Hi. This is Steve from Roofer 911.
I'm on a roof in Arlington, Virginia, and they have a leak down at the very bottom section of the roof, down near the gutter line. I checked a few different things. You can see here the flashing is all installed incorrectly, plus they put nails into the flashing right here, so the water can very easily get underneath the shingles and then seep right through the side of the nail and into the house.
There should be no nails exposed whatsoever. This nail here should be holding this flashing underneath this one. This flashing here would be overlapping the nail. That's the correct way to go about doing it.
Now, also there's a valley here as well. I noticed there's shingles fastened too close to the valley center line. What we'll do is we're going to remove all the shingles on both sides of the valley. Then we'll install ice and water shield, which will be fully adhered to the wood deck right along the entire length of the valley. Then we'll re-shingle it.
Now, another thing is when you do a repair you need to focus on all the penetrations above the area where the leak is inside your home. If you don't, the leak will come back.
Here's another example. This pipe flange, see there's a nail right there, and it's practically right in the middle of the key. Again, with a heavy rain, the water will seep right through the side of the nail, and then travel down the roof in between the shingles and the felt. Then it will hit the valley and just travel down wherever the water finds an opening like a tear in the felt, that's where it will settle.
Now, let's check out these two. Okay, here's another one. You know, when you nail your shingles into place you should nail away from the flashing. Also there was no ice and water shield installed underneath this vent.
What we'll do is remove all the roofing material around this vent, and also the pipe flange. Then we're going to install the ice and water shield, which will be fully adhered to the flashing. Then we'll re-shingle it.
Now, this solar tube, I cannot check the installation of the shingles, because whoever installed it cemented the shingles down. We're going to remove the shingles around the solar tube, and the same thing. We'll install the ice and water shield, then re-shingle it.
Here, up against this wall ... Like I said, we need to fix everything above the area where the leak is, because a leak can originate here and again, the water will travel down the roof underneath the shingles, and it will settle at the lowest point or wherever there's a tear in the felt.
Now, let's see what we got here. Let me get rid of this. Okay. Let's see what we got here. Okay, here's a nail right here. Like I said, that nail should not be exposed. It should be underneath this on. We're going to take up the shingles along the wall here as well, and we'll seal this crack also in the concrete because the water can get inside here. Being that the flashing is nailed to the face of the bricks and not inside the mortar, this crack can cause a leak to go down inside the counter-flashing.
Let's see what else we got here. Okay. Yeah, there you can see there's a space right here. The sealant has given way, so we're going to seal the counter-flashing, the apron-flashing, excuse me, along the wall in here. You can see it's all wide open here as well. Yeah, this is ... See, it's all wide open, so we need to ... In fact, the best thing to do is take this apron-flashing off and we're going to cut right through the mortar with a diamond blade.
It will be about a 3/4 inch cut, and then the apron-flashing will be L shaped. Then we'll insert it inside the mortar and then we'll seal the outside edge. This counter-flashing here will not cause that leak below, but over here this most definitely will.
Let's see what else we got. Okay. They had a new gutter installed recently and the gutter overall is okay, except for over here. You can see the gutter is dropping down. When there's a really heavy rain the water will pond in that area because the water cannot go up hill quick enough to where the drain is.
When the water fills up in the gutter, the water is going to overflow over the back, and then it will settle inside the wall between the bricks and the drywall. If they have a basement, which they do, that's where it's going to settle, is all the way down in the basement. They won't see any signs of moisture to any of the rooms up above.
My name again, is Steve. I'm Roofer 911, and we specialize in roof repair in Arlington, Virginia. I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.
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