Fixing a rubber roof (help!)

Nov 15, 2006 4 Replies

Ok, I have a slightly sloping rubber roof (12x12). It is an old roof, and it is now leaking both by the 'drain' (middle of the lower side of the roof), and next to the house (this roof covers a single 'addition' room that will be demoed in



3-5 years).


From visually inspecting the


areas, I cannot detect any obvious holes/tears. To further complicate things, when I look from the 'underside' of the roof (it leaks into an office with a suspended ceiling - so I removed some of the panels to try to find the leek, well can't do that (tar paper under rubber) so am trying to figure out an 'easy' way of doing this.


I tryed to seal some of the seams with tape and also the EMPD(?) rubber paint - it is very expensive and difficult to work with (too thick).


Ideally, there would be an inexpensive 'paint' that would simply plug all the holes when it dried - I mean there must be a _simple_ solution.


Help me usenet gurus! Will



Use this on the seams:

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It's relatively cheap and weathers well because it's vinyl. Take a pair of scissors and cut the hose length wise until you get the desired length. Purchase trowel grade roof tar as opposed to brush grade. Lay a layer of the trowel grade roof tar on top of the seam that is slightly wider than your prepared vinyl tape. Apply the tape. When stable apply another layer of roof cement on top of the vinyl for the purpose of extra leak protection and protection of the vinyl from the sun.

It will last forever.

To get by for a few years on a basically sound roof, buy and install an elastomeric roof coating. Goes on like paint, needs 2 or more coats. I have had some great results. Look for one compatible with epdm as I have not used it on an EPDM roof.

Keep the whole world singing. . . . DanG

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