Stop Metal Roof Leaking Problems

Most Nassau County homeowners seeing a wet stain under their metal roof assume the panels are shot and they’re facing a $20,000 tear-off. Here’s the reality from nearly two decades of leak tracking: about 85% of metal roof leaking problems we see come from fixable details-loose fasteners, improperly sealed seams, bad flashing at walls or chimneys, or poorly installed penetrations-not from failed metal panels. The panels themselves are usually fine. The water is sneaking in around them.

I’m Vince Martino, and I’ve spent most of my career climbing onto wet metal roofs in Nassau County, tracing ceiling drips back to their real source-sometimes three feet away from where the water finally shows up inside. This guide will show you how to protect your home right now, figure out what kind of metal roof leaking problem you’re actually dealing with, understand the difference between a quick patch and a real fix, and know when you need to call a specialist instead of grabbing a tube of caulk.

Step 1: Protect What’s Under the Leak Right Now

First things first. You don’t need to fix the roof this minute. You need to stop the water from ruining what’s inside.

Contain and Redirect Water Indoors

Move furniture, electronics, files, or anything valuable away from active drips. Put down buckets, plastic bins, or even large storage totes to catch water. If you’re seeing multiple leaks or the drips are widespread, throw plastic sheeting or tarps over what you can’t move-old furniture, stored equipment, inventory. The goal is damage control while you figure out the roof side of things.

Stay Off the Roof When It’s Wet

Wet metal is like ice. Dew-covered corrugated panels at 7 a.m. are just as slippery as the same roof in a downpour. Most homeowners should not climb onto a metal roof themselves, period-and absolutely not when it’s wet or recently rained. I’ve seen people slide off low-slope metal roofs and get seriously hurt. The first phase of “stopping” the leak is interior protection, not a DIY roof climb.

Step 2: Figure Out What Kind of Metal Roof You Have

This matters because the common leak points and proper repairs are completely different depending on your panel system.

Standing Seam vs Corrugated / Exposed-Fastener

Standing seam roofs have flat or slightly curved panels with tall vertical ribs every 12 to 18 inches. You won’t see many screws-they’re hidden underneath clips. These systems are designed to move with temperature changes, which is great for durability but means seams, clips, and end laps are the usual leak suspects.

Corrugated or ribbed roofs have wavy, U-shaped, or angular profiles, and they’re fastened right through the top of the panel every few feet, often into purlins or plywood. You’ll see rows of exposed screws with rubber washers. These roofs leak most often at those fasteners-when screws loosen, tilt, rust out, or the washers dry-rot.

Why It Matters for Leak Repair

If you’ve got standing seam and you start driving new screws through the panels because you saw a YouTube video, you’ve just made new holes and probably voided any warranty. Standing seam leaks are almost always a professional job-you need the right seaming tools, an understanding of thermal movement, and compatible sealants. On the other hand, a very accessible, low-slope corrugated roof might let you tighten a few obviously loose screws as a temporary measure. But even there, knowing which fasteners to touch and how to seal them properly is the difference between a stopgap and another leak in six months.

Step 3: Track Down Where the Metal Roof Is Actually Leaking

Water is sneaky. It enters the roof in one spot, travels along purlins or the underside of panels, then drips onto your ceiling somewhere completely different.

Start from the Inside

Mark the interior wet spot with tape or a photo. If you have attic access or exposed framing, go up there during or right after rain. Look for damp wood, dark stains, or active water running along a rafter or beam. Follow that trail uphill-toward the ridge-until you can see roughly where the water is entering. That’s your target zone on the roof exterior.

Common Exterior Leak Points to Inspect (From the Ground or by Pro)

Don’t climb up yourself, but from a safe vantage-ladder at the eave, binoculars from the yard, or photos from a roofer’s drone-look for these usual suspects:

• Fastener rows on corrugated roofs, especially screws that look crooked, backed-out, rusty, or missing their rubber washers entirely.
• Seams and end laps on standing seam or long panels, particularly near ridges, valleys, or slope changes where wind pressure is highest.
• Roof-to-wall joints, chimneys, parapets, and sidewalls-anywhere flat metal flashing meets the profiled roof without proper closures or counterflashing.
• Penetrations: vents, pipes, skylights, satellite dishes, solar panel mounts, or old antenna brackets-anything cut through the metal after the roof was installed.
• Ridge caps and hips, where foam closures have compressed, sealant has cracked, or screws have loosened, letting wind-driven rain sneak under the cap.

Could It Be Condensation, Not a Leak?

