Hi, this is Steve from Roofer 911.
I'm on a roof in Arlington, Virginia, that has two leaky skylights. This skylight here is leaking and also the other one. That one's leaking as well. I tried to lift up the shingles but was unable to do it because the shingles are all cemented underneath, and that goes for every shingle on this lower roof.
The roof has a very low slope to it, so what i really believe happened is they installed the roof; everything was fine; but then shortly after, the homeowner complained about having leaks. Instead of putting ice and water shield underneath the entire low-pitched roof or a flat roofing material, they cemented underneath.
That leak could be coming from anywhere and just finding an opening at the skylights. Even this vent here or this one here can be attributing to these skylights, but I can't remove the shingles around the vents either because they're all cemented tight.
What we need to do is remove all the roofing material on this low-pitched roof, also these two vents. We need to take up the shingles around both of them, install ice and water shield, then reshingle it.
Now also, this vent pipe is in alignment with the leak too, but like I said, it's all cemented down. This vent pipe here was never fastened, so if there's a melting snow, the water can back up underneath the flange and leak inside the home.
Now another thing - very important, I noticed they don't have any ventilation on this roof. They really need a ridge vent because just having these two static vents serve no purpose whatsoever. It only ventilates the area in between the rafters below these two vents. What about the rest of the moisture? It goes to the highest point to the ridge and eventually this homeowner is going to develop mold and condensation buildup.
I would highly recommend to remove these cap shingles right along the entire ridge, and then we're going to cut through the wood sheathing approximately 1-1/2 inches on both sides. Then we're going to seal the deck heavy with polyurethane, and a new ridge vent will be pressed into the sealant and then make sure we penetrate the rafters underneath.
Now it's a shame. I wish there was a simple fix for this, but when you have shingles that are cemented down like this, there's nothing that I can do except for stripping this entire low-pitched roof.
Again, my name is Steve from Roofer 911, and we specialize in roof repair in all areas of Arlington, Virginia. If you have any questions whatsoever, I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.
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