Hi everybody! On today's video we're going to answer the question: what are
the common causes of roof leaks?
I'm Tracey Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing and welcome to another one of
our walk in the park videos where we take just a few minutes to answer your
questions about roof repairs and roof replacements and
even the insurance claim process stuff like that and today we're going to
tackle that question what are the common causes of roof leaks. Now keep in mind
there are several different types of roof covering materials there's asphalt
shingles there's composite shingles there's a standing seam metal there's
agricultural panel metal there's stone coated steel, tile, wood shake, there's so
many different actual roof covering materials but the basic cause of leaks
is really going to come down to just a few different things and most of it is
unrelated to the material at the top level of your roof. Primarily the areas
that you're going to end up seeing leaks is going to be where there are flashings
and flashings are there the purpose of them is to prevent water from getting in
to the roof at either penetrations or intersections so think of it like this.
So if you have a valley a valley is where you've got two roof slopes that meet
coming down like this so where you've got two roof slopes meet where they're
going up that's called a ridge but where the two roof slopes meet coming down
there's a line going right down the middle of that that's a valley. Valleys
are one of those historically bad areas for leaks sometimes if it's an open
valley and if it's metal in there that metal can rust and eventually corrode
through then there's either pin-sized holes or larger holes and water comes
down through there. Even if it's a closed valley meaning you can't see the valley
material because shingles are covering it there still can be issues if there's
metal in there with rust and corrosion and things like that and water can still
come down through there if it gets underneath the shingles. Another spot
where leaks can enter in pretty easily is around pipe flashing.
So you've typically got pipes for your furnace vent and if you've got a
gas fireplace your gas fireplace chimney vent pipe oftentimes goes up and out the
roof sometimes you'll have dryer vents or bath exhaust vents that those come
out of the roof and then you've got your sewer vents and so if you've got look at
your roof you'll see those PVC pipes that come up out of your roof oftentimes
they're white sometimes they're painted the same color as your shingle and
around each one of those penetrations there's a flashing at the base of it. Now
the sewer vent pipe flashings in my opinion are the worst because most of
the time they're not metal most of the time they're going to be just neoprene
and in our harsh Colorado environment those break down really
really easy we see that not infrequently on roofs where the neoprene is
essentially degraded coming apart cracked falling off that kind of stuff
and so we've actually come up with a solution we have found a better product
to put on there and you can get information about that product from us
if you call our office. Another potential leak area is wall
flashings so you've got a head wall or an end wall and that's where a vertical
wall intersects a roof so that's called head wall flashing or end wall flashing
and then you've got a side wall so that's where a roof is running down the
side of a wall. So we just had a situation where we worked on a house
that had a valley that terminated at a wall and the roof slope above it came
down right into the wall so it wasn't an angled side wall like you normally see
it was a level roof sloped meeting a wall and so the water had nowhere to go
and so this valley terminated right at the top of that and there was a hole
that worked its way through the flashing in through the wood and so this home was
getting a ton of water into it so is a really good idea for you to have
maybe an annual roof check have a roofer get up on your roof take a look at the
flashings make sure that they're still in good condition it's also a good idea
to have the roofer get up into your attic and check to see look at the the
underside of the wood up there to see if there's any leak stains any evidence of
water coming in at all so those are going to be the primary areas on your
roof that could potentially cause leaks if you've got any questions about maybe
whether or not you think you might have a leak or you know that you have a leak
and you'd like it looked at or you've got other questions please give us a
call right up here at our office phone number 719.433.6991
you can also visit our website that's right down here at
homesteadroofingcolorado.com we've got a ton of other information out there
for you lots of other instructional videos that should help you we'd also
love it if you give us a big thumbs up if you like this video if you thought it
was helpful please share it with friends family other people and if you would
please subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon up there so that way
you get notified when we've got new videos. Until our next walk in the park
video I'm Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing.