How To Locate And Repair A Roof Leak - Clifton VA

 

Hi, this is Steve, I'm Roofer 911.

I'm on a roof in Clifton, Virginia, that has a leak found near the bottom of the corner post. The first thing I noticed when I came up on the roof is all the leaves and dirt caked up in the valley. All this debris is causing the water to dam up, so when there's a heavy downpour the water cannot flow down the valley, so it backs up underneath the shingles. Then the water will travel underneath the roof, and settle at the lowest point, and that's right at the corner.

What we'll do is remove all this debris, remove all the roofing material at both sides of the valley. We'll install ice and water shield from the bottom all the way up to the top, and then we'll reshingle the valley, and install a single-cut, closed-type valley, and make sure that we nail at least 10 inches away from the valley center line.

Another thing is this old storm window will also cause this roof to leak, as well, but only during a wind driven rain. The water can get right inside here, and the water will travel right through the sides of the screws that's holding the window in place. The water will go behind the siding, and again, it will settle at the lowest point. This is really simple to fix. We're going to seal the outside perimeter with polyurethane.

Another thing is where the roof and the wall meet, there's nails exposed in the step flashing, so we need to remove all the roofing material where the roof and the wall meet. Repair, replace any flashing, and then reshingle it. Same thing over here. There's nails in the step flashing there.

Another thing is this upper gutter is directly above where the leak is down below. The gutter here is sagging in the middle. When there's a heavy downpour, or a melting snow, that water cannot go uphill quick enough to where the drain is, so the water not only overflows over the front, but it goes over the back. Then it goes behind the wall, and it will settle, again, at the lowest point. This gutter needs to be repitched.

Another thing is this vent, this 750 vent. The contractor who installed it, he put a wire mesh around it. They probably had problems with squirrels or raccoons in the past, so they put this screening. He also nailed it to the roof. We need to remove all the roofing around this vent. We're going to replace it with a new one, and then we'll install an ice and water shield around it, and then reshingle it.

Another thing is right up here. I don't know if you can see it. It's right up there at the top, right there, you see that split shingle, see right there. What'll happen is if there's a heavy downpour the water can get in through that cracked shingle. Water will travel down behind the siding, and then underneath the roof, and then again, it could settle at the lowest point.

With this leak there's so many sources, and we need to fix each and every one, because if we don't we'll be back.

Here's another thing. With the vinyl siding it's not overlapped enough. This one is only overlapping this one by about a quarter of an inch, and there's a few others up above that have the same problem. What we'll do is pull back the vinyl siding, insert polyurethane inside, and then press it right into the sealant.

Again, here's where the leak is, and also here's a damaged shingle here. It's not really that bad, but it needs to be replaced. Also, here there's a nail pop, and then also there's a nail pop there, and that's directly above where they had the leak inside. Any damaged shingles, nail pops, they're going to be removed and replaced.

Another thing, very important, Architectural shingles are very good, but they're only as good as the contractor who installs them. What I mean by that is the roofers used roofing nail guns. With a nail gun, if it's put in the wrong hands it can cause a problem. This nail is popping up, because the air pressure was not set correctly, it was too low.

Another thing is here where the shingles join together. We need to lift all the shingles above this valley to see if there's any nails exposed at the keys, and if there is we're going to seal the nail flasher, and reseal it again.

Here's another thing that can cause the leak. You've got all these exposed nails at the cap. We're going to take off these cap shingles and replace them with new. With this leak, like I said, there's multiple sources, and we need to fix each and every one of them.

Again, my name is Steve, I'm Roofer 911, and we specialize in roof repair in Clifton, Dulles, and all areas of Northern Virginia. I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.
 

How To Locate And Repair A Roof Leak - Clifton VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Woodbridge VA Roof Leak - Water Diveter

 

Hi. This is Steve from Roofer911.

I'm on a roof in Woodbridge, Virginia. The homeowner has a leak just behind the dormer, right next to the water diverter. Now, the first thing I wanted to check was the ridge vent, to make sure everything was fine. It was. There was no problems.

Also, I wanted to check the keys at the architectural roof shingles to make sure that there were no nails exposed here, because if there was the water can seep right through the side the nail, travel underneath the shingle and it would find an opening at this dormer as well.


