Replies

1. 
   junkhound | Sep 15, 2004 05:46pm | #1

   More info?

   built in gutters?

   obvious cracks?

   leak downslope from any vent pipe?

   for just 2 years you may get away with a fiber cement patch job, but a leak in a builtup roof can be very subtle, as in leaking at a vent pipe and coming out downslope, even 10 feet to the side.  Most of the old texts of BU roofs recommend a new roof or adding another layer of tarpaper and tar after a torchdown&roller application.

2. 
   Sphere | Sep 15, 2004 05:57pm | #2

   you ain't gonna like this....

   garden hoe, FLAT shovel, 5 gal buckets, wheel barrow.

   scrape the gravel away..save it in a bucket or wheelbarrow.

   ALOT will stay stuck..we hope.

   get ya sone 5 gal buckets of roof sealer, and a gal or so of roof cement...pour it all over, look for obvious places where the sealer "sinks in" a crack...cement that..reseal over that.

   let it sit..let it rain..or hose it...repeat if needed...when no leak happens RESEAL it and spread the gravel in the wet sealer.

   now the easy way...tear it all up, and rubberoof it.

    

   Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

   Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations. 

1. 
   Piffin | Sep 15, 2004 07:35pm | #3

   Sphere, all that advice will do is make it harder to find and fix the leak. believe me, I have come behind the handyman repairs like that at least fifty times. Take a seat and watch the master do it, son.

   ;)

   Most leaks in an older BUR roof like this are from one of two things. Either there is a split in the membrane near a lap or the paper has a separation in the seal to the gravel stop edge metal. The location of this one suggests the latter.

   Best way to locate it is to go up there while it is raining or immediately afterwards. By carefully walking the area back and forth, niine times out of eight, your foot pressure wil cause water partialy trapped in the layers to squirt back out or air therein to do the same. By watching around where you walk carefully and walking slowly, you will see signs of the entry, either in water squirts or air bubbles. Sometimes you can hear it. Do this enough and it becomes instinctive. Used to take me twenty minutes or so all the time. After a few years, I could mostly go straight to it.

   Once you have it located and marked look around some more, because once a roof has aged to the point where this is happening, they starto show up like dominoes - that is unless it is a newer roof. Then sometimes there is a solitary leak due to caeless application or negligence by the roofers.

   OK - the leaks are located and identified. Now it is time to sweep the water off the roof and get it dry. Then on a cold morning, you can use a spud bar - DIYs don't have spud bars but they can use a 14" flat Stanley nail bar or an ice chipper with blade similar to a hoe but straight in line - to chip and scrape the gravel off the surface. This needs to be done carefully to get it loose without tearing the tarpaper under it. That is why it should be done before the sun hits it in early AM. Clean it back 6" around site of the leak. Sweep it well to remove dust and debris.

   a BUR roof is built up by nailing a base sheet down to the deck, then hot-mopping two to four layers of 15" perforated tarpaper on. That is the actuall roof. The tar and gravel is only a surfacant to keep the UV rays of the sun from drying the volatile oils out of the and letting it crack. some leaks are in roofs too old where the gravel has been wind swept and the tarpaper under is dryed out and cracking. if this is the case, Sphere's method is just about as good as any 'cause the roof is cooked and the replacement needs to be scheduled sooner instead of later. A roof like that that is all alligatored to point of flaking is rarely worth much repairing.

   Anyway, at the edge of the roof, the metal trim is then nailed over the hot-mopped paper, and another one, two, or three plies of narrow strips are mopped on to it, called stripping the edge because of the narrow strips about 6", 9" and 12" wide.

   Wjhat happens in an aging roof is that the metal at the joints eventually separates from those seal strips or at a joijmnt in the metal thermal movement causes a crack on the joint in the strips. Water can get slowly in there. odds are about 75-80% this is what to look for.

   once it is cleaned up, using a trowel to smooth on about an eighth inch or so of fortified plastic roofing cement will provide a bed to seat a small piece of tarpaper and coat it over again, maybe two coats of this pucky and paper.

