Hi, this is Steve from Roofer 911.
I'm at a home in Gainesville, Virginia, and I notice they have the worst leak over here, but it's also wet here, and it's wet over here as well; and this leak is coming from many different areas.
I'll talk about the first one first, is the two windows here have hairline fractures to the inside corners, and the windows will only leak when there's a driving rain, so we need to seal the inside corners with polyurethane. Also, she's had four different contractors, in the past, try to resolve the problems, and everybody put one coat on top of another coat of caulking where the metal roof meets the brick wall, but that's not the source of the problem. But anyway, we're going to remove the old caulk and install new, just to make it look a lot cleaner.
Now, another thing is, this gutter here is sagging in the middle so, if there's a heavy downpour, the water will go over the back of the gutter, and then it will settle in between those two windows and leak at the bump-out, so we need to repitch that gutter to ensure a positive water flow to the drain on the left side.
Now, another thing is they had two ridge vents. There's one up here, and there's another one on top of this gable. We need to remove the ridge vents, and we're going to seal underneath it with polyurethane, and then reinstall the ridge vents.
Now, many people will say to me, "Well, how can a ridge vent be the source of the problem to a bump-out when the ridge vent is at least thirty feet away," and that's a very good question. When there's a driving rain, heavy downpour, or melting snow, the water can get underneath that ridge vent.Many times, the water will not leak straight down through the open breathing space, but instead, the water curls underneath the shingles, underneath the vent. The water travels down the roof in between the shingles and the felt.
Now, if the water find an opening in the felt, like say a tear, then you'll see the water dripping down into the attic, but the homeowner was inside and he noticed no signs of moisture. So that tells me, the water is still traveling underneath the shingles, but it just did not find any tears. So now the water is settling in between the two windows and also the wall cavity, and then leaking at the bump-out. So we got to make sure that the repairs that we do to the ridge vents are done perfectly.
Now, there's two other things I have to mention. You have a valley, where two roofs join together here, and that its nails fasten too close to the valley center line, so we need to remove all roofing material at both sides of the valley, install ice and water shield, and then re-shingle it.
Now, the other thing, and this, finally, thankfully this is the last, is you have architectural shingles installed in this roof, and architectural is a very good shingle, but ... It's only as good as the contractor who installs it.
And what I mean by that is when they installed the roof, they used roofing nail guns. Now, with a nail gun, the contractor can fasten anywhere from 5 to 8 nails a second, and if he doesn't pay attention to where he's placing each and every nail, there'll be nails exposed underneath the shingles, at the keys, where the shingles join together going across.
So we need to lift every shingle in this entire area, and then also every shingle on the left side of this gable, then inspect it for areas where there's nails exposed, and then we're going to seal the exposed nail with polyurethane, put step flashing over it, and then reseal the shingle again. Once we're done with the repairs, even if you went up on the roof, you won't see the flashing because everything is underneath the shingles.
My name is Steve, again, from Roofer 911, and I have been a troubleshooter now for 43 years, and with a problem like this, there is no simple fix. There's multiple sources that's causing the leak here on the bump-out, and we need to fix each and every one, because if we don't, this leak is most certainly going to come back, very soon.
If you have any questions at all, I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.
Roofer911 provides roof repair services in Gainsville VA, and all areas of Northern Virginia.
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