Tips for Sealing Flashings and Replacing Vents
Before the bad winter weather rolls in, now is the right time to inspect your roof and take care of any necessary repairs.
Even if your shingles look good from the street, you could have issues with plumbing and attic vents, flashings, and other potential r breaches into your home that just might let water in, creating a
likelihood for big problems later on.
Repairs should start with an inspection, from both in and out. You or a licensed
roofer should do a complete roof inspection to determine the condition of a number of key areas. Take a look at the vents into the attic to determine if there's any indication of loose, loose fasteners, cracking, or torn screens, or other issues.
Look at the plumbing vents for loose, worn, brittle or cracked seals around pipes. Look at the flashings around wood stove flues,, chimneys, skylights , siding intersections, or other areas for indications of bending, loose fasteners, water leaks, denting, or other situations that should be fixed.
From on the inside of the attic, take a look for any water stains on the ceiling joists, roof sheathing and rafters, that might suggest a possible leak. Additionally look for areas in the insulation that seem crusty on top side, or are depressed or flattened out suggesting that water may have been dripping there.
If you discover something, keep in mind that a water leak is probably not immediately overhead. Water typically runs down from an angle above, meaning you just might have to do some
investigative work to follow a leak backward to its source.
Replacing Roof and Plumbing vents
If you discover an attic vents that needs replacing, try to a replacement that's the same size. This avoid making any hole size changes from the one that's already in the existing roof sheathing.
Starting from the bottom to the top, carefully insert a pry bar that's flat in between the shingles and around the existing vent to loosen the seal between them. Be extra careful -- and this is works best when the shingles have some warmth to them -- lift the higher shingles to show the staples or nails keeping them in place above the vent. Take out the fasteners using your pry bar. However be cautious and not bend the shingle over too far and snap into.
When you've uncovered the roof vent, go ahead remove the fasteners holding it in it's place and remove it. Insert your new vent, and secure it using new roofing nails. The procedure is simply reversed to reinstall the existing shingles. Using a stapler or air-driven nailer is better than driving nails by hand to avoid any possibility of additional hammer damage.
To make sure you have a tight seal, put a few daubs of roofing cement on the bottom side of the higher shingle and carefully press it firmly down onto your new shingle.
Replacing plumbing vents is done in pretty much the same way, except that the vent must be slipped up and off from the pipe.
In some situations this is simple to do, while in other situations you may need to go into the attic and cut the pipe and, remove it down through your existing plumbing vent, then replace your old plumbing vent, and then replace the vent pipe. The pipe may be reattached inside the attic using a coupling.
Flashing repairs
Flashings seldom need replacing unless they've received damage, by something like a falling tree branch or some other force. Most often, they just need refastening and resealing. Flashings can be fastened using roofing screws and washers underneath or wide-head roofing nails. Avoid driving the old fasteners back into the old holes, because they'll just become loose again.
Subsequent to the flashings being reattached, seal them using a flashing sealant designed for that use. Flashing sealants come in tubes, and they're simple to apply using a standard caulk gun.
New Nailer Makes for Easy Roof Repairs
If your roof repairs are many, or if you are a handyman or a roofing contractor who's often doing roof repairs, Duo-Fast recently announced their Roofing Coil Nailer. It's cordless and sells for around really makes this type of work easier.
It uses an amalgamation of a fuel cell plus a battery, and will drive 1 1/4- through 1 3/4-inch roofing nails with no need for a compressor
It only weighs 7.5 pounds, plus drives approximately 900 nails using a fuel cell. Simply insert in the fuel cell along with a charged battery, insert a coil of nails, and you'll be good to go. For additional convenience and safety upon the roof, a complete kit including a backpack that will carry the nailer, nails, fuel cell and battery.
Oct 15, 2011
Suggested Reading
|
Smart Roofing Guide
Roofing with Asphalt Shingles
Roofing The Right Way
Roofing and Flashing
Roofs and Siding