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Old 02-02-2008, 02:41 AM
 
Location: South Portland, Maine
2,356 posts, read 5,691,513 times
Reputation: 1536

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Well, I got my yearly dreaded phone call at 2am this morning.....water leaking in one of my apartments. Its a Flat rolled rubber roof with center roof drain. Roof is old enough to warrent a replacement soon but considering I have had no problems with it the last 9 years Ive owned the property I thought I had at least another few years to go.

Anyone know how to, A-find the leak, B-quick fix the leak at least till summer. I assume it's probably having to do with the ice storm we had last night combined with some kind of a malfunction around the roof drain. At least thats what I think...water is coming in near where the roof drain is located.

I thought Ice was only suppose effect pitched-shingled roofs
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Old 02-02-2008, 06:29 AM
 
Location: 43.55N 69.58W
3,231 posts, read 7,426,515 times
Reputation: 2989
Just spoke with DH, he says you should be able to spot the leak once you get up there and look around, assuming it's not covered in snow. Assuming it's not the drain itself, he said just tarr the hell out of it for right now. If it is the drain, just fix the area around it unless the drain is cracked near the surface. If you did have a lot of ice, it could have frozen and cracked down inside the drain, is is PVC?

2am phone calls are NEVER good news, especially if you're a parent or a landlord!
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Old 02-02-2008, 03:00 PM
 
Location: South Portland, Maine
2,356 posts, read 5,691,513 times
Reputation: 1536
Quote:
2am phone calls are NEVER good news, especially if you're a parent or a landlord!
I Happen to be both but I still have a few years before I have those late night worries. Well, tell your DH it was the drain. Somehow the drain pipe clogged and froze....water backed up and then because the flow was coming backwards the water flowed out where two pipes came together. I learn something new today......Never even heard of that happening.

Hot water and a pole did the job.....thank goodness. At first it certaintly looked as though it was the drain and there was a good 4 inches of ice and then 6 inches of snow on top so I am gladd. Maybe I can get some sleep now.

Tell your DH thank you.....I was still a little at a lost as to what to do while I was up there wondering what was going on. But I did have a big bucket of tar handy
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Old 02-02-2008, 04:44 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,210 posts, read 60,920,437 times
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Glad to hear it got fixed.

One of our apartments has a flat roof over one bedroom. It leaked repeatedly for a couple years, until we covered it with the thick rubber sheeting. Every manner of caulking and tarring will leak when put on a flat roof.

I have had very good fortune with applying elastomeric latex roof paint onto asphalt shingles on a very steep roof.

My Ct apartment had a roof that needed re-shingling. The shingles were drying: the stones are falling off, the felt is cracking and flapping in the wind, breaking loose and falling off. The city wanted two layers of shingles removed before new shingles could be applied. They required a haz-mat contractor to remove the shingles, they must be shipped to New Jersey for land-filling and they must be bonded against future pollution. The lowest bid that we got was $18,000.

Then I saw elastomeric latex roof paint marketed for applying onto metal roofs of mobile homes. I applied it onto the shingles with a roller, it glued everything in place. No further shingles have broken loose, and there are no leaks. I spent $80 on the paint, and I may have to re-apply paint every five years.
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Old 02-03-2008, 05:15 AM
 
Location: 43.55N 69.58W
3,231 posts, read 7,426,515 times
Reputation: 2989
Default good news!

Glad to hear it worked out for ya Flycessna! That's great.
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Old 02-03-2008, 06:50 AM
 
Location: South Portland, Maine
2,356 posts, read 5,691,513 times
Reputation: 1536
Quote:
Originally Posted by forest beekeeper View Post
Glad to hear it got fixed.

One of our apartments has a flat roof over one bedroom. It leaked repeatedly for a couple years, until we covered it with the thick rubber sheeting. Every manner of caulking and tarring will leak when put on a flat roof.

I have had very good fortune with applying elastomeric latex roof paint onto asphalt shingles on a very steep roof.

My Ct apartment had a roof that needed re-shingling. The shingles were drying: the stones are falling off, the felt is cracking and flapping in the wind, breaking loose and falling off. The city wanted two layers of shingles removed before new shingles could be applied. They required a haz-mat contractor to remove the shingles, they must be shipped to New Jersey for land-filling and they must be bonded against future pollution. The lowest bid that we got was $18,000.

Thanx, Thats one thing I like about Maine...you can still do a lot of things yourself as long as you own the property. My friend had asbestos siding and when he wanted to remove it all he had to do was buy these special bags for disposel..he then went and removed the siding and disposed of it in the bags.....good luck with that in Ma, Ct, RI, NJ....those states, like you, he would have had to hire some Haz-mat co.

Quote:
Then I saw elastomeric latex roof paint marketed for applying onto metal roofs of mobile homes. I applied it onto the shingles with a roller, it glued everything in place. No further shingles have broken loose, and there are no leaks. I spent $80 on the paint, and I may have to re-apply paint every five years.
i've been wondering when a new product would be coming down the pike.....I am waiting for something like they use on the pick ups (rhino Linning) why can't come out with a product like that. Hire a company that comes in to spray it on. it could be done in a few hours.

I have heard lately that Ins. companies are not happy with rubber roofs. I would imagine there would be a difference between rolled, torch down, using a one piece and of course...there is probably even different grades of rubber used so I will have to research that a little more.

And in speaking with a roofer he said there are still 50 year old tar and gravel flat roofs going strong....of course..everything worked better until they removed the Asbestos from construction.

