Is there a preferred way to temporarily waterproof a leaking flat roof?
I have some pretty heavy duty tarpaulins (from costco), just need some roofing batons and a dry/wind free day.
The roof is totally exposed to the full force of South Westerlys coming up the river Severn so it's got to be pretty well fixed.
Forgot all about the problem over the summer due to lack of heavy rain, but today it's peeing in nonce more.
Cheers Pete@
Depends what the leaks are like - if you can identify them, how many, and the precise cause.
I have used the solvent-based cold tar, applied with a wide scraper at leaking seams (which might last over winter), and you can use it to glue a patch of new felt over a larger hole (which will last longer).
Needs to be dry to apply, but an hour's sun on a flat roof can be enough to dry it. Store the tin of cold tar at room temperature before use, or it will get too thick to spread in winter.
There are resin-based roof repair products which work in the wet, but much more expensive.
I put the tin of tar in a bucket of hot water before use, and dried the patch of roof I wanted to mend with a hot air gun. Needless to say, you only find leaks when it's raining, and inevitably it's cold, too.
There are also some high tack tarry tapes that will go on top of the cold tar to rejoin a bad seam or split. Problem is if you walk on a perished flat roof you do damage to it as well as fixing existing leaks.
I recall from schooldays they only ever tried to mend the flat roof in midwinter when the leaks were all too obvious and one one occasion we were had up for throwing snowballs at the operatives on the roof!
Needless to say none of the roof repairs lasted out the winter.
On Monday 21 October 2013 09:54 Martin Brown wrote in uk.d-i-y:
A job for flashband?
This is what happened in the spring. It started leaking a little so I went up and took a look.... after that it was streaming in.
With the really hot days, when it did rain there was no water coming in and I guessed (hoped) the summer had melted the tar and it had self-healed.... obviously not.
This is a case of wide-open seams and no fall to speak of. I might be able to bodge it with some sort of tar but I thought sheeting and battening might afford a slightly better solution.
Just slowing down the water would be acceptable for me. :)
Pete@
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