Roofing in Providence is a coastal-winter roof. Wind off the bay drives rain up under the courses, then the cold sets ice in the gutters and along College Hill eaves. Triple-deckers on Federal Hill, in the West End, and in Elmwood leak at chimneys, bays, and low porch roofs. Flat roofs on mill buildings in Olneyville pond at the drains. Slate and older metal on the East Side fail at nails and valleys. Name the slope.
A cricket missing behind a chimney lets wet snow sit and melt into the attic. Party walls on tight streets make flashing a shared height problem. Skylights over stairs drip on the thaw that follows a storm. From the sidewalk you can see a lifted edge, a wavy ridge, or a leader that ends in the air. Those are better clues than a stain two rooms away from the actual hole.
Salt air on Fox Point and the lower water-facing streets is hard on metal. A boot that was marginal in September opens in the first serious blow. Two layers of shingles hide soft boards. Ice over a heated stair on the East Side is both a shingle problem and a heat-loss problem. Say whether the attic is open or the top floor is lived in and warm. That changes what has to happen at the eave.
Access is a narrow yard, a rear ell, and often no driveway. Debris comes down stairs people use. Mention roof decks, old mounts, and antennas. A porch roof that joins the main wall is its own leak even when the water shows up in one ceiling. Do not walk a slope that just took a nor'easter. The deck can be soft where the water sat.
Give the neighborhood, flat or pitched, and whether the leak came with the last wind-driven rain. A pond on a mill roof is a different call from ice on a College Hill eave. Mention rusted flashing if you can see it. Call the number on this page.