Repairing Your Own Roof

I just bought a house about 2 years ago, everything looked in tip-top shape. It was move in condition, I made sure the wiring was new, the walls were secure, and the basement was sound. There was one thing I forgot to check out, the roof. After about a year and a half after I purchased the home, there was this awful rain storm that lasted about an hour. The rain came down so fast and hard that the streets were flooded in about fifteen minutes after the storm hit. I ran upstairs to check on the kids, and drip, right on my forehead. I looked up, and at first didn't see anything, until another drip hit my arm. I ran down the steps and called for my husband, who came upstairs to investigate. The first thing he said was, "we forgot to check the roof out when we bought the house".

So the next day, my husband started looking around in the attic and then climbed on top of the roof to inspect the conditions of the roof. It wasn't as bad as it could have been,; there was just a few shingles that were torn and folding. Inside was a bit of a different story. There were some spots where it was evident there was water traveling from the roof.

I started doing some calling around for estimates on how much a new roof would cost me, and found out quick that, $2,000 to $12,000 depending on the size of the roof, was not in my budget. So, I did a little online research for DIY roofing ideas and came across a few websites that helped me out, like ehow.com and homeimprovementhelper.com Here is where I found the necessary steps to take to fix my own roof. Although the life expectancy of my roof is about 20 to 40 years, my budget at the time was, keep it simple and keep it sweet.

We had already done the first steps, which was to inspect the inside and outside parts of the roof. That is when we found the torn and folding shingles, and found the traces of water marks across the attic. The best part was, there wasn't enough water exposure yet to start making the wood rot.

The second thing we did was purchase a roofing cement, roofing nails, and a patching fabric to fix the inside and outside areas. These DIY roofing supples cost me less than $50.

Then we cleared all debris and dirt away from the areas that we needed to fix. And prepared all our DIY supplies. My husband did the roof, and I did the inside attic. What a chore it was, especially since we were both inexperienced, and my husband was afraid of falling.

Mine was a little easier to do. I took the roofing cement, and applied it to the cracks with a putty type knife. Then I took the patching fabric and laid it over the cement, and then added some more roofing cement. I let it dry and voila, it was finished.

On the roof, my husband had to use the roofing cement to put underneath the torn and folding shingles, then he used roofing nails to keep the shingles from moving until they dried.

Would you guess, after reading the online tips and strategies to fixing your own roof, my husband and I now have no leaks. Of course there may come a time when there will be another leak, or another folding shingle, but now we know how to fix it ourselves.