As you look at the water diverter, you can see this is not good. The water diverter's coming up. The nails are coming up. The water's traveling right through the side of the nail holes and inside the home. They don't have a leak in this area here but they will. In fact, they do.

The reason why they don't know it is because the insulation inside the attic directly below is absorbing the water. Now, once the insulation becomes saturated and it cannot hold any more water then the water will let loose. Then, you'll see the damage on the drywall below.

What we're going to do is take off this water diverter. We're going to replace the damaged shingles. Then, we'll re install a new diverter. This time we're not going to nail it to the face of the shingles.

We're going to seal the flashing with ice and water shield. Then, we're going to re shingle along the diverter and it's going to overlap the flashing. Then, we're going to give the shingles a nice cut fit right along the metal flashing so there will be no nails exposed in the flashing at all.

Again, my name is Steve from Roofer911. We specialize in roof repair in Woodbridge, Haymarket, and all areas in Northern Virginia. I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.
 

Woodbridge VA Roof Leak - Water Diveter first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Ashburn VA - Missing Roof Shingles (Hail Damage?)

 

Hi this is Steve, from Roofer 911.

I'm on a roof in Ashburn, Virginia that has missing roof shingles. The first thing we need to do when repairing this roof is replace the missing shingles.

Once the shingles are replaced the next thing we need to do is refasten all these surrounding loose ones, because what will happen is after the repairs are done and these loose shingles are not taken care of the next strong wind we have, these loose shingles are going to come off next.

Once all these shingles are refastened, then we're going to reseal them with polyurethane, and this will be a permanent fix.

Also the homeowner had somebody go up on the roof, he was knocking on the door saying that a lot of people in the neighborhood had hail damage, but they have no hail damage whatsoever. This roof is excellent.

You have to be careful of people knocking on doors because many times these contractors are from out of state, and they're storm seekers. If they ended up doing a new roof for you and you have problems, you're going to have a very hard time getting in touch with them, and very likely you will not be able to.

Here's another section here that has missing shingles, so we're going to replace them and refasten all these surrounding shingles as well. Again, my name is Steve, I'm Roofer 911 and we specialize in roof repair in Ashburn, Brambleton, and all areas of Northern Virginia. I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.
 

Ashburn VA - Missing Roof Shingles (Hail Damage?) first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Roof Flashing Repair In Ashburn, VA

 

Hi, this is Steve from Roofer 911.

I'm on a roof in Ashburn Virginia, and the homeowner has a leak where the lower roof meets up against the wall directly below that downspout. Now, one thing I tell my customers all the time, wherever you see the water stain inside your home, it doesn't mean that the leak is originating from directly above on a roof.

She got other estimates from other contractors and they were saying all you have to do is just seal where the roof meets up against the J channel with caulk and that will resolve the problem.

Little did they understand that, that leak could be starting from all the way up above and then the water is travelling underneath the shingles. Wherever the water finds an opening, that's where it will settle, and usually the water settles at the lowest point, and that's where the shingle roof and the metal roof meet.

The only way to resolve this problem is to remove all the roof material where the roof and the wall meet, repair or replace any damaged step flashing, and then re-shingle this area.

The ridge vent here has nothing to do with the leak, the ridge vent is fine. Once these procedures are done, this leak is over and done with.

My name is Steve from Roofer 911, and we specialize in roof repair in Ashburn, Bluemont, and all areas of Northern Virginia. I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.

Roof Flashing Repair In Ashburn, VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Vienna VA - Why A Roof Attic Fan Will Not Cool A House

 

Hey, this is Steve from Roofer911.

I'm at a home in Vienna, Virginia and the customer needs an estimate for an attic fan because it gets very hot on the top level of a split-level home. I want to show you something. Where you see all these orange, that's missing insulation around all these high hats and in fact it's all over, upstairs. Every high hat has missing insulation.

What happened was when the contractors originally installed the high hats, he removed all the insulation in the area of the light, did his electrical connections. Once he was done, he never put the insulation back.

Even if I was to install a roof attic fan, it will still get hot inside this home. Because all the heat from inside the attic is dropping down inside living space. With problems like these, the insulation needs to be built up and then we install an attic fan and they'll notice a major change.

