I'd appreciate some expert advice from the brain trust here on these two issues:

1. During our rain storms last night we had a leak start dripping through the door molding from the kitchen to the Great Room. Fortunately I have easy access to that section of the attic and could easily ID where the leak was coming through the roof vs. the ceiling.

The issue, obviously, is figuring out where the leak starts vs. where it's coming through a shingle nail hole. This leak point is about 8' above the bottom edge of the roof, or about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way down from the peak... and about 3' over from a valley.

The roof is now 21 years old, Owens Corning Oak Ridge architectural 3-tab shingles with a 25(?) yr. warranty, which may not be worth much at this point.

There is NO obvious damage to the roof other than its age is showing up in loss of granules. I had it inspected two years ago and at that point I was told to plan for "4-5 years" before I'd need to think about replacing it.

Is there a 'trick' to tracking down how high up the roof the actual leak is coming from? I've inspected the interior of the roof sheathing in the attic and the ONLY evidence of any leakage is this one, with some evidence of wet spots farther down and to the right where the water apparently first showed itself.

Also, can anyone personally recommend a residential roofer they'd trust in the Anderson area? I've got a guy from Findlay Roofing ('Roof Roof') coming over on Monday to take a look, but if we start talking replacement I'll be getting multiple bids for sure.

2. When we built the house I had 5/4" kiln-dried red cedar used for the back deck, railing and stairs. The deck boards are at the point where I need to replace all of it, partly because the builder didn't put the 1/8" gaps between the boards like I asked so water never drained properly after a rain and the cedar has finally given up and rotted, but I also gave up using sealer because it seemed like more trouble than it was worth (Thompson's sucks).

The original treated joists, et al, are fine and the brick columns and footers underneath are good-as-new.

I've priced out the "YellaWood KDAT" as a base product. Any idea what kind of life-span can be expected from this treated wood?

What other reasonably priced products might you guys recommend? I've looked briefly at Trex, MoistureShield, and TimberTech, but none real seriously as yet.

I'm not looking to build a high-end deck for parties. Just a quiet little space (14'x18'+/-) off the Great Room and Sun Rooms to sit and watch the wildlife from time to time.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and tips.