In Nassau County’s humid summers and cool spring mornings, uninsulated or poorly vented metal roofs can “sweat” on the underside, dripping water even on clear days. If you’re seeing broad moisture across large areas-no specific drip points, no correlation with rain-you might have a condensation issue, not a roof leak. That requires adding insulation, improving ventilation, or installing a radiant barrier, not patching holes.

Why Metal Roofs Leak: Top Causes We See

Every metal roof leak has a reason. Here are the big three I’ve chased down on hundreds of Nassau County jobs.

Loose or Failing Fasteners

This is the number-one cause on exposed-fastener roofs. Screws loosen over time from thermal cycling-metal expanding in the sun, contracting at night, every single day for years. The rubber or EPDM washers dry out, crack, or get crushed. Each compromised fastener becomes a tiny hole. Under wind pressure or heavy rain, water gets sucked right in. On a bay-side home in Freeport, we found 47 loose or tilted screws in one 800-square-foot section. The homeowner thought the whole roof was bad. We replaced the fasteners, sealed the old holes, and the leaks stopped.

Seam and Lap Issues on Standing Seam and Long Panels

Standing seam systems are designed to move, but if the clips are spaced wrong, the seams aren’t crimped properly, or end laps weren’t sealed with the manufacturer’s recommended butyl or tape, you get slow leaks that only show up in wind-driven rain. I traced a leak on a Merrick addition to a 30-foot panel run with no expansion allowance-every seam was stressed, and two had cracked open at the top. The fix required re-seaming and adding intermediate clips. Not a DIY weekend project.

Bad or Aging Flashing Details

Metal roofs don’t usually leak in the middle of a panel. They leak where the roof meets something else-a wall, a chimney, a parapet, a lower roof section. Flat step flashing laid over corrugations without shaped closures leaves gaps. Counterflashing that stops an inch short of the panel ribs lets water run sideways into the building. Pipe boots designed for shingles, slapped onto metal with no adapter, crack and split. These transition details account for most of the serious, recurring leaks I see. Fixing them right often means pulling back the flashing, fabricating custom closures or reglets, and rebuilding the whole junction-not just smearing more caulk on top.

Temporary Measures vs Real Fixes: What Actually Stops Leaks

Let’s be honest about what a tube of sealant can and can’t do.

What a Temporary Patch Can Do

If you’ve clearly identified a single small hole-say, one missing screw or a visible crack-and you need to buy a few days until a roofer arrives, a compatible roof sealant or repair tape applied to clean, dry metal might slow the leak. Emphasis on might. If the surface is rusty, dirty, or wet, the patch will fail immediately. If the leak is at a moving seam or a stressed joint, the patch will peel off the first time the roof heats up. Think of this as triage, not repair.

What Professional Leak Repair Looks Like

A real fix starts with diagnosing the cause. We replace failed fasteners with new, correctly sized, gasketed screws in sound substrate-not just the same spots. We clean and prep seams, then re-seal them with butyl tape or urethane designed for metal-to-metal contact and thermal movement. We rebuild flashing details so water sheds away from the joint, not toward it. We add or replace foam closures at ridges and eaves. We treat minor corrosion, prime bare metal, and sometimes sister in a small patch panel if rust has created a hole. The work is methodical, system-specific, and designed to hold up to the next nor’easter-not just pass a garden-hose test.

Full-Roof Coating Is Not a Shortcut

I get calls every summer asking if we can “just coat over” a leaking corrugated roof and call it done. Here’s the truth: coating a metal roof with mechanical problems-loose screws, open seams, bad flashing-will not stop the leaks. Water will still get in at those defects, then sit under the coating and accelerate rust. Coatings and restoration systems are excellent tools when applied to a prepared, repaired roof-they extend life, improve energy performance, and can renew old metal. But they’re not magic paint that seals over neglect. Fix the leaks first, then coat if it makes sense.

When You Should Call a Nassau County Metal Roofing Pro

Some situations are beyond DIY from the start.

Red Flags That Mean ‘Pro Only’

• Steep or high roofs where a fall would be serious, or any roof you can’t safely walk on with proper equipment.
• Multiple leaks, or leaks near walls, chimneys, parapets, or other complex junctions.
• Visible rust, soft spots, or sagging in the roof deck or framing-signs of structural damage.
• Standing seam or other concealed-fastener systems, which are easy to damage and nearly impossible to repair correctly without specialized seaming tools and training.

