Leaky Garage Roof

[Rob Convery]

I have noticed in my garage that the roof leaks in a few places. Not sure how long its been like that as its a newly purchased house. Seller said he had no problems with the garage and kept an old car he was working on it in (which appeared not to have moved for a while).

Its a normal build-on garage on a 1970's house with a felt roof. At the moment I can't afford to redo the complete roof (and suspect it would be an overkill for a few leaks to start with) What's the best way of patching it up?

I have seen this stuff around - Flexacryl Roof Repair Compound

anyone used it with much success. Ideally I would like to cover the whole roof but that stuff appears to not cover too well which would cost >£100. Maybe I will just have to hunt down where each leak is?

[Colin Wilson]

=20 There`s a place you can get the rubber membrane (EDPM ?) - probably=20 cost ~=A3130-=A3150 to do the whole roof. I recently had to reinstall from= =20 scratch on this PC so don`t have the link to hand i`m afraid, but they=20 were UK based and had some decent instructions on how to go about it.

--=20 Please add the word "newsgroup" in the subject line of personal emails

**** My email address includes "ngspamtrap" and "@btinternet.com" ****

[<me9]

Bite the bullet. Get (or do) it properly. A felt roof from the 70s is well past it's sell by date. patching will only last a short while. Best solution is to fit a pitched and tiled (or a lead) roof, but it will cost you, once only.

[sPoNiX]

Depends what is causing the leak. Sometimes a single hole can cause water to drip from multiple places.

If it's just a seam that's separated then you can stick it down with bitumen. Likewise, small, defined holes can be patched with roofing felt and bitumen.

The first thing to do is get up there and have a look. The roof may be completely shot away or may have a single hole. Until you look you won't know.

sponix

[nightjar]

There isn't a best way to patch a flat roof that has started to leak in more than one place. The simple action of gaining access to it to repair the present leaks, assuming you can find them, will almost certainly start others. Once a flat roof has reached that stage, it really needs to be replaced.

Colin Bignell

[Ian_m]

Check its not leaking from just a seam between two sheets of felt ? My garage was, looked like it was never bonded in the first place. I prised the seams apart, dried the water out, cleaned it up a bit (meths ?) and painted on paintable roofing bitumen type stuff and resealed. Put stones back on top and leaking stopped. I worked from a sheet of board on the roof so as to not push the stones through the rest of the felt whilst I worked.