Roofing Outfitters’ Post

Transcript

Welcome to Roofing Outfitters. In this video, we'll guide you through an investigation of a roof leak. A leak in your roof can lead to bigger issues if not addressed promptly, so it's important to know what to look for and when to call in a professional. We'll show you some common signs of a leak, explain potential causes, and walk you through our approach to getting your roof back in top shape. Let's dive in and help protect your home from further damage. The customer's claim is that there is soggy decking near the chimney. Looking at these images of the area of concern, there are multiple points that we want to pay close attention to. The first point are the windows. You want to make sure that you look everywhere and not just near the chimney as water can travel side to side if the pitch dictates. Below the windows you can see some fasteners on that bottom 2 inches of the flashing. They do not appear to be sealed in. Exposed fasteners must be sealed in with silicone or caulk unless the fasteners are billed X fasteners. If Buildex fasteners are used, which these could be, they need to be drilled and then basically hand tight. That goes for metal roofs as well. There is a rubber washer that if screwed down too tightly squish out like a can of dough. You don't want that. If you over tighten and split the rubber washer it will most likely be a concern point for water penetration. At that point you must replace with a new build X fastener or cover with silicone or caulk. Between and around the windows you can see dirty spots, which is a telltale sign of water ponding or being subjected to excess weathering. It could be that the entire window area is pitched in the wrong direction. You wanna pay special attention to this area where there is some debris, making sure everything is nice and tight. You could caulk the side of the shingle where it overlaps the metal flashing, but we never caught the bottom. Water always needs a place to escape. We really want to take a look around this area. The next point of concern is the wood siding. It looks to be a bit weathered and possibly cracked. Water can run down that siding and get behind the wall. Once it does that, it can come down underneath the shingles and cause rot around the decking. Next point is this beauty course. It looks like it was nailed on top and although this is OK and will pass inspection, it is not the way roofing Outfitters would do it. What we do on a lower slope roof like this is nail it from underneath by lifting the teeth of the shingle, then silicone or caulk over the nail and press the shingle down. This looks much better and is more resistant to water penetration. Now let's look at the chimney. We see that it's a stone chimney. Stone chimneys are pretty much what we have here in Evergreen, Co. They can be an animal to deal with as a roofer. The flashing we see here is lead flashing, and that is generally the best way to go on these from the onset. I like lead flashing. Lead does not deteriorate, so this area around the lead flashing will be a caulk application. You'll want to inspect and caulk around all the top edges of the flashing all around the chimney here. You can also see some black spots here on the chimney. These may or may not be something of concern, but we want to be sure that they are not holes in the masonry. We want to caulk those in to be safe. Be sure to photograph any masonry or other chimney defects as we want to show them to the homeowner so they can get a chimney company out to inspect further. Lastly, from what we can see in this photo, you wanna go down to the head wall of the chimney where the paint is rubbed off of the flashing. Here we want to check those open face fasteners for split washers and proper sealing with silicone or caulk. When inspecting a roof for leaks, it is important to look at the entire area and not just where the leak is showing up inside the home or the area where the roof seems to be spongy. At Roofing Outfitters, quality is second only to safety. It is important that we fix it right the first time.