   The other 25% chance is that a length of a few feet of the overlying tarpaper is totally separated from the gravel gaurd metal and that is where the water is finding a way in. If loose from the metal surface, you need to take a utility knife and cut it back anywhere from an inch to maybe three inches or the edge of the metal and have scraped the gravel back six inches beyond that. Then you use same plastic roofing cement to butter a longer patch ofer the area. A single ply will get you six months to a year or so. a double ply can go several years. There is no need to flood the area with roof coating. The purpose of that fluid product is to coat and protect a decent roof and extend it's life. pout is on a leaking area in hopes of fixing a leak is about like driving trough wet paveing coating in hopes of trying to stop a leak in your tire. It might accidentally happen, but I wouldn't count on it, and if you end up needing to call a pro to do this job right, the bill will be at least double to deal with that mess and you will have made it harder for him to locate it.

   The best reapir is executed by a pro with a kettle or other membrane but the above can get you by if you go carefully.

    

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   Sphere | Sep 15, 2004 07:50pm | #4

   I bow my head to the supreme being that you are...just thought it might be a place to start.

   You da man... 

   Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

   Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations. 

1. 
   Piffin | Sep 15, 2004 08:28pm | #5

   You got my weyes focused on it, getting 'round to the point, in a sphereamidic manner, so to speak. 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

2. 
   Dinosaur | Sep 16, 2004 02:26am | #6

   "Everything you always wanted to know about BUR but were afraid to ask...."

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

1. 
   Piffin | Sep 16, 2004 03:25am | #7

   LOL, You mean like, "What does it feel like to have 500° asphalt cover all the skin on one of your fingers and then some?"

   Answer:

   it'll make a grown man sit down and groan no matter how tough he thinks he is. 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   donpapenburg | Sep 16, 2004 04:18am | #9

   Boy ,I hate those memories. Spud bar,walking on the puddles to find bubbles , pitch tar ,and that goo all over .

   Or 350* pitch up your sleeve  and down your pant leg.

2. 
   Piffin | Sep 16, 2004 05:01am | #11

   pitch - ugh! nothing worse to work with, but dang, it does the job! 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

3. 
   Dinosaur | Sep 16, 2004 09:34pm | #12

   Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

   Reminds me of the last time I sneezed View Imageand forgot to use my asbestos handkerchief....Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

3. 
   Catskinner | Sep 16, 2004 04:02am | #8

   It would appear that you've done this before. <G>

   I always hesitate to tell anyone that I started my construction career shoveling asphalt, from there I advanced to built-up roof repairs.

   You never know whay conclusions a person might draw from that information. <G>

   Outstanding discourse on roof repairs.

   DRC

1. 
   Piffin | Sep 16, 2004 04:59am | #10

   I know what conclusions...

   once had an archy tell me, "I was very impressed with your knowledge, cleanliness and professionalism. You know, most roofers are______"

   you can imagine words to fill in the blank 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

4. 
   DaveRicheson | Sep 16, 2004 10:14pm | #13

   It took an old German in Cleveland a week of classroom time to teach that same lesson. Course it was fluffed out with lots of Tremco sales pitches. (Still took me over three years fore I could find and fix one correctly)

   Excellent dessertation.

   Dave

3. 
   stanleyj2 | Sep 16, 2004 10:16pm | #14

   Bake:

   A roofer gave me a method a few years ago that worked on my sunporch.  Once the leak has been detected, scrape away the pebbles and thoroughly brush the area clean.  I further cleaned the scraped area with a rag dipped in mineral spirits and let it dry thoroughly.  Then coat the area with a rubberized roof cement and overlap the leak by at least 6".  Lay and embed fiberglass mesh tape over roof cement and follow with another layer of cement and mesh tape.  Add a final coat of roof cement over the patch and throw small pebbles into the cement.  My patched area has not leaked in 4 years.

   Stan

1. 
   Piffin | Sep 17, 2004 04:08am | #15

   I shoud've let you go first. You used fewer electrons to say the same thing. 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

2. 
   bake | Sep 18, 2004 06:05pm | #16

   Hopefully today a roofer is at least going to look at it. (tough to get a roofer in this town)

   But.... what is this fiberglass mesh tape usually used for so I can find it when I realize that the roofer didn't show and I have to fix it myself!

   Thanks for the information guys!

   bake

1. 
   Piffin | Sep 18, 2004 09:50pm | #17

   called roofing membrane. But I have never found it at a typical lumberyard. Always had to go to roofing wholesaler for it. 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!