Don't Shingle a Flat Roof

If you have a section of your home that is relatively flat, it needs special care and won't be protected with the usual 3-tab roofing shingles. Today, I was sent to repair a roof with this exact problem.

It is nearly flat and was covered with felt paper and then 2 layers of asphalt shingles. Even through all of these shingles, water was making its way through and beginning to damage the interior.

At this particular house, the shingles had started to form little valleys where water would be trapped. You can see them in the picture below. Instead of running down the roof, water was seeping into the shingles.

The homeowner was hoping to just fix the corner where the leak was happening. I started to peel off layers of shingles in this area and found lots of moisture beneath. The plywood sheathing was completely saturated with water, with the worst areas completely rotted.

After some discussion we decided to go ahead and re-roof the entire flat part which is over an addition of this East Nashville house. Without re-roofing, these problems are likely to continue to plague this section of the house.

Read about the exciting finish to this project here.

Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com