[fishhead]

We're headed into winter any day now and wouldn't you know if but I now have a small leak in my roof.

I'm thinking seriously of putting this house on the market next summer and the new owners will likely crunch the house up so it makes no sense to spend thousands of dollars to have someone re-roof the house.

I do have pond liner. I think it's 35 mils. My plan is run a strip of liner that's maybe 6' wide across the bottom of the roof but I am unsure how to do the top edge. I'll run it under a row of shingle tabs. There will be enough to run it off the bottom of the roof and then back to the soffit to get the water to run off without contacting the wood. I know that I'll need to lift the shingles enough to slide the liner up under the shingle BUT..............what do I do with the little slits between each shingle tab? If I can't slide the liner up past the top of the slit water will just flow under the liner. I know we stapled the shingles above the top of the slit but am unsure if I'm going to be able to lift the shingle high enough to slide the liner under the top of the slit.

I don't shovel my roof anymore unless the snow gets deep. Now I use a roof rake to clean the bottom 4' of the roof so I have to be careful not to leave anything sticking up to catch the rake.

 

[67drake]

It depends on what condition the shingles are in. If they are brittle, it might break off the bottom of the tab. If they are still flexible, hopefully you can lightly pry up the the shingle to break loose the tar strip from the shingle below it so you can get the plastic further up than the slots. I’d try a real wide putty knife.

 

[The Paw]

I would use a putty knife or other thin edge to push the top edge up under the shingle tab as far as I could without lifting the shingle much at all. Then I would hit each slit with a dab of tar from a tube using a caulking gun. Hopefully you don't have to do the whole width of the roof to prevent your leak.

 

[fishhead]

I think I may do the full 30' since I don't know where the leak originates or I may only do 20' once I find out how hard it is. I'm pretty sure the leak is right where the leak is inside but I just want to do it one time since I don't know when the temp is supposed to drop.

The shingles are old and brittle and the temp probably won't be much above 40 F.

Are there any kind of special shingle nails with a sealer under the head of the nail? What would they be called?

 

[doc-]

a) The site of the leak inside is almost never directly under the source of the the leak on the roof. Water flows downhill...One of the three things a plumber needs to know.

2) I can't picture what you're trying to do. Why not just put a false roof with the pond liner over the whole thing (or at least the section from peak to fascia where you think it's leaking), or just put a bucket under the leak, as long as you're selling it as a tear-down anyway?

 

[fishhead]

The leak is dripping right at the wall/ceiling interface and I can see a slight depression at the same spot on the edge of the roof. It could just be that water is getting pulled into the space between the drip strip and the shingles since the shingles have been cracked from putting a ladder against the end of the tabs.

I don't want to risk water damage just in case the next owner wants to live in it for a while.

The drip only amounts to a pint per day but it could also be dripping inside where I can't see it.

 

[fishhead]

Well that wasn't too bad. It took no more than 2 hours to put the patch on the roof and that was with multiple trips up and down the ladder. I was able to slide the liner to within 1 1/4" of the top of the slits without much trouble. Going above that was harder so I left it at 1 1/4". I had to work sideways on the roof but that wasn't bad.

The patch was 7' x 17' and the likely leak entry point is in the middle..

I haven't figured out how to do the sides so just put a few nails on the sides to keep the wind from ripping everything apart. I could use lath but I don't want to use anything for the roof rake to catch on. Our wind doesn't normally reach the house from that direction but there's no sense testing fate. After I nailed everything I sprayed each nail with Flex Seal to seal the rain out. The bottom edge is loose so that snow melt will just fall straight down.

I expect the ripples to lie down if we get some more warm weather before winter sets in. If not I'll just live with it.

 

[crehberg]

Long as it works... that's all that matters....

And you made it off the roof in one piece!