Recurring Leak

Lady said people had been looking for the leaks for years, etc, etc. I go up and can't find a specific leak and tell her I'm going to have to redo umteen dozen improper repairs, from cemented slates, to ones with 1" bibs, to some with no bibs, and the odd broken slate and to just set a budget. She'd like to see the roof, so I help her two stories up and gave a short class about sidelap, headlaps, etc, etc.

While giving the 'class', I found something not visible to the naked eye, and after finding it and turning away, I had trouble finding it again until I started marking off the roof.

I'm glad there are very few slate roofs here. Such a long lasting product.

Been pretty busy this year with repair work. We had like 100 storm chasing outfits in town from 2009 to 2012.

A FEW are still hanging on but most have ran for the hills and left their crappy roof jobs behind for the homeowners to pay out of pocket for repairs.

Frank, it looks like that was a repair that the bib slid out of. They didn't hang them like that did they? Ciak, those are Buckingham Virginia slates and they will last 250 years if installed properly. They could be called a 3 lifetime roof, and they could mean it. It is a shame that the tarmites and idiots install them, having no clue what they are doing. almost as bad as the Federal Reserve, they take perfectly good white paper, smear green ink all over it and it is worthless.

Somewhere in the 95-105 year range I believe.

Of course, I just looked at one put on in 2003 that's falling apart. It was installed by a big company that started around 1997 and is now gone. I'll be getting a lot of work from them judging by comments I'm getting from suppliers and others. :ohmy: At least he had 5-6 real nice looking new trucks.

I also found out today, their name has been changed, and if the name is any indication, a group from the mid-east now own it. I'm still wavering on getting all the relevant dot-coms. ;)

I find the same situation on shingle roofs. Nails right on the seam. A shingle leakier for sure. The new peal and stick postpones the leak a year or so. If there wasn't crappy workmanship I would have to find something else to do when I'm in town. How old is the roof Frank?

B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

I took a moment to take this pic of a bib before I completely covered it to clarify an earlier post about using those failed slates for repairs. You can see that it effectively changes the headlap from 2" to about 3-3-1/2". You can also see my preferred underlay in the picture too if you look closely.

Oh, before I forget, look at the next slate over to see what I found. I added about 160 bibs to this roof over faulty repairs i found. Some even had 2" x 2' bibs somewhat covering the nails.

Yes, they added flashing. We won't know for years if any slate got broke under it. We'll see.

When I left Fri., I asked her to go in the attic and see if she could pinpoint any specific leaks. B) When I got there today, she was ready and said she had found leaks! :laugh: I go up in the attic with her and it had changed somewhat. She had worklights set up on tripods lighting the whole attic and crayon marks where needed, and pots where needed. :laugh: I might try to talk her into roofing on my jobs! :cheer:

When the chimney is fixed, tell her you have to repoint the bricks too. Is that a aluminum flashing fastened to the ridge before they installed the ridge vent? I like the metal ridge vents with the built in baffles, but they are a bit light on the metal, and they don't have much in the way of substance in the main body of the piece. It is better than plastic on the ridge with a slate roof however. It is always a challenge to vent a slate roof. I am designing one for a slate roof right now made of copper with a copper air baffle and some center structure. Kind of a double edged sword. I do like the Buckingham slates. they will last for centuries.

Stretched OS. Those are originals. The repair slates came off a failed roof that had no headlap, holes in the keyways, etc, etc. Standard around here is a 2" headlap for some reason. Heck, it's what I was taught and I didn't undersstand it then and rebelled with 3" and more headlap like I do on shingles sometimes. These repair slate will have standard 7" x 6" bibs giving the row 3"+ of headlap. Since the repair hole will be below the original holes, those original holes won't matter. (I'm not a fan of the 4" bibs for obvious reasons.)

This roof is about a 6/12 I think.

BTW, here's what the repair work done by others looks like on the chimney.

Somebody also added RV.

For some reason, she says she doesn't know who to trust anymore. :ohmy: Well, now I think she's solved that issue. :)

I just looked at the chimney pic. It doesn't show well, but the roof sags about 2" just at the lower corner. Somebody added sheathing, and boxed it with an additional rafter that not attached to anything! :woohoo: That's dragging the sheathing down terribly. I told her to put that on her 'to do' list.

Different length slates and the nail holes are a bit too close to the center. You look like you do a LOT of Buckingham Virginia slates down there. A couple of them barely had any headlap and the longest was about 2 inches. Did they stretch them, or were those repair slates that we not the right length?