What sealant to use for leaky roof?

[ryanbatc]

I'm not the macho man home owner type but tonight my wife and I discovered a wet spot in the tiles in the basement ceiling. We traced it into the attic and know where the same spot is on the first level.... It is behind the wall in our living room but water must be dripping down through the walls/ceiling. It's not a very large spot so I think I can fix it. But I need to know what to use... Last year my dad and I crawled on the roof and used some silicone caulking stuff to fill some gaps between the chimney and shingles (ironically there was a small wet spot near the chimney when I looked tonight in the attic, but I don't think its a problem)

Oh yeah, forgot to add it's been crazy wet the past few days here in Duluth, tons of rain, we got about 3 in the last 24 hrs and more moving around. I don't remember seeing this happen last year so I'm guessing the water is due to the downpours we've been having.

So what can I use to fix this?

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r43/ryanbatc/wettile.jpg

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r43/ryanbatc/wetroof.jpg

[Duke{CLR}]

Those two wets spots look like they are in the middle of the roof. So the problem could be the roof. It also looks like it's near the bottom which in these parts means ice damming but this time of year that would be strange. Is there anything that could cause a backup of some kind?

[mapes]

I don't know what type of sealant too use. When I lived in the Santa Cruz mountains (i.e. nothing has permits or is square or level) I used that stuff that comes in a blue can that shows some guy taring a roof in the rain and smiling. When ever I go into a hardware store and see that can now it pisses me off so bad. If you've ever tared a roof in the rain...trust me on this your not smiling.

[{CLR}geneSW]

Tarp it for now if it's really a problem (which it appears to be), and then when the rain passes tar it! There is most likely a small hole between the shingles, or there is a small rip in one of them and it is letting rain pass.

[ryanbatc]

Thanks, I can't think of anything that would be blocking anything. We did have a ton of snow last winter and like I said heavy rains the last few weeks.

I will go crawl on the roof when the shingles and roof is dry and see what's going on....

Thanks for the help

[Duke{CLR}]

Thanks, I can't think of anything that would be blocking anything. We did have a ton of snow last winter and like I said heavy rains the last few weeks.

I will go crawl on the roof when the shingles and roof is dry and see what's going on....

Thanks for the help

How old is the roof?

If it close to the end of its age then put a new one on and use this stuff. It's expensive but it's worth it.

[Pumpkin_Jack]

Alright, you have three options from where i see for a permanant fix.
1) Like duke said how old is the roof if its 15+ years old(average shingle life, you can buy 20yr ones but cost a bit more) you will most likely need it to be re-roofed, if you are going to do this make shure you, or the roofers replace the rotten/water damaged section of the plywood, to save you future trouble.

2) If you have extra shingles lying around you can try to patch it, a lot cheaper and rather simple. Pick a cool day to do this or very early in the morning b/c roofing sucks.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/repair/how-to-repair-a-leaky-roof1.htm

3) You can try to tarp it or put sealant on it although this is a temporary fix and probably wont help for more than 2 years, and you could see more dmg arise around the origonal point.

[Pumpkin_Jack]

Just wondering if you got it fixed i could come up with some more ideas if you need help

[Duke{CLR}]

Just wondering if you got it fixed i could come up with some more ideas if you need help

+1

[ryanbatc]

Well I crawled up on it yesterday and did not find anything out of place. The only possible thing I found was that where the entryway joins the main roof one of those shingles could easily be lifted up, not off, but I could pull it up pretty easily. This is around the same location as the wet board in the attic....

Not sure if it is the culprit. but with the rain and windy conditions it may be possible.

[ryanbatc]

If anyone cares...

The main problem was the gutter on the corner was too low, and the outer edge of the gutter was higher than the bottom of the roof. So when it rained all the water collected in the corner and "fell" back into the bottom of the shingles, and underneath them into the attic, and so on.

We remedied this by installing a downspout into that corner (because we didnt want to raise that section any higher) and it should be fine now....

[Duke{CLR}]

:2thumbs: