Hidden Roof Leak Damage In Woodbridge, VA

Hidden Roof Leak Damage In Woodbridge, VA appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi. This is Steve from Roofer911.

I'm at a home in Woodbridge, Virginia and they have a leak that's right across the top of the bed. If you look right there, you can see a yellow little stain. I always tell home owners all the time, "What you see is one thing. What I see may be something totally different." This is exactly what I mean.

This is an infrared image and you can see all this purple, all this blue, that's all saturated insulation. It's anywhere from 45% moisture to about 90%.

What I highly recommend is to go inside the attic, remove all that wet insulation. Let it stay open for about a week so everything dries. Once everything is dry, then you can put new insulation and I highly recommend to do this as quick as possible, removing the insulation. If you don't, there's a very good chance you could develop mold.

My name is Steve from Roofer911. If you have any questions, I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.

 

Roofer911 provides roof repair services in Woodbridge, Virginia and all areas of Northern Virginia.

Hidden Roof Leak Damage In Woodbridge, VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Locating Roof Leaks in Alexandria, VA

Locating Roof Leaks in Alexandria, VA appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi, this is Steve from Roofer 911.

I'm at a home in Alexandria, Virginia. They have a leak inside their bathroom. Here, you can see there's a water stain up against the wall. There is no insulation inside that wall so I told the homeowner, "Right now, you see it damp but eventually the water's going to continue to travel down inside that open wall cavity."

Where you're going to your next water damage is on the ceiling directly below this area so when you look at everything above there's no water damage here at all. Everything is perfectly dry but then when I turn on the infrared camera, all this blue. This is all saturated insulation and it also goes inside the shower.

Let me see, right over here in the corner. Also, that vent has a little bit of moisture and then also all of this dark blue is all moisture. An infrared scan is very beneficial because it helps me locate leaks that are not visible to the eye because if the hidden leaks are not taken care of then you can develop mold.

My name is Steve from Roofer 911, and if you have any questions whatsoever I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.

Hi, I'm outside the house now and I wanted to show you exactly what's causing the leaks. It's three different sources. Now, when the contractors originally installed the new roof they fastened the shingles very tight up against the wall which is okay but when they fastened the shingles into place they nailed into the step flashing along the wall and also around the chimney.

What we need to do is remove and replace any damaged step flashing. Then we'll reshingle that area. Also, we're going to seal the leading of the counter flashing of the chimney with polyurethane.

Another thing is when there's a heavy downpour, wind driven rain, or melting snow, the water's getting underneath the ridge vent here because it was never sealed underneath. What we'll do is we're going to remove the ridge vent, and we'll apply a heavy bead of polyurethane to the deck on both sides of the ridge. Then, the new ridge vent is going to be pressed right into the ceiling.

When we fasten it we're going to make sure that we nail it into the rafters so this way you're hitting something strong and secure, and you don't have to worry about the ridge vent blowing off. Now, another thing is with the polyurethane underneath the ridge vent now, it will block any water from getting underneath.

My name, again, is Steve, and we specialize in roof repair in Alexandria, Virginia and all areas of northern Virginia. I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.

 

Locating Roof Leaks in Alexandria, VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Finding the Source of Skylight Leaks in Vienna VA

Finding the Source of Skylight Leaks in Vienna VA appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi. This is Steve from Roofer 911.

I'm on a roof in Vienna, Virginia. They have a leak around some skylights. I checked the flashing but I really couldn't see it that well. You could see here it's all cemented, so the only way to resolve the problem is I have to remove all the roof material completely around these three skylights.

Any flashing that's damaged is going to be either repaired or replaced, but very important, we're going to install ice and water shield, which is a rubber membrane. It will be fully adhered to the deck completely around the skylights. Then we'll re-shingle the areas.

Here you can see this course of roofing is on top of the flashing, which many people do, only for aesthetic purposes. This way you're not looking at the skylight flashing. That could be a problem only if this course of shingles here is not underneath the flashing. We'll take care of that as well.

Now, also above these skylights you have a window here. I noticed there's no weep hole for this window, so when there's a driving rain, the water can sit on the sill, and then it can leak through the fractures at the inside corners of the windows.

What we'll do is we're going to drill a hole through this screen here and then also here. Those holes will serve as new weep holes. Then we're going to seal the inside corners of two windows up here with polyurethane. This could cause a skylight to leak, but only when there's a driving rain.

Here they have a ridge vent up along the wall. You can see they never sealed the nails, so we're going to seal all these nails with polyurethane again. You can see this is just a bended nail, and they still used it.

