Leaky Roof? A Few Quick Fixes to Tide you Over.
One of the worst feelings is coming into a room and seeing water dripping from your ceiling. Shoot a roof leak....
We do not advise you to get up on your roof...
If your roof is cedar shake or tile do not get on it, you can cause more damage then good...
Here are a few steps you can take to get you by until you can have a roofer repair the roof.
If you have an attic, go up into the attic and see if you can see where the water is coming in at. Once you find the bad area you will know where to start outside.
A roll of black plastic from the hardware store will do wonders. You can get a roll of 20'x 100' for just around $100. Then place the plastic on the bad section of the roof. wrap it around the edge of the roof down the to fascia board and fasten it with a piece of 1x4 board to hold it in place. This is a Temp Fix.
If the leak is coming in from around a pipe jack (Plumbing pipe going up through the roof) you may be able to see that the rubber around the pipe jack is old and cracking. Being this is just a pipe vent, you could put a plastic bag over it and run the plastic bag all the way down to the rubber seal of the pipe jack. Then put a rubber band around the bottom of the bag and the rubber portion of the pipe jack. At the top of the pipe you could put a little hole in the plastic and then push it down into the plumbing pipe. This is a temp fix.
If the leak is coming in from a valley and you do not see any missing shingles you can try to use hot tar in the valley. I can not say this will fix the leak as there are many reasons for a valley to leak. This is a temp fix.
If you are in need of professional roofing contractor help, you can use our free local roofer search tool here.