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Paul Drahn

On 10/30/2012 6:55 AM, wrote:
I own a brick colonial in MD. When I bought (2008), the home inspector said the flat roof (10x20, over an addition) was pretty old and would have to be replaced sooner than later.

I didn't do it right away, but after a storm I noticed a leak where the drywall in the ceiling abuts the old outside (brick) wall of the house. The wall is straight, except for a chimney, and the leak was at one of the corners of the chimney.

I found a guy willing to do it for less (less than $2000, as opposed to $3000+). He wasn't in any internet rating system (Checkbook, Angie's List), but I found a guy on a HOA committee who posted that this contractor was OK.

The work was OK, but I wasn't happy about having to hassle him to come back and repaint the new roof. (With that reflecting stuff. The first time he did it was OK, but it rained too soon after he put it on.)

Only thing I noticed in the year that passed after the work was done was that the room smelled of tar/whatever when the roof got really hot. But I figured that wasn't necessarily a big deal, and it stopped after awhile.

So, now, Sandy's come and gone. Main thing we were worried about was power going out. (Our local utility has tons of outages, but this time less than 10% of customers in our locality lost power.) I went into the addition last night to get on a computer and smelled something musty. Looked over, and the leak was back. (It was worse than before, but this was a hurricane. Last hurricane---Irene---was just before the roofer came to install the new roof, but it didn't leak (or not much) cuz I put a huge tarp over the roof.)

So...now I'm not sure what to do:
(1) Shrug it off---"it was a hurricane so it's a one-time event"
(2) Try to figure out where the leak is coming from (but teh Intertubes suggest it's very hard to figure out, at least for flat roofs if I recall correctly)
(3) Get the warranty out, and have the guy come back and fix it, despite my reservations about his competence
(4) Get some kind of general contractor guy to try to fix it
(5) Get a different roofer to fix it
(6) Get a different roofer to repair it

I'd spend more of my own time to try to figure this out, but I've got two small kids, so there's no time to get anything done around the house---have to beg SWMBO for time (we both work) to get much done on the house these days.
As long as you are using a petroleum product, ie tar, to coat the roof,
it will leak. Personal experience on two homes. Tar evaporates and
shrinks. Natural process. Back when coal tar was used, it was self
healing, but that can't be used any more.

The best you can do is hire a professional roofer to remove the old
covering, down to the plywood sheeting, and apply a rubber sheet. I
forget the proper name of the material, but it will allow the roof to
move with heat and cold and not open up cracks. That will be a permanent
fix.

Paul