How to Repair a Roof?

During harsh weather conditions, roofs have the tendency to develop leaks. These leaks can be caused by a cracked shake, a missing shingle or in the case of a flat roof, a cracked or a blistered surface. Most of the time if there is just a damaged shingle or a small crack in the roof, you can try to fix it yourself. It can save you the time, effort, money and the patience to wait on a repair man.

Here are certain techniques that may come in handy when you’re wondering to yourself “how to repair a roof?”

How to Repair a Roof of Shingles?

• Curled shingles – You can easily reattach these shingles with asphalt roof cement. Repairing these shingles in summer is easier than repairing them in winter as they become very brittle.

You can use a propane torch to soften a brittle shingle. Direct the flame at the curled shingle and when it softens a little, flatten it.

• Rotten or torn shingles – Shingles that can be lifted off the roof effortlessly are rotten and need to be replaced. If you find that a large part of your roof has rotten shingles then the whole roof may need to be worked on all together. Torn or missing shingles need to be replaced as well.

How to Repair a Flat Roof?

Flat roofs are made up of layers of tar and roofing felt. Leaks mostly occur on places where this roofing has been damaged. In order to mend the roof, you can try the following steps:

• Remove any water that may have collected in the roof area and let the surface dry up.
• Sweep away the gravel particles, if any.
• Check for blisters or cracks on the surface of the roof.
• To repair a blistered roof, cut open the blister with a sharp knife and squeeze the water out of the layers. Soak up the remaining water with rags and let the blister dry.
• Apply a thick coat of roof cement on the edges of the layers and press the blister firmly to the roofing layer beneath it.
• You can use 6d galvanized nails and close the blister once and for all.
• Next, apply the roof cement in a thick coat over the blister, ensuring that the heads of the nails are covered as well.

The guidelines on how to repair a roof may seem easy but when you actually get down to do it, there are many things that could possibly go wrong because of your lack of expertise in such repair jobs. Also, if the roof is damaged to a great extent then it would be better to let a professional handle it to ensure that it does not cause further damage to your home.