Roof Leak Causing Wood Rot, New Braunfels Texas

What this shows: An active roof leak in New Braunfels with wood rot at the attic level, damage that grows every month the leak goes on. It belongs here to show what an ignored leak becomes.

A leak stops being a roof problem at the point the decking goes soft. Oriented strand board loses strength as it takes on moisture and delaminates rather than simply staining, and once a sheet has gone it has to be replaced during the roof, which is a line item on an estimate that was not there when the leak started. Rot also moves along the framing rather than staying under the entry point, so the wet area in the attic is usually larger than the stain on the ceiling suggests. This is the argument for looking in the attic at the first sign of a leak instead of at the first sign of a ceiling stain.

Published March 2026. Roof Deck and Underlayment covers this subject in full, and roofing in New Braunfels is the local page for this work.