Roof leak = $275 repair
October 23, 2007So it’s not actually as bad as I had feared. When the idiots who built this house put up the plumbing vent (the pipe that sticks up from the roof to let air out of the plumbing when you flush or drain the tub, etc.) they did so too close to a valley. That’s where two sections of the roof meet to form, literally, a valley.
So anyway the plumbing vent is so close to that valley, they clipped off part of the metal flashing in order to make room for the metal that seals the valley itself. So there’s a seam between the two, instead of having shingles protecting the seam. It’s that seam which is occasionally allowing water into the attic. Especially during heavy driving rains–that’s when the valley is most likely to be full of water that can spill over into that seam area.
The band-aid would be to just caulk it over, but then the water might find some other way around that whole mess. So I’m opting for the real fix, which is to relocate the vent away from the valley in the roof. That way it will have room for the full metal flashing around it, and they’ll lay shingles on top to do what they’re supposed to do.
It’s going to cost $275, which isn’t a pleasant expense but at least it’s not thousands of dollars to fix something major. Of course the roofing guy I’m working with is really really booked. These last couple days of heavy rain has apparently been pretty busy. My issue isn’t that serious, so he’s going to check his schedule and get back to me with a couple proposed times. We’re hoping for later this week but realistically it will probably be early next week that the fix happens.