An old girl friend had passed my name on to one of her friends who was looking for builder to finish out some skylight shafts where four new skylights had recently been added during a reroofing job. When I arrived at the “scene” to begin work I had to stop in my tracks. Two of the skylight additions had been put into a low pitched scissor truss roof and ceiling system. Unfortunately four of the eight trusses had been “modified”, three trusses having the rafter and bottom cord cut and one having just the bottom cord cut. Upon informing the homeowners of the situation I was also told about leaking problems they have been having prior to the new roof and since the new metal roof installation.

  I have taken care of the loading issue with the cut trusses by adding an internal ridge beam and appropriate load bearing supports but I would love to hear some feed back on proper roof installation and how to approach the homeowner and contractor regarding the leaking problem.

  The roof low down…  A 3.5/12  pitch transitions into a 2/12 pitch on one side of the house. Two new velux skylights with metal roof flashing kit are installed into the 3.5 pitch, and leak during heavy downpours. One old site built skylight sits on the 2/12 pitch and leaks. The transition flashing between the pitches tends to puddle water like a trough and the lower edge of the transition flashing only overlapes the lower metal roofing by 2.5 inches. The purlins are visible under the  transition if I look up under there a little. The last heavy rain storm the homeowners  had a couple gallons of water come into their kitchen through a hole in the sheetrock ceiling and onto their custom built fir cabinets. The leak occured directly below the old site built skylight on the 2/12 pitch. There is also water signs at the plywood seams in the garage which sits under the 2/12 pitch but further out on the outside of the kitchen wall.  However that water sign is nearer to the newly installed skylight 14 feet away from the old one. The water marks are spread out over a large area under the new skylight. The contractor has been back twice and put a whitish caulking sealant around the sklights and has also installed closure foam flush with the lower edge of the transition flashing. It looks as though a clear silicon was used to seal off  some of the leaking areas also.

   What is proper flashing of the transition and skylights? How about overlaps and sealants per pitch? Who pays for the sheetrock fix in the kitchen and for my time  in figuring out and correcting whats been going on?  

   wow !!  steveo