Any roofers out there?

[Newarcher]

Just moved into our new home (9 years old) last FRIDAY and we had a big storm last night. Granted, it was a bigun. I had the home inspected by a buddy who is a builder and we noted that when they added the sunroom, they weaved the shingles together. We knew this wasn't optimal and didn't appear to be the best job ever done. However, we looked HARD for signs of a leak and couldn't find any. I knew the owner wouldn't replace it based solely on "it might leak".

Last night I had a good bit of water coming in down the chimney and actually had water leaking from between the facia and cornice boards. It wasn't streaming but it was a heavy heavy drip. It was coming all from areas where it didn't leave any signs after the fact. A true hidden defect. Fortunately, it doesn't appear to have done any damage and didn't affect the inside of the house. However, I don't want this sunroom flooded every time it rains and it will eventually rot the wood.

So now I need to have the valley (dual sided) approximately 50' long I am guessing replaced with an appropriate valley system.

My questions are:

1) Which system would be best?...I can find some that say a weave is best on the net. I also heard closed, open, Caifornia, etc. I am roofing illiterate.

2) Would would you guess the cost to be assuming no boards are rotten up there. It seems to me that they could probably use most of the shingles that aren't in to immediate valley and probably wouldn't use two bundles of shingles on the whole job.

Thanks,

New

[AaronS]

Re: Any roofers out there?

Did they put down freeze-guard (or ice-guard or rain-guard) (can't remember exactly what it's called) in the valley? It is a continous sheet of rubber about 4 or 5 feet wide. If not, I'd remove the shingles from the valley and put that down, then replace the shingles.

[Newarcher]

Re: Any roofers out there?

I sincerely doubt it...actually I think it was a semi-do it yourself job by a bunch of the neighborhood drunks. Don't get me started.

Anyway, being in Atlanta, I sincerely doubt that the did anything other than possibly some roof felt. It was a pretty bad job but I thought that since it hadn't leaked previously, it probably wouldn't now. WRONG!

New

[snapper]

Re: Any roofers out there?

When we did roofs....still do one here and there for friends. We always chalked a valley, used flashing, then weaved the shingles. Never had a leak! They make a pre-bent flashing that looks like a W on the end so to help water running down one roof and trying to go up the other side, usally leads to water going under the shingles.

I really don't know what the perpose of ice guard is...they put it on my roof when we built the house...but there was still snow and ice on the roof?

We never used ice guard and never had one leak.

[horst]

Re: Any roofers out there?

Ok, lets see where to start here.3 tab shingles we used to weave, it was actually standard practice at one point in time to shingle this way, you either weaved em, or cut the valleys out.Cut out valleys never seem to last as long though and a properly weaved valley as snapper said wont leak.

Then along came the dimensional shingle, you know the ones that are real popular right now that dont have tabs but have doubled layers to give your roof a little charachter.Problem was, you couldnt weave em so we went to the California style valleys, you shingle clear through one side, and then run the other side over them.The shingles you run over the top you chalk a line down the center of the valley and cut out that layer of shingles on the line.A bead of caulk under the edge of the shingles the whole length of the valley seals everything up nice.I liked the looks of these better, they dont leak, and are actually easier to do, so we do all our shingles this way now.

If you have a leak someone did something wrong.There should be tar paper, and metal underneath the shingles, and possibly frost gaurd depending on the age of your roof.But it doesnt take much to make a valley leak, one nail to close the center will dump water in like you wouldnt believe.

Now how to fix it.You said you your roofs 9 yrs old right?Something you may or may not be concerned about is this, your 9 yr old shingles have faded weather they appear that way or not.Your not going to find shingles that will perfectly blend back in without it looking like an obvious patch job.So you have 2 options, a whole new roof, or a patch job that may not look the best.

If you decide to patch it in you can do do it yourself for under 200$ going on your estimate it will take 2 bundles of shingles.If your hiring someone plan on paying a lot more, nobody likes to fix other peoples screw ups and patching shingles in while its not hard is time consuming and contractors charge more because of this.If you interested in doing it yourself just say so and Ill give you the run down on how to go about it, it really is very easy and you can do it in a single afternoon with a minimum of tools.

Snapper, frost gaurd does serve a purpose.It doesnt keep snow from piling up on top of your roof but theres a freezing and thawing process the snow goes through escpecially in the valleys and at the bottom of the roof near the gutters.The snow thaws during the day, traps water underneath the drift, then at night re freezes and pushes its way in under the shingles.The frost gaurd when its hot out actually seals right to the back of the shingles and prevents this from happening, and the self adhesive side makes sure it doesnt get in and sit there rotting the plywood out.Its almost self healing stuff, when you put a nail through it it seals up tight around the nail sealing off the last spot water could potentially get in.While it doesnt appear to do much it actually can extend the life of your roof by several years.

[wtnhunt]

Re: Any roofers out there?

Have always thought flashing under the shingles in valleys used was used to prevent leaking.