When it comes to roofing oklahoma city residents will probably agree that one of the most dreaded things about the rainy and winter seasons is the trouble that leaky roofs can bring. An expert roofer oklahoma city can typically prevent further damage by isolating the source of the leak and immediately taking steps to prevent further damage. According to professional oklahoma city roofers, roof leaks that are not too large or too hidden within the roof structure can be easily handled by a handy homeowner. In this post, Roofing Contractors OK share a two-part guide to repairing a leaky roof. For the first part, resident OK Roofing Contractors will discuss how to locate the leak. The actual leak repair shall be discussed in the second part.
For emergency roof repair, you will need the following materials:
- ladder;
- hose;
- pry bar;
- claw hammer;
- polyurethane caulk;
- roofing tar (use the ones packaged in a caulking tube for easy application);
- roofing nails; and
- a utility knife.
Not included in the list, but just as essential, are protective gears like eye goggles, working gloves and non-skid shoes to provide you good traction when working on the roof. Always exercise safety precautions and good body mechanics to prevent personal harm and injury. If at any point during the repair, you find that the task is more complicated than you had anticipated, do not hesitate to call in a professional to prevent things more getting worse.
A. Detecting the Leak
For this task, you will need someone to help you. Climb into the attic or the topmost area of your home that is directly underneath the roof. While your friend directs a water house over the roof from outside, carefully observe where the water seems to be leaking. Instruct your friend to water down one section of the roof at a time, so that you can more readily observe for leakage.
Sometimes, the water can accumulate within the ceiling structure, so that water drops can fall far away from the origin of the leakage. In that case, look sharply for clues like watermarks on the ceiling (especially recent ones), dampness in the wood or the walls, signs of mold and mildew, as well as wet spots on the rug.
Try laying some sheets of newspaper onto the flooring, so that any falling drops of water can be more easily detected.
B. Repairing the Rook Leakage
- Wait for the roof to dry so that the caulking will bond better. You can hurry this up by patting the area dry with an absorbent rag and directing a hair dryer to the damp area.
- From the inside of the house, liberally apply a coat of polyurethane caulk to the ceiling and fully plug up the leak.
- Using your ladder, go outside and safely climb up the roof. Approach the area where the leak is coming from and observe the shingles for damage or missing pieces.
- Using the pry bar, remove all of the damaged shingles so that they can be replaced. You will first need to gently loosen the edges of the surrounding undamaged shingles to do this. Use the claw hammer to pull up the nails.
- Working your way from the bottom of the damaged area upwards, lay down rows of new shingles to replace the damaged ones that you have pulled out. Nail the new shingles in place, paying careful attention to their alignment.
- The last row of the new shingles (the ones at the top) will need to fit under the old ones to create a watertight layer and continue the overlapping of the rest of the shingles. Now, since the old shingles are already brittle, it is not feasible to pull up the old ones and then hammer them back into place. So instead of doing that, simply cut about 1 to 2 inches off the last row of newly-installed shingles, so that they can simply slide into place.
- Take the caulking tube containing the roofing tar. Carefully and neatly squirt some along the top and bottom rows of the shingles that were just installed. At this point, you can now easily slide in the new shingles right underneath the edges of the old ones.
- Press on each of the new shingles for a few seconds to work them more deeply into the tar. This will ensure that they will firmly remain in place.
After a couple of days when the tar has fully cured, double-check the quality of your repair by holding the water hose over the repaired area. If you have done everything correctly, you should have no more leaks inside the house.