Now, another thing I notice, and this is not ... This has nothing to do with the skylights. This gutter right here, there's a drain here, and then I notice the gutter is lifting ever so slightly too high here in the middle, but then it's dropping down to the left. When there's a heavy downpour or a melting snow the water will pond here and the water can seep right through the sides of the screw that's holding the gutter into place. Then the water will go down inside the wall and eventually they'll have a leak down at the corner, but not the skylights.

What we need to do is remove all the screws that's holding this gutter into place, and we're going to drop down the middle ever so slightly, and then lift up the left side. This way all the water flows to the drain.Also another thing is these three skylights are not leaking from the upper roof. Everything is fine up there.

Again, my name is Steve, I'm Roofer 911. If you have any questions I can be reached at 703-475-2446.

Roofer911 provides roof repair services in Vienna VA, and all areas of Virginia.
 

Finding the Source of Skylight Leaks in Vienna VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Finding the Source of Skylight Leaks in Vienna VA

Finding the Source of Skylight Leaks in Vienna VA appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi. This is Steve from Roofer 911.

I'm on a roof in Vienna, Virginia. They have a leak around some skylights. I checked the flashing but I really couldn't see it that well. You could see here it's all cemented, so the only way to resolve the problem is I have to remove all the roof material completely around these three skylights.

Any flashing that's damaged is going to be either repaired or replaced, but very important, we're going to install ice and water shield, which is a rubber membrane. It will be fully adhered to the deck completely around the skylights. Then we'll re-shingle the areas.

Here you can see this course of roofing is on top of the flashing, which many people do, only for aesthetic purposes. This way you're not looking at the skylight flashing. That could be a problem only if this course of shingles here is not underneath the flashing. We'll take care of that as well.

Now, also above these skylights you have a window here. I noticed there's no weep hole for this window, so when there's a driving rain, the water can sit on the sill, and then it can leak through the fractures at the inside corners of the windows.

What we'll do is we're going to drill a hole through this screen here and then also here. Those holes will serve as new weep holes. Then we're going to seal the inside corners of two windows up here with polyurethane. This could cause a skylight to leak, but only when there's a driving rain.

Here they have a ridge vent up along the wall. You can see they never sealed the nails, so we're going to seal all these nails with polyurethane again. You can see this is just a bended nail, and they still used it.

Now, another thing I notice, and this is not ... This has nothing to do with the skylights. This gutter right here, there's a drain here, and then I notice the gutter is lifting ever so slightly too high here in the middle, but then it's dropping down to the left. When there's a heavy downpour or a melting snow the water will pond here and the water can seep right through the sides of the screw that's holding the gutter into place. Then the water will go down inside the wall and eventually they'll have a leak down at the corner, but not the skylights.

What we need to do is remove all the screws that's holding this gutter into place, and we're going to drop down the middle ever so slightly, and then lift up the left side. This way all the water flows to the drain.Also another thing is these three skylights are not leaking from the upper roof. Everything is fine up there.

Again, my name is Steve, I'm Roofer 911. If you have any questions I can be reached at 703-475-2446.

Roofer911 provides roof repair services in Vienna VA, and all areas of Virginia.
 

Finding the Source of Skylight Leaks in Vienna VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Finding the Source of a Roof Leak Arlington, VA

Finding the Source of a Roof Leak Arlington, VA appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi. This is Steve from Roofer 911.

I'm on a roof in Arlington, Virginia, and they have a leak down at the very bottom section of the roof, down near the gutter line. I checked a few different things. You can see here the flashing is all installed incorrectly, plus they put nails into the flashing right here, so the water can very easily get underneath the shingles and then seep right through the side of the nail and into the house.

There should be no nails exposed whatsoever. This nail here should be holding this flashing underneath this one. This flashing here would be overlapping the nail. That's the correct way to go about doing it.

Now, also there's a valley here as well. I noticed there's shingles fastened too close to the valley center line. What we'll do is we're going to remove all the shingles on both sides of the valley. Then we'll install ice and water shield, which will be fully adhered to the wood deck right along the entire length of the valley. Then we'll re-shingle it.

Now, another thing is when you do a repair you need to focus on all the penetrations above the area where the leak is inside your home. If you don't, the leak will come back.

Here's another example. This pipe flange, see there's a nail right there, and it's practically right in the middle of the key. Again, with a heavy rain, the water will seep right through the side of the nail, and then travel down the roof in between the shingles and the felt. Then it will hit the valley and just travel down wherever the water finds an opening like a tear in the felt, that's where it will settle.


Now, let's check out these two. Okay, here's another one. You know, when you nail your shingles into place you should nail away from the flashing. Also there was no ice and water shield installed underneath this vent.

