Going Crazy With Roof Leak
We have done about every possible thing you could do to waterproof our roof and bulkhead. The leaks are about 90% gone. However, everytime there is a heavy rain with a strong wind, a particular leak manifests itself. Our contractor says that he has done everything he can do to waterproof. We really have done…
We have done about every possible thing you could do to waterproof our roof and bulkhead. The leaks are about 90% gone. However, everytime there is a heavy rain with a strong wind, a particular leak manifests itself. Our contractor says that he has done everything he can do to waterproof. We really have done everything! What’s left here? Does anyone have any experince with somone who can accurately diagnose a source of a leak? It’s killing me that it’s such a crapshoot. Any recs highly appreciated. We’re in a brick rowhouse, if that matters. Desperately need to relieve myself of this stress….
After we had our roof replaced and chimney’s rebuilt we also suffered a seemingly untraceable leak. After many water tests we determined the flashing around the chimney’s had a flaw that allowed wind-driven water to penetrate and traverse a beam and so on. Ultimately we redid the flashing and applied a silicone-based breathable sealer for good measure. No more leaks.
I had several roofers out for the same problem. My leak was near a skylight but the flashing was perfectly intact. Nick from Leakmaster wanted to do a new roof (at more than double the price of anyone else wanted for a complete replacement). The rest were head scratching – made general maintenance suggestions for couple thousand but no guarantee.
Premier was suspicious of the skylight glass seal – even though it was relatively new and expensive (Velux) and before doing anything else he covered it with my tarp all last winter – as per morralkan (above). He said if the leaks stopped to get a handyman to caulk the hell out of all the seams, including the glass seal, and buy myself some time before replacing the skylight.
Cost me pennies for the handyman (who was spending the day here) to spend 1/2 hour sealing it. When I’m ready for a new roof, I’m calling Premier.
what you really need is an engineer, not a contractor.
But what an engineer will do is perform a water test to determine the source of the leaks.
You can duplicate the test by putting a shower type head on a garden hose and testing, one piece at a time.
I’m inclined to agree with vinca.
Pay attention to what direction the wind is blowing from next time this happens.
I second the notion of looking at your skylight(s), especially if the leak(s) seem around there. In my case, though, it was not the flashing itself that turned out to be the problem. I had had a new roof put in a couple of years earlier. All of the previous roofing had been removed and new flashing all over included as part of the job. The new roof was not the problem, I was sure. I got a brain flash and decided to buy a piece of thick translucent plastic and duct tape it around the skylight itself, above the flashing line. I left it on there all winter. (After all, who the hell felt like going out on the roof in mid-winter, anyway?) By the time spring arrived, I saw that I had had no further leaks over the winter. In the spring, I got the skylight replaced and have had no further leaks. It cost me less than $!0 to try out my hypothesis and determine the source of the problem.Tthen, of course, a few more bucks for a new skylight.
We’re a frame freestanding house not a row house, but I can recommend Asher at Lester Goldsmith Roofing; we had a leak based on wacky construction that nobody else “got”. They did a massive tearoff (we were beyond patching) and were exemplary.
Sorry- I’ve tried to post my thanks twice and nothing is appearing!The thanks are getting shorter and less gracious- appreciate th help. Qustion: is a roofer able to identify if there are issues with the brick?
Call Mike Sapirstein at Roofmaster NYC, Inc. You need a roofer. I owned a townhouse in Greenpoint and he was a life saver!
I had a similar problem and finally figured out that the flashing near the skylight had gaps. I flashed the sides and near the glass also to make sure there would be leakage. I would suggest the next time it rains go up to the roof and see if there is any pooling and check next to chimney etc.
you could try Nick, who will likely do some simple patch ups around your roof.. but if that doesn’t work, you might need to just go and get a new roof added. I went down that road, and recommend Premier Roofing for the job. I had a bunch of roofers say they “fixed” the problem, that lasted for more than a year of many repeat visits (Nick was there many times). Finally, I just got the new roof.. that was about 5 years ago, and never had a problem since.