Last edited by flycessna; 02-03-2008 at 07:01 AM..
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Old 02-03-2008, 02:45 PM
 
Location: maine/alabama
169 posts, read 547,205 times
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IMHO, having installed miles of rubber roofing in maine, never put any tar on any part of it. there are three materials to use when installing (or repairing) rubber roofing (EDPM so called)

one adhesive is used to coat the roof deck and the bottom of the rubber. this can be kind of exciting, especially on windy days. but if found the best way is to unroll it into position and tug it around and get it exactly where you want it. then carefully grab the two corners facing the prevailing wind and pull it all the way down to the other end. now you have exposed one half of the roof deck to put the adhesive on and one half of the bottom of the rubber to put the adhesive on.

once applied and dry, this next part is most important to getting it back into its original position. b4 you begin to apply any adhesive, get a good sized sonotube (coated heavy cardboard tube used to pour concrete in) and slip it between the layers of rubber right in the middle where it folds back on itself. make sure the bottom piece hasn't moved around any, as where it lays determines where the piece with the glue on it will end up when you roll it back out.

now u simply (glue is now dry to the touch) roll the sonotube slowly back in the original direction where you grabbed the first two corners and that big, long piece of rubber with the glue on the bottom will come along over the tube and put it self right down on the glued roof deck, almost exactly where it was when you first grabbed thosed two original corners and pulled it back on itself. repeat process to get the other half glued down.

couple of small details to pay attention to. sometimes small air pockets will form under the rubber. we had a home made solid steel roller about 10" long built onto the end of what started out as a short D handle shovel handle. it was so heavy and small that it easily rolled out those bubbles.

the roofs i re-roofed with the rubber had leaked from the time they were built using double coverage rolled roofing. oddly enough, they had a near flat section that led to a steep section and had center drains that would freeze and split and break and leak in the dead of winter. i solved that with new drain heads that worked well with the rubber roofing and at the end of the season maintenance could thread in large plastic plugs designed to close them off. because there was a flat 2x8 (inside edge beveled to accommodate the up and over of the rubber) at the perimeter, this meant that the roof had continous standing water/and ice on it for 4 months a year. it had a slight pitch towards the middle so i would say 3 or 4 feet of it were wet all winter.

now, back to the roofing. that first paragraph piece i described in ordinary circumstances would be the first piece at the lower edge of the relatively flat roof at the perimeter. the second piece would be laid out the same way except with a 6" overlap. a BLUE or WHITE line (not red) should be snapped 6" down from the top of the original piece as a guide to bring the second piece down to. now, after that piece is rolled back and is over the sonotube, snap a line on that exposed, bottom part of the next piece, 6 inches up from the bottom. those two 6 inch sections on both pieces get another type of adhesive (rubber to rubber) and thats why the lines are snapped, so the two different types of adhesive can be applied in the correct locations. apply em, roll it out, correct the bubbles, etc. and so on and so forth.

now, custom bent perimeter flashing (applied, believe it or not, OVER the original large rubber sheets). i always had that top measurement be about 2 1/2 to 3 inches wide, as the special rolls (self sticking) of edge rubber for that purpose are about 6 inches wide. i can't say how far down the building the perimeter flashing should go as each circumstance is different but it should have a little 1/2 inch kickout at the bottom. both edges of the metal should have a fold back on themselves so no sharp edges.

that edge rubber has its own self caulking strip at the edges but all the large rubber to rubber laps should be caulked with the black caulk especially made for EDPM rubber. this caulk is the material that should be used instead of tar for any repair to EDPM. you cant get it between the layers to caulk. if this makes sense, you should use it to transition from one layer to the next, so it is exposed and must be fairly neat, and its job is to seal the leading edge of the upper layer..........no matter how careful you are you'll step on this at least once b4 its dry..........lol

one other little detail. no cleaning necessary to apply the rubber to roofdeck glue, but in the lap areas b4 gluing we would always wash with whitegas first and b4 the 6 inch edge rubber was laid down we would wash the top of the perimeter flashing and 3 or 4 inches of the rubber sheet b4 we rolled it out. make sure to use the roller on that edge rubber too.

last caution, and its important. what you see is what you get. those haystack buildings were sheathed with boards and every crack would show up in the finished product so we stripped off the old roofing (killa) and applied 1/4 inch luan ply (no voids) to glue to.

sorry this so long winded and good luck..............

in all my years, i have never seen a roofing product behave as well as it does and thats why we used it to re-roof almost every building at the haystack mountain school of crafts on deer isle.
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Old 02-03-2008, 10:36 PM
 
4,281 posts, read 15,706,541 times
Reputation: 4000
EDPM roofing products are also available in the colour white. These are generally used in the Recreational Vehicle industry.

If you're considering using these products, check out an RV supply house. Most carry everything from lap cement to large rolls.

Be aware, though, that ambient temperature the presence of moisture are issues when installing this stuff. The same applies to the paint-on elastomeric roof coatings: minimum temperature requirements apply.
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Old 02-03-2008, 10:53 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,210 posts, read 60,920,437 times
Reputation: 30076
Elastomeric is a latex paint. Water soluble, once it is dried it is great, but, ...

A warm dry day is needed to use it.
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Old 02-03-2008, 10:57 PM
 
4,281 posts, read 15,706,541 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by forest beekeeper View Post
Elastomeric is a latex paint. Water soluble, once it is dried it is great, but, ...

A warm dry day is needed to use it.

Yup.........hot and dry are the ideal conditions.

The elastomerics don't have quite the same resistance to roof movement as do the EDPM sheets, though.
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