What we'll do is remove all the roofing material around this vent, and also the pipe flange. Then we're going to install the ice and water shield, which will be fully adhered to the flashing. Then we'll re-shingle it.

Now, this solar tube, I cannot check the installation of the shingles, because whoever installed it cemented the shingles down. We're going to remove the shingles around the solar tube, and the same thing. We'll install the ice and water shield, then re-shingle it.


Here, up against this wall ... Like I said, we need to fix everything above the area where the leak is, because a leak can originate here and again, the water will travel down the roof underneath the shingles, and it will settle at the lowest point or wherever there's a tear in the felt.

Now, let's see what we got here. Let me get rid of this. Okay. Let's see what we got here. Okay, here's a nail right here. Like I said, that nail should not be exposed. It should be underneath this on. We're going to take up the shingles along the wall here as well, and we'll seal this crack also in the concrete because the water can get inside here. Being that the flashing is nailed to the face of the bricks and not inside the mortar, this crack can cause a leak to go down inside the counter-flashing.

Let's see what else we got here. Okay. Yeah, there you can see there's a space right here. The sealant has given way, so we're going to seal the counter-flashing, the apron-flashing, excuse me, along the wall in here. You can see it's all wide open here as well. Yeah, this is ... See, it's all wide open, so we need to ... In fact, the best thing to do is take this apron-flashing off and we're going to cut right through the mortar with a diamond blade.

It will be about a 3/4 inch cut, and then the apron-flashing will be L shaped. Then we'll insert it inside the mortar and then we'll seal the outside edge. This counter-flashing here will not cause that leak below, but over here this most definitely will.

Let's see what else we got. Okay. They had a new gutter installed recently and the gutter overall is okay, except for over here. You can see the gutter is dropping down. When there's a really heavy rain the water will pond in that area because the water cannot go up hill quick enough to where the drain is.

When the water fills up in the gutter, the water is going to overflow over the back, and then it will settle inside the wall between the bricks and the drywall. If they have a basement, which they do, that's where it's going to settle, is all the way down in the basement. They won't see any signs of moisture to any of the rooms up above.

My name again, is Steve. I'm Roofer 911, and we specialize in roof repair in Arlington, Virginia. I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.

 

Finding the Source of a Roof Leak Arlington, VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Why My Vienna VA Ridge Vent Is Leaking

Why My Vienna VA Ridge Vent Is Leaking appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi, this is Steve from Roofer 911. I'm on a roof in Vienna, Virginia.

I wanted to explain to you why this ridge vent is leaking. Many contractors, when they go up on the roof, if they see the nails are not sealed that well they're gonna say, "Well that's the source of the problem", and they'll tell the homeowner, "Well we'll just seal the nail heads and everything will be fine."

After one or two heavy rains, the leak comes back again. Now the contractor's confused, why is it still leaking? Little does he know that the outside of the ridge vent is not the problem but instead, it's the underside. What happens is, when there's a heavy downpour the water bounces off the roof and it can back up underneath the ridge vent.

If there's a driving rain, the water gets underneath the ridge vent then the water finds an opening through that open breather. Also, if there's a heavy melting snow. With all the pressure on top of the roof, sometimes the water can back up, go uphill, and the water will go underneath the ridge vent.

Here you can see the plywood is a little bit- It takes a dip right there. The reason why is because the water has gotten underneath the ridge vent and it caused the plywood to rot. This is one area right here you can see it's soft. There's another area right here, and this is soft.

This is a problem. Not only do you have rotted wood directly below the ridge vent, but that water is traveling underneath the roof shingles and wherever the water finds an opening like a tear in the felt, that's where the water will settle and it will leak into the attic. Eventually that rotted wood is going to go down and we could have rotted wood all the way down to the gutter line.

Many times the water doesn't stop there, the water will travel down inside the exterior wall and it can settle inside the basement. Ridge vents are very very important, they must be done correctly the first time.

What we'll do is, we're going to remove this ridge vent which is about 40 feet. Once it's removed, any plywood that's damaged we've got to remove and replace it with new. Then we'll install new felt, re-shingle it.

Before we put a new ridge vent on, we need to seal the deck heavy at both sides of the ridge, then the new ridge vent is going to be pressed right into the sealant. Very important, when we fasten it into place we need to make sure that we hit the rafters underneath and then we reseal the fasteners.

In here, where that plywood is soft. You can see, it's just coming off. Changing this ridge vent and changing the damaged plywood, and sealing underneath the ridge vent is so important.

