ROOFING TIPS

Roofing tips

Your roof is leaking and needs to be repaired. You, the homeowner, would like to save some money and try the repair yourself. If you are fairly handy you might be able to do this, especially if it is a small job and your roof does not have a pitch, or slope, greater than 6 (a " 6 pitch" in roofing terms). How do you go about fixing your roof?

The first step is to go into your attic, if your house has one. Take a flashlight, and look along the ceiling rafters for watermarks. These will show you where water is getting beneath the shingles, and where the roof needs repair. Usually the area needing repair will be two to three feet ABOVE the watermark, since water travels downwards. If you can find the water entry point, inspect this area carefully for damage to your roof decking (the wood that covers your roof and where shingles are nailed on top of). If there is any damage to the decking, call a professional roofing company, since most homeowners will have difficulty doing this work.

If water is leaking in, take a nail (at least 3 to 4 inches long) and pound it straight up through the spot you found in the ceiling where the water was entering (watch out for wiring or other structures when doing this). When you climb up on your roof to do the repair, you will be able to find the spot where the water damage was occurring by looking for the nail.

Now, go outside and visually inspect your roof for cracked, curling, broken, or missing shingles. If the entire roof is badly worn or has cracked shingles everywhere, you will need to replace it

entirely. It is best to have a professional roofing company do any major roofing job (see my article on how to get a great bid on your roofing work). If the damage is localized, such as where a tree branch has overhung the roof, then go up onto the roof and measure the area that is damaged. If there is more than one damaged spot, measure each one, recording it on a piece of paper.

You will need to order the MATERIALS for the roof. Order shingles that match the ones on your roof. To figure out how many, multiply the length of the area to be covered x the width. Divide the result by 100, and this will give you the number of roofing SQUARES needed for the repair work. A roofing square is equal to three bundles of shingles. One bundle of shingles will cover approximately 33.3 square feet of roof.

You may also need to order roofing felt, a type of tar paper that goes on top of the wood decking and covers it, especially if the area being replaced is fairly large. You will want 1 ¼ inch roofing nails ( a 5 lb. Box for a light job, or 10 pounds for a medium to large job).

You will also want a roofing shovel or a flat bar (a crowbar with a flat end) to pry off the old, damaged shingles. The best time of day to start is early in the morning (before 8 am) during the hot months, since shingles will soften in the sun in intense heat. Once you are on the roof, find your nail and check where the damage is. Find the bottom row of damaged shingles and using the flat bar,

insert it underneath the damaged shingles and lift up. You may need to do this in several places to "break the seal" caused by the tar in the shingles melting together. Once the bottom row is removed, work your way up to the row above, lifting up and off any damaged shingles. Try not to damage any good shingles while doing this - it can be difficult not to! Go slowly at first, until you get the hang of it.