** EDITED to reflect that the roof may not be EPDM/rubber after all... **
I have aEPDM or similar type of rubber flat roof (pretty much the standard here in Baltimore, MD) that is about 7 years old, installed in 2017 and then I purchased the house in late 2020. It was not coated during the initial installation, and was left as "bare". About 3 months after I became the owner, a substantial leak occurred in the upstairs ceiling around where the vent stack exits the building/roof. I attempted to get the original installer to come out and honor the then current warranty and provide a fix, but when I couldn't reach them I went ahead and patched what seemed like the obvious problem areas (cracks in existing flashing/cement) with a rubberized cement product & mesh tape. I don't recall this solving the problem entirely though, and when I was finally able to get a hold of that original installer, they suggested doing a silver coat because it had never been done. I went ahead and paid them $1000 to do it, and afterwards the leaking seamed to have stopped.
Flash forward to this past March (3 years after the coating was applied) and I"m finally getting around to replacing the ceiling areas that were damaged during that previous leak. This is a house from the 1950's and has rock-lathe all over (including ceiling), so removing it was a pain. After ripping down the affected ceiling areas I took a break, leaving the "attic" space had exposed for a few weeks. During this time a big rain storm happened and I visually noticed 3-4 areas of leaking. Two of which were emanating from a nail/split in the wooden roof base layer (boards, not plywood), and one from a joist/board intersection - all of which were close to the sides of the house. There was also substantial leaking around one of the "roof vents" (which are old metal grates, mortared into the exterior brick wall), where there has been obvious deterioration of the mortar and significant leaking. Here are some photos, highlighting actual leak locations - I'll just mention that the black areas in the 2nd photo were not damp to the touch and I assume they were caused from previous leaks and/or are severe cases of sap that oozed out over the past 70 years):
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Since the warranty on the rood had since expired, I went up on the roof myself to check for obvious points of water entry and saw several areas (near where the leaks were inside) where the roof material had open folds along joints. Given that the rest of the roof in general looks decent, I can only assume this is where water is getting in. There are a bunch of these spots all over the roof, but here are some photos of the more obvious locations:
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It's really not in the cards for me to replace the entire roof this year, so I'm wondering if there is a reasonably easy way to repair these spots in the meantime. Is it possible to just thoroughly clean the area and then inject/apply some sort of patching material (rubberized, silicone, etc), or is the only real way to cut these areas out entirely and apply a new piece of roofing material as a patch with new flashing cement? Either way, it seems like the silver coating might need to be scraped off/removed as well for any type of patch to properly adhere?
Any knowledge/suggestions would be helpful. If I cannot do this myself (ie. one local roofing supplier near me won't sell to you unless you're a contractor), it would still be nice to know the correct protocol to compare with a diagnosis/quote from a professional roofer.
Thanks in advance!
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Flash forward to this past March (3 years after the coating was applied) and I"m finally getting around to replacing the ceiling areas that were damaged during that previous leak. This is a house from the 1950's and has rock-lathe all over (including ceiling), so removing it was a pain. After ripping down the affected ceiling areas I took a break, leaving the "attic" space had exposed for a few weeks. During this time a big rain storm happened and I visually noticed 3-4 areas of leaking. Two of which were emanating from a nail/split in the wooden roof base layer (boards, not plywood), and one from a joist/board intersection - all of which were close to the sides of the house. There was also substantial leaking around one of the "roof vents" (which are old metal grates, mortared into the exterior brick wall), where there has been obvious deterioration of the mortar and significant leaking. Here are some photos, highlighting actual leak locations - I'll just mention that the black areas in the 2nd photo were not damp to the touch and I assume they were caused from previous leaks and/or are severe cases of sap that oozed out over the past 70 years):
Since the warranty on the rood had since expired, I went up on the roof myself to check for obvious points of water entry and saw several areas (near where the leaks were inside) where the roof material had open folds along joints. Given that the rest of the roof in general looks decent, I can only assume this is where water is getting in. There are a bunch of these spots all over the roof, but here are some photos of the more obvious locations:
It's really not in the cards for me to replace the entire roof this year, so I'm wondering if there is a reasonably easy way to repair these spots in the meantime. Is it possible to just thoroughly clean the area and then inject/apply some sort of patching material (rubberized, silicone, etc), or is the only real way to cut these areas out entirely and apply a new piece of roofing material as a patch with new flashing cement? Either way, it seems like the silver coating might need to be scraped off/removed as well for any type of patch to properly adhere?
Any knowledge/suggestions would be helpful. If I cannot do this myself (ie. one local roofing supplier near me won't sell to you unless you're a contractor), it would still be nice to know the correct protocol to compare with a diagnosis/quote from a professional roofer.
Thanks in advance!
