On Jan 29, 2:06*pm, dpb wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jan 29, 12:55 pm, dpb wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:

...

If you're lucky, it's leaking directly above where it's dripping, but
odds are that surface tension made the water travel to a lowspot where
it could drip from, like along a rafter or other structural member.

More like gravity than surface tension in this case

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I believe that it is surface tension that
causes a liquid to be attracted to surrounding objects such as the
underside of a rafter. The water can travel along the underside of the
angled rafter until it hits an obstacle and collects. Once the forces
of gravity (and/or momentum) are stronger than the surface tension
attraction, the water will drip down. Maybe it's not the "surface
tension" that causes this adhesive effect, but I don't think it's
gravity either.

and the chances of
the actual exterior leak being directly above the entry point are quite
low in all likelihood

That sounds really familiar...

"If you're lucky, it's leaking directly above where it's dripping, but
odds are that surface tension made the water travel to a lowspot"

Same thought...different words.

Once you determine where it's coming in, measure from the peak and one
side of the attic and then take those measurements out onto the roof
and try to locate that same spot. It won't be exact, since you have
overhangs and shingles etc. up on the roof, but you might be able to
get close enough to search around in that general area for an exposed
nailhead or something obvious. BTDT
For a single layer, that has at least a modicum of a chance. *For 3-4
layers as OP described, not at all likely, particularly given the fact
he's got a place w/ top layer visible damage/missing shingles. *Start w/
the obvious entry point.

I've followed this exact procedure on more than one occasion with 2
layers and found very small holes in the top shingles where nail heads
had pushed through. In one instance, I found a wet spot on a box in
the attic, looked straight up from there and found a stain trail that
led back to a larger stain spot on the underside of the sheathing 5
feet away. I took my measurements, transfered them to the top of the
roof and looked around until I found the damaged shingle.

As I said, it can get you to the general area, as it has for me on
more than one occasion.

Worst case, use a drywall screw from inside up through the "leak" and
then go outside and locate the screw. It's leaking in that spot and
needs to be patched/repaired anyway.
It will then, for sure. *I'd put this at the very,very,very,very....
bottom of the list of way to proceed in OP's case given the above.

In my mind the words I chose, "worst case" = "the very,very,very,very
bottom of the list".

I don't believe you can rank anything lower than "worst".

BTW....isn't very,very,very,very is kind of redundant? Is the "very,
very bottom" of a list really lower the the "very bottom" of a
list...or even the bottom of a list, for that matter?

Emphasis, emphasis, emphasis...

The OP's problem is he's got a break in the top layer and water is
getting under that layer and then running down to wherever there's a
path thru. *There's no point in even worrying about where it's coming
into the house until fixes the obvious and then discovers (at least a
moderately low probability) there's another problem still.

The running on the underside is capillary action yes, but that's not
likely the problem here and not what I was talking about -- it's running
on the surface of the lower layers underneath the top layer somewhere
until it finds a hole there. *It may _THEN_ be transported yet somewhere
else removed from that, true, but that's now a tertiary point, not
primary or even secondary.

Hence the admonition to fix the obvious first and certainly don't go
poking new holes where in all likelihood none presently exists as a step
until exhausted other more fruitful repair paths.

A simple nail pop, yeah; you're ok but that isn't the kind of thing OP
has described.

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"Hence the admonition to fix the obvious first "

I couldn't agree more, and I think we'll both agree that if the roof
has multiple layers and pieces of shingles that are breaking off, then
the "obvious" thing is to replace the roof.

However, I still feel that the point of entry is an important factor
in this situation, whether the OP is trying to apply a temporary fix
until the roof can be replaced or looking to do something more
permanent.

If the OP can find the point of entry on the inside and locate it on
the outside, he can then look uphill (most likely) from there and find
the root cause of the "leak".

My point is that if he can determine where the water is coming into
the house he can probably do a better job of finding a way to fix it.
There's no sense in "guessing" which torn shingle is causing the leak
when there is a fairly straightforward procedure available to find the
root cause.