How to Repair Leaks in Your Roof - DIY

Repairing your roof starts with finding exactly where it is leaking at. Sometime it can be simple to find, but depending on how much damage it is and where the damage is located determines the difficulty. Normally a leak can go unnoticed until you actually see the water leak coming from the ceiling. That will give you a general idea of where it is leaking at, but you still need to allow yourself a 5 to 8 foot radius from that area. Sometime water can be leaking in through your roof and then can run down the rafter possibly 2 to 3 feet across then can reach the ceiling joist and run down the joist another 2 to 3 feet across before it actually come through the sheetrock (ceiling).

That's why you should allow at least an 8 foot radius of the area you are thinking that's leaking when you go unto the roof top to search for it. It is very helpful if you have access to your attic so you can go up and trace the water path to get a good ideal of where it is coming in at to save some trouble. Once you're ready to go onto the roof you'll need to bring a few things with you, but first go up and see exactly what the damages look like. If it;s in a open area with no obstacles in the ways then you can look for storm shingle tabs, nail sticking up through the shingles, or dents in the shingle, or weak spots in the wood underneath. In most cases in this type of damage it will never result from torn shingle tabs or nail hoes. For this type you can simply find the particular shingle(s).

Take a hammer and wonder bar and remove all the nails out that shingle and the nails in the shingle just above that one this will free the damaged single. Cut a section of the tar paper out big enough to see if the wood underneath is damaged or not. If the wood is weak or rotten or has turned dark then you will need to replace the wood weather if it's ply board or 3/4 board. Remove enough shingles and tar paper to see all of the bad area of the wood. you'll need to cut out enough area of the ply board to the nearest rafters that's no damages to. Use a tape measure and a chalk line to mark off a perfectly square section so it will be easy to measure the new board to go back in. Make sure the board you use to replace it with is the same thickness as the old boards.

Once you have replaced the board, then you will need to replace the tar paper. Everything on the roof should be under lapped meaning so no water can run behind the material. Once you have replaced the paper now you'll need to replace the shingles. Weather if it's 3 tab shingles or timberline you still should pop a chalk line from left to right so that the rows will be straight. Start at the lowest row and work your way up. Once you have replace them all, don't forget to still re-nail the top row of the existing of shingle that was still attached because you took some of those nails out to free the row underneath it. So now you can save some money on your next basic roof repair job.