Leaky roofs can be the most annoying and unpleasant thing that can happen to your roof. Every leak starts very small, a trickle here, and a drop there, you know, nothing major. However, the water stains begin to run down walls; water droplets start to form relatively large puddles. It could even be in a relatively dry area, and things like loud noises caused by flapping roof sheets begin to get on your nerves. However, the type of roof damage you have; one thing is certain; it should not be ignored. A small hole in the roof can very quickly become a large hole in the ceiling or cause you to replace a large chunk of your roof.

You can avoid spending more than you should on roof repair/replacement. All you need to do is follow a few simple steps, and you can be on your way to enjoying a leak-free roof.

Note: Roof repairs should be performed on a sunny day. This helps to ensure that the roof is not slippery and not prone to destroy all your effort of repairing it.

Investigate Leaks

To adequately repair a roof, you need to investigate or track exactly where the leak/leaks are coming from on the roof. Usually, the intuitive thing to do is to trace the stains on the wall back to the source. One other thing you should watch out for are piercings on the roof; these are easily the likeliest of places where the leaks are likely to occur. It could be your plumping that had to go through the roof, installation or even the nails that were used to hold an aspect of the roof together. To examine the roof and find the leak/leaks, you usually would have to go up in the roof and probe with a flashlight. Common evidence of a hole includes mold, black masses or just minor stains. For leaks that might be more difficult to locate, all you need to do is a simple water test on your roof. Go up with a bucket of water or a hose, whichever one is easier for you to do. Pour water around the area of the roof where you suspect that there is a leak, with the help of someone else below; you can quickly locate the hole.

Repairing leaks

Some leaks would be small, while some would require more than just an easy fix. Let us start with reasonably large leaks. Usually, these are caused by large installations, like the attic insulation and the vapor barrier between it and the dry wall. Leaks that involve the vapor barrier between a particular installation and a dry wall that cause wearing out, usually require that you fix it by buying new vent boots for that section of the roofs.

However, for small leaks like those produced by things like, nails that missed the base of the wood on which the roof was mounted, you can quickly fix leaks like these with the use of sealants and roofing glue/caulk. Since these leaks are minimal and they require very little sealant to close those up and prevent them from ruining your furniture below. All you need to do is use the caulk to seal the hole and cover it up with the use of new sheets of the same material that your current roof is made up. Of course if you are reading this and you do not know how to use caulk, you should be picking up the phone right now and reaching out to a local roofer.

However, some leaks are neither small nor large. Instead, they are complex. These usually are types of leaks that involve ice dams which occur if snow melts but rather than flow down, the water freezes again when it gets to the colder side of the roof. This eventually accumulates over time, and when it is large enough to start logging water, the water creeps back into the shingles and stays until it finds an opening through the roof. The fix to this involves an elaborate process of flashing as this would prevent any leaks caused by rainfall and ice dams. The shingles are peeled off down to the wood sheathing; then adhesive is placed under the main roof intersection. The whole idea is to make sure that before you re-shingle your roof, you have used the roofing adhesive to seal every part of the roof that is leak prone.

By carrying out the processes above, depending on your type of leak, you can easily prevent future replacement of your entire roof.