Leak on flat roof

[dodo]

I have a small leak on a flat roof, I have roof felt in the shed, now how do go about sticking it down to the roof.
So do I get hot tar put it on the roof then place felt on top of the tar and let it stick.
I have seen people using hot tar on roofs before,but how would I get such tar and how would I get it so hot,or is there a different way, cheers

 

[handyman999]

I would suggest that you inspect the roof to find the source of the leak, ie.inspect the flashing at the sides and any joinings in the felt or around any skylights that are installed,thompsons make a range of products that can provide a very good patch repair and can be bought in any good hardware shop, this could provide a solution for now until the weather gets better, I wouldent reccomend re felting a flat roof your self unless you have some previous experience, hope this helps..

Eamon
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[Mommah]

We have recently been through a whole world of pain in this exact area.
My hubby is fairly handy with DIY stuff.
We got roofers in but they were a disaster and actually made the problem worse.

The real difficulty with a flat roof is figuring out where the leak is coming from.
It often doesn't correspond to where its staining on the inside.

Checking obvious things like flashing etc like the pp said are is a good idea and easy enough to fix.
Using a hose up on the roof with someone supervising the leaking area from the inside, is also a good way of diagnosing the problem.

Any way we bought a roll of roofing felt and watched lots of videos on youtube how to do it and rented a blow torch and gas for a week. It took a while but eventually we fixed it good and proper. Cost about €150 all in.

It is quite dangerous heating roofing felt as you can set fire to it.
You need to practice with the torch a bit on the ground first, before you set fire to the house!!
That's how they started the fire in Guinness's I believe..a blow torch and roofing felt.

A few years ago I fixed a small problem (hubby was away) with some bathroom sealant on the roof...not pretty but lasted a few years

 

[Brendan Burgess]

The real difficulty with a flat roof is figuring out where the leak is coming from.
It often doesn't correspond to where its staining on the inside.

Very good point.

During very heavy rain, my garage gets soaked. So eventually I got an experienced builder to look at it.

We got up on the roof and he just glanced at the roof itself and then started inspecting the gable wall above the roof in some detail. (It was a bit like when I went to a physio with a pain in my leg and she told me to take my shirt off!)

Anyway my problem was that in heavy rain with a certain strong wind, the rain is thrown against the gable end of the house. The covering on the wall (mortar?) has deteriorated over the years so the rain just goes through it. It hits the bricks and just filters down the wall. Hits the roof on the inside and drops down the wall. He had suspected this from my telling him that the wall was particularly wet. The rest of the wet came from the water following the rafters out into the middle of the roof.

He sprayed the gable end with silicon(?) and this has fixed the problem.

Brendan

 

[dodo]

Hi Eamon, I inspected the roof and there seems to be a little cut in the felt,so a patch job might do the trick, can you tell me exactly what I should be asking for in a hardware, will I need to heat anything ?

I would suggest that you inspect the roof to find the source of the leak, ie.inspect the flashing at the sides and any joinings in the felt or around any skylights that are installed,thompsons make a range of products that can provide a very good patch repair and can be bought in any good hardware shop, this could provide a solution for now until the weather gets better, I wouldent reccomend re felting a flat roof your self unless you have some previous experience, hope this helps..

Eamon
[broken link removed]

 

[handyman999]

hi dodo, have a look here [broken link removed]

Eamon
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[sfag]

If the felt is anyway old get your whole roof done by a good tradesman. Its not that dear to do.

From experience of patching it never works.

Getting the right man in, however, will be difficult as many claim to be roofers but few are good at it.

 

[handyman999]

If the felt is anyway old get your whole roof done by a good tradesman. Its not that dear to do.

From experience of patching it never works.

Getting the right man in, however, will be difficult as many claim to be roofers but few are good at it.

As I mentioned in the earlier post patching is only a (solution for now) until the weather gets better,the priority is to stop the ingress of water straight away before it causes more damage to the woodwork or ceiling internally,

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[onq]

Well, a plastic sheet will stop the ingress of water handyman999.

I get the feeling that the OP views re-roofing an unfortunate expense she'd rather avoid.

We may see a lot of thigs like this, where people may put themselves at risk carrying out repairs at a height with hot substances to avoid spending a few hundred quid - and in the present climate that's entirely understandable.

But its important to ensure that the people who are being tempted to carry out skilled or risky work know that there are significant risks involved and at the very least they should wear proper safety equipment and take preventive measures to avoid falls when working on a height.

To underline the issue in this thread - the OP will save nothing she or her husband suffer serious burns because of kneeling on a roof doing torch-on felting, because there's not a proper stand to work off - and the costs will only mount if, as a consequence of the burns, someone falls off the roof and lands heavily.

I'm not being a doom and gloom merchant

Amateurs who intend to carry out work that would require a special risk assessment sheet to be filled out by competent contractors under the health and safety legislation need to have the risks spelt out to them.

HTH

ONQ.

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