a hill that throws snow at the lower roof. Call the number on this page.