Greetings! We’ve got an old roof that financially we can’t replace right now (hopefully we’ll be able to in a few months) so we’re limited to patching leaks as best as we can and hoping for some advice in doing so. What we’re looking at is a typical ranch home roof nightmare – original shake roof with multiple layers of asphalt shingles on top so the only sheathing is the original 1×4 furring strips. The leaks are coming from a few areas where 1x4s here and there are rotting. Ideally I’d like to replace the 1x4s that are bad but shingling in to those without adding plywood sheathing was the problem to begin with as the nails split some of the furring strips. Of course – adding patching in plywood would give me raised areas which creates new issues. So – I’m thinking pulling off what’s bad, replacing the 1×4 if feasible (I can’t tell how long they are but the roof joists are 24″ so I assume either 6′ or 8′) and patching in some 26 gauge aluminum under existing asphalt shingles with roofing tar and then feather the tar in 8″ in each direction on top. I’m not going for pretty as it’s all a turd right now and black patches won’t look terrible on a silver roof and much better than holes and sags but I’m open to all advice and ideas.
Thanks!
Eric
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Do you have cedar shakes on furring with asphalt shingles on top? I've never seen or heard of that but I guess there is always something new. It sounds like a mess from the get-go and I don't see any reasonable way to fix it. You'll have to remove the asphalt shingles as well as the shakes to make the repairs. Each repair could make the leak worse. If you are going to replace it all in the near future I'd be inclined to coat it all with aluminized asphalt and cross my fingers.
Yea - it's actually a fairly typical cheap roofer thing they used to do on houses - shingle directly over shakes. Pretty much a kick-the-can-down-the-road kind of fix. I've done some patching from inside the attic with good results just using fiberglass repair fabric and rubberized wet patch roof cement so that's more or less what I'm going to attempt on the outside with some aluminum flashing as needed. Moving leaks around is a potential issue as you mention but I guess it is what it is at this point. Maybe I should go do a drought dance! lol!