Roofer911 provides roof repair services in all areas of Vienna and Tysons Corner in Northern Virginia. Call us today for an infrared inspection and estimate.
 

Vienna VA - Why A Roof Attic Fan Will Not Cool A House first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Herndon VA - Roof Repair Specialist

 

Hi, this is Steve from Roofer 911.

I'm on top of a roof in Herndon, Virginia, and the homeowner has a few different problems and a couple different leaks. Now, the first thing I noticed is right over here. The roof shingles are starting to lift up, and there's a couple areas. There's another one right over here.

The reason why is because the plywood underneath was never attached to the rafters. What we need to do is remove all the roof material and the area of the problems, and then we're going to attach the plywood to the rafters with 10d common nails. Then we're going to re-shingle this area.

Now, also another thing is the bottom of the valley, I noticed the plywood here is sagging ever so slightly. It's not because of the valley, but instead because of this stack pipe. You can see the flashing is coming up, and also the way the roofer did the installation around the stack pipe was done wrong. He put nails into the flashing too close to the pipe, and so that's causing the leak down below.

Another thing which will cause a leak, directly below this pipe is hairline fractures to the aluminum flange and also the vertical seam here. We're going to seal that with polyurethane. Now with the roofing, we're going to remove all the roofing material completely around the stack pipe, install ice and water shield to the deck underneath, and then we'll re-shingle this area.

Here, they got a problem here. This is very likely leaking. There's a sagging area right here. It's very poor construction. I would really recommend to rebuild this area. The roof would have to be re-pitched a little bit and then install ice and water shield and re-shingle it.

Now also, this skylight is leaking as well, and I can see that the contractors just put a problem on top of a problem. What I mean is they just put cement on top of the roof shingles up against the skylight, and all you're doing is masking the problem.

The only way to prevent this skylight from leaking in the future is we've got to get down to the source of the problem, and that means remove all the roofing material completely around the skylight. Any flashing that's damaged, it's going to be repaired or replaced with new.

Once the flashing is done, then we're going to install ice and water shield, which will be fully adhered to the deck completely around the skylight, and then we'll re-shingle this area.

My name is Steve from Roofer 911, and we specialize in roof repair in all areas of Herndon, Centreville, and Northern Virginia. I can be reached at (703)475-2446. Thank you.

Herndon VA - Roof Repair Specialist first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Alexandria VA - Roof Repair Specialist

 

Hi this is Steve from Roofer911 .

I'm on a roof in Alexandria, Virginia, and the homeowner has two different leaks: One on the lower roof, right in this area here, and the first thing I noticed is this nail punch and you can see there's a nail starting to pop right through the shingle, here, and there's another one here, and then another one over there ... They're just scattered, there's probably about eight of them all together.

The roof shingles at the valley were installed correctly, so that's no problem, but what we need to do, is remove and replace these damaged nail popped shingles and then this leak will be stopped.

Another thing I want to mention, which will cause a leak if it's not taken care of. You see all the leaves have built up in the valley and that will cause water to dam up. The water can go right underneath the single-cut valley and leak inside the home; so I would highly recommend to keep these valleys clean. Very important!

Now, the other leak is on this other roof, and I'll show you exactly what's going on. First off, the roof has a very low pitch. Okay. All right, here's the ridge vent. The leak that they have is directly below this ridge, right along the entire length, so the only time this will leak it's got to be a very heavy downpour, and I mean heavy. Or a heavy melting snow.

What's happening is, underneath this ridge vent, the plywood is cut open about an inch and a half on both sides so, with that water getting underneath, it's dropping straight down inside the open breather; so, what we need to do is take this ridge vent off ... Then we're going to seal the deck underneath with polyurethane, on both sides of the ridge, and then we're going to press and fasten a new ridge vent into the sealant, and make sure that we attach it to the rafters underneath, and then we'll reseal all the fasteners.

Everything else is good.

Again, my name is Steve, from Roofer911. We specialize in roof repair in all areas of Alexandria, Burke and Northern Virginia, and I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you!

 

Alexandria VA - Roof Repair Specialist first appeared on www.roofer911.com