Owners of their own homes sooner or later face such a problem as roof leaks. From the ceiling, rain can drop at any time, but more often it happens in the fall after heavy downpours or in the spring from melting snow.
A roof leak is a rather unpleasant event. Of course, with timely attention to this circumstance, the leak can be eliminated not only faster, but also without the destructive consequences that can occur if the work is postponed "on the back burner." Therefore, we must try to find the cause of the leak as soon as possible.
Possible causes of leakage
Leaky or poor-quality roofing material and irregularities in the construction of the "roofing pie" can serve as the reason for roof leakage. Most often this happens when the recommendations regarding the size of overlaps, the quality of the lathing, the amount of fastening materials are neglected.
The best way out is to prevent leaks at all, for which it is recommended to regularly carry out small preventive repairs to the roof. It can even be a simple inspection of the most problematic areas, which will help to identify the danger of a leak in a timely manner. The appearance of water on the ceiling of a dwelling may not always coincide with the place of leakage.
To understand if the roof is leaking due to violations of the integrity of the roofing, in general, it is not difficult. It is necessary to check whether the fasteners are in place and whether there are any broken elements of the coating. Even a small hole from a self-tapping screw can cause damp spots on the ceiling. It is necessary to carefully inspect the roofing material and fasteners if they are prone to corrosion: the area affected by corrosion can gradually lead to great destruction.
Roofing Pie Problems
If it is a violation of the "roofing pie", it is unreasonably expensive to remove the entire coating to find the cause of the leak and is not particularly good in terms of labor costs. You can try to determine the reason in another way. It is best to trace the nature of the leak.
If the leak is found mainly in rainy weather, the reason is most likely a violation of the roofing or water seeps under the aprons arranged around the ventilation holes or chimney pipes. To eliminate this kind of leakage, you will need to reinforce all the difficult spots on the roof.
If the appearance of wet spots on the ceiling occurs in dry weather, these are “flickering leaks” that result from a wet insulation. And this, in turn, is due to the fact that the roof cannot "breathe", since there were some shortcomings during the installation. It is possible to fix it only when the roof is completely disassembled - you will need to install a membrane or perform ventilation gaps.
When wet spots appear between the "rafter legs", this is a sign that the waterproofing is too tight between them, and the dimensions of the ventilation gaps are not observed. In case of incorrect calculations for the installation of truss structures and a high tension of waterproofing, the movements lead to rupture of the film. To fix the roof, the waterproofing layer will have to be removed and repaired.