My name again is Steve, from Roofer 911. We service all areas of Vienna Virginia and Northern Virginia. If you would like an estimate, please give me a call at (703) 475-2446. Thank you.
 

Why My Vienna VA Ridge Vent Is Leaking first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Source of Roof Leaks and Roof Repair in Reston VA

Source of Roof Leaks and Roof Repair in Reston VA appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi, this is Steve. I'm Roofer911.

I'm on a roof in Reston, Virginia, and they have a few different leaks on this roof. I'll show you one. The ridge vent here is all damaged, and people been walking, stepping all over it. You can see that there's a lot of nails that are exposed. Even though they sealed it with cement, this ridge vent is still going to leak. Right here, you got a nail pop.

What we need to do is, we're going to take this ridge vent off. We're going to install a new course of shingles. Then we're going to seal the deck heavy with polyurethane on both sides. The new ridge vent is going to be pressed right into the sealant, and make sure that we fasten it into the rafters.

Also, they have a leak around the chimney on the front side. The reason why, there's nails in the flashing right up along the wall. We're going to take up the shingles around this chimney. We'll install new step flashing, and re-shingle this area. This ridge vent here is not leaking, but I would highly recommend to replace this one too, because it's all damaged.

I want to show you something. Up against the wall, the contractors nailed the shingles too close to the wall. By doing that, they damaged the step flashing underneath. The leak starts about right here, and it goes all the way down. When I did the infrared scan inside the home, I could see it was very obvious that there's a roofing issue going on. What we'll do is we're going to replace any damaged step flashing, and then re-shingle this area.

One thing very important, even after the roof is repaired, this home will still leak if one thing is not taken care of, and I'll show you what I mean. Here they have vinyl siding. Vinyl siding, it must be installed correctly the first time, because if it's not, then a lot of times water's going to get in through the siding at the seams. Then the water will travel behind the wall, and leak on the roof. The contractors are not going to think about the siding overall. They're going to think, "Well, being that the leak is underneath the roof, it must be the roof."

I want to show you something, and I see this quite often. You see this open space right here, underneath the seam? That space is about one inch wide. It tells me that this panel here is overlapping this one by about an inch and a half. That's good. If there's a driving rain, no water's going to get inside here. That's good.

Take a look at this one. You can see the space is much wider, it's about two inches wide. Take a look. When I open it up, there's only about a quarter of an inch overlap. Instead of taking all of the siding off and redoing everything, what we'll do is we'll pull back the seam, insert polyurethane from top to bottom, and then we'll press it into place. This way, no water gets inside.

I noticed, also, they have Tyvek installed behind this wall, which is very very good. If there's any tears in the Tyvek, when the water's traveling down inside the wall, the water will seep right through the tear, and then down underneath the roof.

Another thing is, like I said, you have aluminum step flashing that goes underneath the roof, and then it goes behind the siding. If the Tyvek behind the siding is not overlapping the step flashing, the water will get in behind the step flashing and leak underneath the roof. It's very important, the Tyvek has to overlap the step flashing, instead of going behind.

That's it. My name is Steve, again from Roofer 911. I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.
 

Roofer911 provides professional roof repair services in Reston VA, and all areas of Virginia.

Source of Roof Leaks and Roof Repair in Reston VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Skylight Leak On A Low Pitched Roof - Arlington Virginia

Skylight Leak On A Low Pitched Roof - Arlington Virginia appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi, this is Steve from Roofer 911.

I'm on a roof in Arlington, Virginia, that has two leaky skylights. This skylight here is leaking and also the other one. That one's leaking as well. I tried to lift up the shingles but was unable to do it because the shingles are all cemented underneath, and that goes for every shingle on this lower roof.

The roof has a very low slope to it, so what i really believe happened is they installed the roof; everything was fine; but then shortly after, the homeowner complained about having leaks. Instead of putting ice and water shield underneath the entire low-pitched roof or a flat roofing material, they cemented underneath.

That leak could be coming from anywhere and just finding an opening at the skylights. Even this vent here or this one here can be attributing to these skylights, but I can't remove the shingles around the vents either because they're all cemented tight.

What we need to do is remove all the roofing material on this low-pitched roof, also these two vents. We need to take up the shingles around both of them, install ice and water shield, then reshingle it.

Now also, this vent pipe is in alignment with the leak too, but like I said, it's all cemented down. This vent pipe here was never fastened, so if there's a melting snow, the water can back up underneath the flange and leak inside the home.

Now another thing - very important, I noticed they don't have any ventilation on this roof. They really need a ridge vent because just having these two static vents serve no purpose whatsoever. It only ventilates the area in between the rafters below these two vents. What about the rest of the moisture? It goes to the highest point to the ridge and eventually this homeowner is going to develop mold and condensation buildup.

