Roofing in Charleston is salt, lift, and rain that blows uphill. Hurricanes and strong tropical winds try to peel edges, bend flashing, and work nails loose. The rest of the year, humidity and salt mist rust metal, crack pipe boots, and keep a small leak wet. Peninsula roofs are often cut up by old chimneys, dormers, and low porches. Newer roofs in Mount Pleasant or Summerville may be long and simple and still lose a ridge when the wind comes off the water. Both metal and shingle corrode or bake in this air.
Look from the yard. A lifted eave, a stain under a piazza roof, granules in a gutter, or a boot split at the vent are enough to describe. Live oak limbs scrape and puncture. Palmettos are a different debris. If the attic is accessible, say whether the deck looks darkened. Many raised houses let you learn more from a crawl or a stair than from a climb. Stay off a wet or wind-damaged slope. A tarp is a pause so plaster and old plaster survive. It is not a result.
Ask for repair versus tear-off, new underlayment, and flashing at every wall and chimney, not only a field of shingles. Soft decking is common where a leak met constant humidity. Ask who handles rotten wood when the tear-off finds it. Fasteners and flashing should be chosen for salt, not for a dry county. After a blow, leave the damaged pattern visible in photos even if you cover the hole. Inland pine tracts toward Summerville take falling trees and long rain more than they take salt spray. Say which house you have.
Ventilation still matters. A closed attic in this heat cooks the covering from below and drips condensate that gets blamed on the storm. Low piazza and porch roofs are their own leaks. They often fail at the tie-in to the main wall. Say if the water shows up over a gallery or only in an upstairs room, and say the material you can see.
Say leak, lift, or a roof that is finished, and say whether a tropical wind started it. Roofing in Charleston begins with the harbor weather, not with a generic southern shingle. Call the number on this page.