Fixing a flat porch roof

[Cheribelle]

Advice needed..... Went up on the front porch roof yesterday to coat it with that roof tar stuff. It had been roofed with asphalt paper when the house was done, maybe 12 years ago. Well, the tar paper stuff had disintegrated, 2 layers of it was all shrunk up and loose, so I ended up taking it all off. The roof underneath is tin panels, soldered together. There are a few holes in the tin, but it's mostly in pretty good shape. Do I just coat it with the tar? Or coat it and glue down tar paper? Or just patch over the holes, then coat it? Any other (better) ideas?

[Bearfootfarm]

If you want to avoid doing it all over again, put down a rubber membrane in place of the "tarpaper" and tar over that

[motdaugrnds]

I can tell you what worked for our tin roof (not flat but very slight slope). It was old tin that had quite a few holes in it. I went over it with heavy black tar (not at all thin) and filled in all the holes. So far; so good!

I used white latex elastomeric polymer on my mobile home's roof. It comes in nominal 1 or 5 gallon buckets. Spread it with a paint roller. It has worked well and is easy to apply. Soap and water cleanup. Needs warm weather to apply and handles really cold (-40) winters.

The black tar doesn't stay malleable so it crackes. It is hard to put on and clean up.

[foxfiredidit]

Originally Posted by Nimrod

I used white latex elastomeric polymer on my mobile home's roof. It comes in nominal 1 or 5 gallon buckets. Spread it with a paint roller. It has worked well and is easy to apply. Soap and water cleanup. Needs warm weather to apply and handles really cold (-40) winters.

The black tar doesn't stay malleable so it crackes. It is hard to put on and clean up.

I used this product as well. The 5 gallons I thought I needed was way too much though for an 8 foot tin-top porch 40 ft. long. I probably used 2 1/2 gallons of it total. Goes on easy with a roller on a long handle, and a paint brush around the tight spots. What I thought was going to be an all day job was over in a couple of hours or so, so I put another coat on after that one cured. It's a bit flexible too, so it doesn't crack with the changing temps.

[zant]

MUCH better idea-get some 2x4s and plywood and put a slanted roof on it....cheaper in the long run.