I would highly recommend to remove these cap shingles right along the entire ridge, and then we're going to cut through the wood sheathing approximately 1-1/2 inches on both sides. Then we're going to seal the deck heavy with polyurethane, and a new ridge vent will be pressed into the sealant and then make sure we penetrate the rafters underneath.

Now it's a shame. I wish there was a simple fix for this, but when you have shingles that are cemented down like this, there's nothing that I can do except for stripping this entire low-pitched roof.

Again, my name is Steve from Roofer 911, and we specialize in roof repair in all areas of Arlington, Virginia. If you have any questions whatsoever, I can be reached at 703-475-2446. Thank you.

 

Skylight Leak On A Low Pitched Roof - Arlington Virginia first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Chimney Leak and Step-flashing Leak in McLean, VA

Chimney Leak and Step-flashing Leak in McLean, VA appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi, this is Steve from Roofer911.

I'm on a roof in Mclean Virginia, and they have a leak that's right near the chimney and also down below, down the other gutter line. What we need to do is remove all the roofing material along the wall and also around the lower chimney, and also up above because I noticed there's nails fastened into the step flashing too close to the brick. When there's a heavy downpour or melting snow, the homeowner will have a leak.

Once we remove all the shingles then any flashing that's damaged, it's going to be repaired or replaced with new, then we're going to seal the leading edge of the counter flashing with polyurethane, and we're going to do the same thing to this chimney above here as well. We'll remove all the shingles, repair or replace any damaged step flashing, and then we're going to install ice and water shield completely around the chimney as well.

Now, another thing is, I checked all the keys where the shingles join together going from the gutter all the way up to the top to make sure that there's no nails fastened within the key, because if there is, just one nail can cause a leak.

Now, another thing I noticed is the gutter is pitched improperly, it's dropping down here, and it's also dropping there, and also there's a little bit of debris in the gutter as well. We're going to lift up the gutter as high as possible over here, so this way the water flows to the drain, and then over here we're going to lift the gutter as high as we can on the right side, so the water flows down to the drain.

It would be a very good idea to install gutter screening here once all these leaves are removed because if we don't, eventually when the gutter gets clogged, she'll have the same leak all over again.

There's another thing I want to show you, and this - a lot of times it seems impossible but here these furrow strips, you can have a seam here, and if it rains really heavy the water can channel right through the seam, and then it will go through the fisher board and down inside the home. You can see this gutter is very loose, I could just pull this thing out because they never fastened it into the rafters. With something like this, all you have to do is just turn it this way so the seam faces downwards.
    
Again my name is Steve, and we specialize in roof repair in all areas of Virginia, and if you would like a free estimate please give me a call at 703-475-2446. Thank you.

Chimney Leak and Step-flashing Leak in McLean, VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com

Finding the Source of a Roof Leak in McLean VA

Finding the Source of a Roof Leak in McLean VA appeared first on www.Roofer911.com

 

Hi, this is Steve from Roofer 911.

I'm at a home in McLean, Virginia, and this homeowner has a leak right across the top of the window. He originally hired another roofing company, and they noticed some shingles that were damaged so they replaced it with new.

Now, after the next rain, the leak came back again. The contractor put some cement underneath the shingles, thinking, you know, that could be the problem, and the leak came back again. He called us, and I want to show you exactly what I see up there.
    
Okay ...Uh oh. This pipe flange, it's installed incorrectly. They were a little bit panicky. They put some tar around the pipe, and also this vent here, and they did the same thing over here.
    
Let me get back to what the problem is. That leak is right about right here, so there were some shingles that were damaged, so they replaced them with new. One thing I tell homeowners all the time is, wherever you see the link inside your home, it doesn't mean the source of the problem is directly above on the roof.

The leak could originate from 30 feet away, show no signs of damage anywhere in between, and then the water just travels underneath the roof, and wherever it finds an opening, that's where it will settle. Again, this is where I said the leak was.
    
Now, here's the source of the problem. There's like a little trim nail right here, so the water was getting through the hole, because when the shingles were self-sealing, the nail is sticking up about 1/8 of an inch, and the nail popped right through the shingle.
    
What we need to do is just fasten this nail into place, and then we'll remove and replace these two shingles. That's it. Everything else above the roof is fine. That's it.
    
My name again is Steve from Roofer 911, and we specialize in roof repair in all areas of McLean, Virginia. Thank you.
 

Finding the Source of a Roof Leak in McLean VA first appeared on www.roofer911.com