Roof Leak Repair in Benton, AR

Old core, newer ring: two kinds of Benton roofs

Mid-century homes near downtown

The streets around the Saline County Courthouse hold many mid-century houses, some with brick chimneys and roofs patched many times over. A small leak at a chimney or valley can go unnoticed for years because it only wets the attic. By the time a stain shows on a ceiling, the decking around it has often softened. On these jobs, roof decking repair and chimney flashing repair usually happen on the same visit.

1990s to 2010s subdivisions

Farther out along Alcoa Rd, Military Rd and Hwy 35, newer subdivisions show the usual wear for their age: lifted tabs, nail pops, cracked pipe boots and worn ridge caps. These leaks tend to be caught early and stay small, and a standard roof leak repair handles them.

Benton landmarks and roads we cover

Work runs from the blocks around the courthouse square out along Military Rd and Alcoa Rd, north up Hwy 5 past Longhills Golf Course, and southeast along Hwy 35. Tyndall Park and the wooded streets toward the Saline River on the east side of town round out the area.

Checking for rot before the roofer arrives

On older Benton homes, a look in the attic with a flashlight tells you a lot. Watch for:

• Dark or stained wood on the underside of the deck, especially around the chimney and vent pipes.
• Daylight showing between boards where it should not.
• Rusty or wet nail tips after a rain.
• A dip or wave in the roofline when you look from the street.

Never walk on a roof that feels soft. Our guide to the signs of rotted roof decking explains what each sign means and when it is urgent.

Gann Row and the streets south of the square: Benton's oldest roofs

A few blocks south of the courthouse, the Gann Row Historic District covers the blocks bounded by Pine, Market, Maple and South Main streets. Its thirteen houses went on the National Register in 1999: Folk Victorian homes built in the 1880s and updated in the 1920s, plus Craftsman houses from that same decade, most of them put up by Dr. Dewell Gann Sr. His 1893 office at 218 South Market, now the Gann Museum, is the only known building made of bauxite blocks.

• Plank decking. Rotted boards are cut back to sound wood and replaced with lumber of the same thickness, so new shingles lie flat.
• Open eaves. On Craftsman roofs, water past a worn drip edge rots the first boards and the exposed rafter tails.
• Porch tie-ins. Where an old porch roof meets the wall, the flashing is often the oldest metal on the house.

The same details show up on individually listed homes near downtown, such as the Clary House on North East Street and the Walton House on West Sevier Street.

Long-running leaks near the square: why decking and chimney work come together

Benton roughly doubled, from 17,717 people in 1980 to 35,014 in 2020, so most of the town's roofs sit in the newer ring. The older houses around Charles L. Thompson's Romanesque Revival courthouse, built at the turn of the twentieth century, are where leaks have had the longest to run. A chimney sealed with roofing cement every few years can wet the same boards for several winters before a stain shows on the ceiling.

So one visit usually covers both jobs, in this order:

1. Attic and probe. Layered stain rings around the chimney mean the wood has soaked and dried many times; an awl shows where it is soft, and you get photos.
2. Open the section. Shingles and old flashing come off around the chimney, and the rot is cut back until the wood is firm.
3. New boards, then new metal. Fresh decking goes in first, then underlayment, step flashing woven in with the shingles, and counterflashing set into the mortar joints instead of glued to the brick face.
4. Close up. Shingles are matched as closely as the old roof allows.

Ask that the written estimate explain how extra boards are priced if the rot runs past what could be seen from the attic. Our roof decking repair page covers that half of the job in detail.