What a Local Specialist Brings to the Table

A metal roofing contractor who works regularly in Nassau County understands how coastal wind, salt air, and freeze-thaw cycles affect different panel systems. They know which fasteners resist corrosion here, which sealants stay flexible in our temperature swings, and how to flash a metal roof against brick or stucco common in older Nassau homes. They can also give you an honest assessment: is this a $600 fastener and flashing repair, or are you at the point where a $4,000 partial re-roof or $12,000 restoration makes more long-term sense? That conversation-repair vs restore vs replace-requires experience, not guesswork.

Metal Roof Leaks in Nassau County: Local Weather Challenges

Geography and weather patterns shape how and why metal roofs leak here.

Wind-Driven Rain and Nor’easter Conditions

A lot of the metal roof leaking calls we get happen only during big coastal storms-nor’easters that push sideways rain against walls and up under eaves and ridges. A fastener or seam that’s fine in a light shower can leak heavily when wind is forcing water uphill and sideways into every gap. Repairs here must account for those extreme conditions. We test details with wind-load scenarios, not just a static hose. If a flashing or closure can’t handle 40 mph gusts and sheeting rain, it’s going to leak again next winter.

Salt Air and Corrosion Around Leaks

Near the south shore-Long Beach, Island Park, parts of Oceanside-salt spray accelerates rust wherever coating is scratched or fasteners are exposed. A small leak that lets salty moisture reach bare steel or galvanized panels can turn into a hole in a season or two. Good leak repair in these zones includes treating corrosion, upgrading to stainless or coated fasteners, and sometimes applying a protective primer or coating to vulnerable spots-not just stuffing the leak with sealant and walking away.

Frequently Asked Questions About Metal Roof Leaking

Can a leaking metal roof usually be repaired?
Yes, if the panels and structure are sound. Most leaks come from fixable details-fasteners, seams, flashing-not ruined metal. A good inspection will tell you whether targeted repairs work, or if widespread rust or damage means you need a bigger project. In my experience, about 70% of the leaking metal roofs we see in Nassau County can be brought back to reliable, leak-free condition with focused repairs and detail upgrades.

Will more caulk stop my metal roof from leaking?
Rarely, and not for long. Caulk applied over dirt, rust, or moving joints peels off fast. It should complement mechanical repairs-new fasteners, proper seams, rebuilt flashing-not replace them. I’ve re-roofed houses where the previous owner applied five layers of caulk and tar over 10 years. It never worked because the underlying problem-loose screws and bad wall flashing-was never addressed.

Do metal roof leaks mean I need a whole new roof?
Not usually. Small to moderate leaks often mean you need better details, not new panels. A professional inspection will give you options: repair, restore with coating, partial replacement of damaged sections, or full replacement if the roof is shot. Cost-wise, repairs can run $800 to $3,500 depending on scope, while restoration might be $4 to $7 per square foot, and full replacement starts around $10 to $14 per square foot for quality work in Nassau County.

How fast can a roofer respond to a metal roof leak in Nassau County?
Response time depends on season and storm damage backlogs. During peak leak season-late fall through early spring-you might wait a few days to a week for a full repair visit. Most contractors, including TWI Roofing, will prioritize active leaks and can often provide temporary tarping or emergency sealing within 24 to 48 hours if weather allows, then schedule the real fix once conditions are right.

Do you fix metal roof leaks across Nassau County?
Yes. TWI Roofing handles metal roof leak diagnosis and repair on residential and small commercial buildings throughout Nassau County-from coastal communities like Long Beach and Island Park to inland towns like Garden City, Hicksville, and Massapequa. We’ll inspect your roof, trace the leaks, explain what’s happening and why, and give you a clear repair plan with realistic costs and timelines. Call us to schedule a visit, and bring any photos, past repair records, or notes on when the leaks happen-that history helps us get to the root cause faster.

Stop Your Metal Roof Leak-and Keep It from Coming Back

Metal roof leaking problems are fixable. The key is understanding that the leak almost never means your panels are junk-it means a detail failed, and that detail can be corrected. Protect your home’s interior now, figure out roughly where and why the roof is leaking, and then let someone with the right tools, materials, and experience fix the underlying problem-not just patch over it.

If you’re in Nassau County and you’re tired of chasing drips or worried that one small leak will turn into a big insurance claim, reach out to TWI Roofing. We’ll come out, trace the water, explain what we find in plain language, and give you a repair plan that’s built to handle coastal wind, salt air, and the temperature swings we deal with here. Bring any photos of ceiling stains, leak history, or past repair attempts-they help us narrow down causes fast and avoid the “let’s try this and see” approach that wastes your time and money.

Stop the leak. Fix it right. And keep your metal roof doing what it’s supposed to do-keeping you dry for decades.