Roof Repairs In The Frozen Northwest

cowboyremodeler

I work in texas, and while I do roofing as a part of my remodeling business I know nothing about dealing with heavy snow. My son lives in Spokane washington and rents a house there. Last night at 3am his bedroom ceiling caved in from a roof leak . He worked with me for a while and thinks he has identified the source of the leak as a valley where 3 roofs come together. They have shoveled off all the snow, but the valley is still coated in ice, what is the best way to get the ice off and will wet dry patch work in those conditions. (his landlord told them he would have to wait till spring to make repairs and told them to staple up plastic) I want him to attempt the repair, see if it stops and if successfull he can screw up plywood until I can get up there to make repairs. Thanks for your help!!!!

EPD

You should be able to salt/calcium the valley to remove the ice without using a torch or damaging the roof with scrapers ....
once the ice is gone the roof will likely stop leaking, that is until it builds up heavy again and the water has nowhere else to go ...

Good luck!

cowboyremodeler

will Henry wet dry roof patching tar work in those conditions, is there another product available at a roofing supply house in spokane that would work better??

Tom Struble

tar never works in a valley better off tarping it good and wait for better weather imo

davitk

If it's an ice dam problem spreading tar will only make the real repair process messy.

Why is it your responsibility to fix it?

cowboyremodeler

its not but their landlord just wants to staple plastic up over the 6'x4' hole in the sheetrock and wait till it quits snowing, says there is nothing he can do right now. They are a young couple with a baby in a 2 bedroom house and right now their bed is in the L/R, seems there should be someway to patch it up till spring

davitk

Roof rake and calcium chloride. No tar.

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HousieG

Salt or calcium chloride is best to melt ice as others said tar will just make a mess.

Good luck.

** I got to thinking after I logged off after first posting and I looked in my garage because I knew we had some sort of product that was made specifically for this purpose. Its concentrated and works well, but its a little pricey. However, its good to have on hand as it works quite well in an emergency or bind when you need quick results. I googled the product and found it here online --

http://www.thehardwarecity.com/?sku=2831550

Renegade

If it was leaking in the cold snow we had it's really going to start leaking with this chinook wind and rain coming in today. If you don't live here you can't imagine how impossible it is to get up there right now even if anyone was available.

It looks like after today/tomorrow snow removal won't be an issue and leak repairs will be back at the top of the list. Right now we are still concentrating on shoveling off at-risk buildings that have not collapsed yet.

If this warm weather continues for the rest of the week his roof should be accessible by this weekend to effect a proper repair, no need to wait til spring. Then it's a matter of finding someone available to fix it.

wmallock

no need to wait till spring I do winter repairs all the time your son need to pick his day not sure what its giving for spokane but giving warming up here a warm day he should be able to clear the ice and contiue with the necessary repair. just be carefull of brittle shingles try a grace ice and water it stays more plyable and will stick to dry surface maybe a light bead of tar but try to tuck it where psoosible will hold till spring I attempting a shinlge repair keep them warm until ready to use and you will need tabs of tar to stick the shingle until the sun can do its thing

Grumpy

Wow your son should move. I mean that's just ridiculious that the landlord has your son doing anything. Who is going to pay for the funeral when your son falls off the icy roof? Why would you want HIM to do anything on this house that isn't his property? Your son can probably legally move without penalty, or pay for a permantent repair and decuct it from his rent. YOur son shouldn't have to live in squallor. Nor should he pay for 2 bedrooms but only have use of one bedroom. He should call a lawyer. This land lord sounds like a scum bag.

Probably you're going to need to tear up the roof and install ice shield then new shingles. As far as a temporary thing you can use some kind of wet patch, as regular roof cement won't stick in the to wet surfaces, however even the wet patches won't stick to snow and ice.

I just tarped up house today, the tarp large enough to cover almost the whole building was less than $100 and with shoveling the roof and ground where we tossed the snow, plus time to obviously fasten the tarp, was about 2 man hours for 2 men.

If you do intend to use some ice melt, consider calcium chloride instead of sodium chloride (salt) the salt will damage metal accessories, the calcium is less likley.

davitk

yep, and if ya turn the house upside down ta get it in all the cracks, walla!! WaterPROOF roof

BattleRidge

shovel it, torch it, tear that face of and resheath the hole if there is one in the sheetng, It may just be the sheetrock from your description. Ice and water the whole think, and throw on new shingles. Just do it on a nice day. I mean just piling a bunch of rubber crap on its never your best bet.