In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 3 Oct 2015 20:27:24 -0500, Ken
wrote:

Sam Seagate wrote:
I live in the Northeast and we've just had several days of almost
continuous rain. Unfortunately, when I went into the laundry room of
the house today, I happened to notice some water on top of the paper
towel package I keep there. It wasn't much considering all the rain
we've had, probably 1/10 of an ounce if I were to label it, but I do see
the area of the roof that was stained with water. There is no attic in
the laundry room, so I can look right up at the roofing rafters. The
area is quite small and already dry. I quick peak at the area on the
roof itself and I don't see anything suspect, no broken or damaged
shingles that I can see.

This roof is 10 years old and hasn't leaked so far, but I am a bit
concerned, especially since there doesn't appear to be anything obvious.
I'd appreciate any tips as to what I should check and look for. Once
the weather clears, I'll try and post a photo of the area but the
weather is still inclement at this time.

Thanks for any help,
Sam
In addition to the advice others have given, look at the boots around
stack vents. I had a leak that only showed up during excessive rain due
to the stack vent having dropped slightly in the attic. That caused a
dimple to form around the stack vent boot and it caused water to
accumulate in that dimple. It was easy to understand once it was found,
but not at all obvious while searching for it.

I bought my house in May when it was 4 years old, and woke up
Thanksgiving morning to see water dripping from the bedroom ceiling.

Rain was coming in around the metal fireplace chimney. The previous
owner had tried to caulk (with silicone) from the inside, into a deep
cone, and there's no chance that's going to work. I went on the roof
and caulked from the outside with some black roofing caulk, and
everything was fine until I got a new roof 20 years later.

By then I'd noticed that the metal drip collar that goes around a round
metal chimney was missing entirely from that chimney, though the furnace
chimney had one. A couple of my townhouse neighbors were mssing one
also.

Boy, was it hard to buy one. I forget where all I looked -- hardware
stores -- but ended up 20 miles north of here at a fireplace store in
Westminster. Especially strange since there's only one model that fits
all diameters (if you cut the main part as narrow as the leading tab for
chimneys my size. Allow an hour or two to do that if your compulsively
precise. ) I'm sure it works as well as fixed diameter ones, it's just
a two inch skirt to get the water to fall on the roof away from chimney.

I know there's no special reason to suspect your chimney, but since I
found this catalog, here it is,
http://regionalchimneysupply.com/dow...%202010WEB.pdf

Even this place doesn't have it!!!!! It has storm collars 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, and 8" diameter, but I think my chimney's a lot bigger, and also
these have to slide on from the top. On old work, you'd have to remove
the cap. What I wanted wrapped around like a belt and then bent back
to fasten.

It's not like they don't make it. Why is it so hard to find?

Years earlier, when the metal chimney cap broke off and wouldn't stay on
anymore, others had the same problem and no one sold the original cap, w
which was attractive. The new one is less wide and looks funny, in
comparison.

Take a look at the unusual saw on page 37,

http://www.as170.com/index2.html 13 amps.