Every time it rains hard here in sunny southern california, I get a leak that drips through the ceiling fan/heater in the bathroom. I climbed onto the asphalt shingle roof and checked around the vent pipe which was recently retrofitted into an existing roof. Everything looked OK, but I loaded on some Henry’s around the vent pipe and carefully tacked down the shingles in that area that looked like they were lifting up.
The next time it rained it was still leaking so peered into the crawlspace above the bathroom ceiling. There wa a wet spot right next to where the vent pipe goes through the roof (on one side only).
Can anyone tell me what’s going on? I there anything I can do to stop the leak, short of pulling of the shingles and reflashing?
Thanks,
joe
Replies
hope you have at least 4/12 roof with those shingles or else get more henry's and cross fingers
Have you checked the boot to see if it has failed? Be careful when applying roofing type cement, many times the cement is applied below the leak, blocking drainage, the water comes down, is dammed from continuing, builds back up and comes through the sheeting..
That's what i was starting to think.
Excellence is its own reward!
We had a similar problem some years back, after cutting in another vent line into the same through-the-roof pipe. What had happened was that the pipe running through the roof jack had shifted enough that the rubber collar was no longer tight around the pipe. The short-term solution was to buy another roof jack, which I just slipped down over the existing one. Later, I installed it properly, slipping the uphill side under the shingles and tacking it down.
It's startling how small a gap will result in leaks.
Joe,
I don't have a lot of experience with this, but in the experience that I do have, if the flashing isn't done right, all of the sealant in the world won't stop the leak.
If the water isn't getting in between the pipe and the flashing, then the flashing probably needs to be removed and (a new one?) reinstalled.
Another day, another tool.
you could have this fixed properly, in about 5 minutes for the cost of a simple service call-------or you can continue to smear tar in ever widening circles.
I had a similar problem after I had hooked up a new vent to the existing vent which went through the roof. Figuring it to be a seal failure of the boot around the pipe, I put some sealant around that. When that failed, I put another boot flashing over top of it. Still a leak. Then I looked for other problems - and found a shingle that had cracked just above the vent. The crack was horizontal, and just at the edge of the overlap of two shingles, so it was hard to see. However, at that overlap was also the location of the top of the vent flashing. A shingle replacement, and all was good!
What is a henry?
Anytime that I have ever successfully fixed a leak has been when I removed the surrounding area and reinstalled it. Plus it is harder to keep going back up on your roof and half fixing it and just hoping for the best. Redo it and you'll be glad you did.
Like he says, excellence is it's own reward. Who says that? And how do you get those cool little sayings on the bottom like that?
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Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
I agree, the thing to do is open up everything that was done in this modification and check it all out/replace it. Odds are the shingles are mainly decorative, and the real water barrier is felt or some synthetic sheeting under them. Then somebody slapped this tin thing on top of the actual barrier, and water from above just runs under the tin. It probably just needed to be properly cut in so it sheds water. Adding Henry's to this just puts more mess in the way of whoever comes along later to do it right.
-- J.S.
Henry's is a tar like roofing repair compound.
Thanks, everyone for your help and ideas for fixing the roof leak.
I'll get at it this week and report back
Joe