Does Hand-Spudding Create Leaks?

Working on new rooftop equipment idea. If you carefully hand-spud a 1' x 2' area are you likely to create a leak? I'm guess that the answer is yes given that the gravel is embedded in hot bitumen and some gravel points are probably touch the membrane.

I toyed with getting some chipped dry ice to broadcast on areas of the roof during the summer - let it set 5 minutes to chill the roof in that area then spud. Seemed like to much work so I never tried it.

Ditto on the summer spudding. About 28 years ago we hand-spudded an entire 9,000 sq. ft. boat dealership in San Antonio, Tx. For whatever the reason, the owner didn't want a spudder up there, so my brother and I spudded the whole thing with 6" spudbars. That's what gave me the kung fu grip. lol

We spudded at night because it was too gummy during the day. One night about 10 cop cars showed up after we set off the alarms. We walked to the parapet to see what was up, and the cops thought the spudbars in our hands were rifles. They drew their handguns and yelled for us to drop our "weapons," which I did immediately. My brother, tho, with a slight autority complex, yells back "This is a brand new spudbar, I'm not dropping it." I told him to drop it or I'd drop him. lol

Hated that job!

Every roof is different,ive had some where we could spud it off fast and easily in the winter.And in the summer i dont want to spud some roofs,especialy if they have been repaired prevously with mastic.

In the summer, it is definetly a job for the early morning!

Never had any problems. Spud the desired area and sweep off and fine tune by squaring up the sides and check for and remove any remaining rocks. Give it a final sweep and then use a torch and glaze over the area keeping your torch pointed towards the gravel edges and as a result the flowing asphalt will seal in your perimeter. (Wear safety glasses as the heat may cause some pieces of gravel to pop) Cut your hole and mount your vent-curb-whatever and flash with membrane to the existing felts to within about an inch of your existing gravel edges. Bleed in the membrane edge onto the felts and then apply a coat of compatible roof cement on the transition between the existing gravel and new membrane. Sweep back the gravel to finsh.

It depends on how old the asphalt is.when it's old and the asphalt is crumbling you may damage it.

Gosh, that makes three for three. I guess we are right!

My dad agrees with Jed, says if you spud carefully the risk of allowing moisture to enter is very minimal. Worst case scenario, they could apply a thin coat of elastomeric or emulsion to the spudded are, then allow to dry before equipment is set.

Hand spudding will not damage the roof, my leak techs do it everyday. If you do tear the membrane then you are gonna cover it anyway so the point is moot. However, once the repair has been facilitated then the tie in should be trowled in with roof cement and the gravel bedded back in to cover any tear that occured close to the "unspudded" area.

You wouldn't spud an area and leave it exposed, so I would think the answer would be no if you do it right. Machine spuding does the same thing. It will knock hell out of the area that you are chipping the gravel off from. Spud it, fix it and recoat it!