Roofing opinion and leak

[JoeR]

I have a roofing question, but let me start with the history. Back in September 06, my roof leaked. The roofer looked at the roof and the area in question, and stated that someone had put shingles over the rubber membrane which caused the leak. It took 5 years for the nails to back out since they did not make good contact with the wood. The roofer said that you should not put shingles over the membrane.

About a week ago, I received 4 inches of rain in 2 hours. The roof leaked again in the same exact spot. The roofer came back out, and said that his crew did not put tar under the shingles that overlapped with the membrane, and that is why it leaked.

Does that sound right?

Here is a picture:

[egon]

From the picture I find it hard to tell but can water pool in the area and back up?

Egon

[GaryM]

Not a roofer, though I have palyed one on occasion. What kind of membrane do you have. We use a rubber membrane at all eves that's sticky on one side. It's applied before anything else right to the decking. Then paper and shinges are put on top. This membrane is used to prevent leaks in case an ice dam forms. Water trped by the ice dam could backup under the shingles and get through. The membrane totaly waterproofs the lower 3-4' of the roof edge.

[JoeR]

With a good volume of rain, I could see water rushing up under the shingles at the bottleneck point. Otherwise, I am not sure what type of membrane was used, or the proper way to fix the problem.

[egon]

I am thinking that a proper solution will involve removing the shingles in and around the affected area of water backup, laying down new waterproof membrane, flashing and re-shingling the area.

It may also be possible to build up a dummy roof section that will allow for better drainage???


Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[AlSmith]

Did you check the gutter. Sometimes we think there's something really wrong but the gutter is only clogged. I learned this from my roofing contractor who also performed stamped concrete on my Orange County property.

[jml755]

Wow, looks like 3 intersecting valleys dropping onto a 4th and they tried to mitigate it by adding a flatter section to avoid a "dead" area. Hard to tell all the slopes from the picture, but they look pretty shallow in the middle there. I'm assuming the "membrane" is uncovered in the middle of the picture. I'm not a roofer or architect, but I'd say you're getting a leak from a poor roof design. Putting tar on a potential leak point (nail head, joint, etc) will help, but if you've got an area that water stands (or doesn't move quickly over), you're going to continually have problems with a rain such as you describe.

[ricaroofers]

Even if the author of the thread experienced this three years ago, I am sure others can also relate with the problem. It is a good idea to take off the current membrane and the shingles on the affected area. This could be a best remedy for that. Putting a new membrane and shingles is also fine. Roofers

[NSbound]

I hope the original poster has it repaired by now, almost 3 years after his first report!