Intro: The Leak

The whole reason for this blog started one day in an unseasonably wet and warm January, 2017, when a small, Ritz cracker-sized water spot appeared on the ceiling in our bedroom.  My response?  "Huh.  That's not good."  The next day, I turned the light on and it was now the size of a dish.  But not just any dish, it was as big, or bigger than, a large Waffle House platter; the oval kind you get when you order a nice big breakfast.

A not-so-quick trip into the attic (through a hall closet, where five adjustable Rubbermaid shelves have to be removed), and I found the spot.  It's not hard to miss soggy insulation.  Not really being able to see where it was coming from, I got a piece of plywood (to span the joists) and put an old cat litter pan down to catch any more dripping.  I went up the roof, and not seeing anything obvious, laid out a blue tarp over the area, and held it down with landscaping bricks.

Not the best job... read on!

The whole tarp thing actually went through several iterations.  The blue tarp on a grey roof was an eyesore, so I got a larger grey tarp from Harbor Freight.  The grey ones are thicker, more durable, and better at handling UV rays for extended periods.  And grey tarp matches grey roof.  This grey one was larger, and so I used rope to tie it off to several places: plumbing vent stack, furnace chimney, and our fence below.  Still had the landscaping bricks on it though, to keep it down.

An important note on tarping a roof:  Wherever your leak may be on your roof, follow it straight up towards the peak (ridge) of the roof.  Your tarp should overlap that ridge.  If it doesn't, all the water that falls on the roof above where your tarp (and leak) is, will run down the shingles, under the edge of your tarp, and right into the hole you're trying to cover up.

Bett*ER*, but not best.

So, landscaping bricks still on the tarp to keep it down.  That works with light winds, but we had a really windy night, 40+ mph.  We kept hearing *thump* *thump* *thump*.  The wind was getting under the tarp, shifting the landscaping bricks, and causing them to slowly slide down the roof.  That won't do at all...

Next iteration: Same tarp, rocks removed, and 1x2 strapping boards from the local home improvement store.  Nailed them around (and through) the edges of the tarp, and used some roofing cement/caulk to seal around the nail heads and boards.  That, to me, was tough... the first nail holes in the roof.  I was knowingly putting MORE holes in something that I was trying to fix a hole in.

That'll have to do for now.

Being that this was January in Ohio, it wasn't ideal roof workin' season.  So with the leak under control, it was time to do some roof research.