Did you know you have a curb on your roof? Most homeowners are not familiar with roofing terms such as curb, step flashing, or rubber boots. But all those parts of your roof could be causing you problems. Contact your nearby neighborhood roofer if you have a metal roof and suspect a water leak. These five causes of metal roof leaks will be among the first places your professional roof repair contractor inspects.
Defying the Odds
Metal roofing does not rot, crack, burn, crumble, split, or break.
So if you suspect a metal roofing leak, you must feel like the unluckiest homeowner in North Port. While metal roofing is tough and long-lasting, it has a few weak spots in its armor, mostly laid bare by poor maintenance.
First, be sure you see a leak and not condensation inside your home. The easiest way to tell the difference: in the evening, condensation (from bathrooms and the kitchen) will cling first to your windows before it appears on your ceiling.
If you see a water stain on your ceiling but no water on the inside of your windows, you probably have a leaky roof, even if it is metal. A likely culprit behind all of these roof leaks in metal roofing: deferred maintenance.
1 — Curb Appeal?
About that curb we mentioned; if you zoom out from the common meaning of “curb,” you get the general idea: a raised edge or platform next to a lower spot. Like where the street meets the sidewalk or a rooftop accessory sits on a roof.
While most residences in the North Port area have steep-slope roofs, some homes have some low-slope (so-called “flat”) roofs. You may have a house with a central air conditioner unit perched on it or a powered vent that draws blistering Florida heat out of your sunroom.
Any rectangular platform on a low-slope roof must have curb flashing around it. That curb flashing covers the gap between the platform and the metal roofing material. Yet, sometimes that curb flashing fails, becomes corroded, or gets dislodged. Then roof leaks occur.
Your local, trusted roofer is the ideal person to identify and solve such a tricky roof leak in a metal roof.
2 — Seams
Pants and skirts have seams. So do metal roofs, where one roofing panel overlaps another. That seam, ideally, is watertight. But it, like everything humans aspire to make, can fail. Water can even be windblown up into a seam, almost defying gravity to run into your Florida home and onto your ceiling.
3 — A Screw Loose
Metal roofing panels and other types of metal roofing are usually mechanically attached (to battens or directly to your sheathing) with long, strong screws. These screws are driven straight and true, but they can fail over time.
While metal roofing needs very little maintenance, it still needs some attention every now and then. A good roofer will physically check all exposed metal screws to ensure they are tight. A loose screw, or a missing screw, can allow water to drip-drip-drip into your home.
4 — Sealants
All types of roofs are finished off with little dabs here and there of various products:
- Roof cement
- Silicone sealer
- Sealant tape
- Caulking
- Seam tape
Florida has brutal, scorching abundant amounts of glorious sunshine. All that sunlight degrades and destroys chemicals in soft materials, which means all of those sealants can become dry and brittle. They can shrink and fall out of place, leaving holes behind. Water will find those holes in your roof.
5 — Stack Flashings
Your bathroom pipes must allow gasses to vent outside through sanitary stacks. The metal or rubber collars surrounding roof piercings are often called stack flashings and rubber boots. These can easily admit water if they are not well maintained.
Cure-All
No homeowner should ever climb onto a residential roof, no matter how do-it-yourself skilled. Roofing work is inherently dangerous, so please leave your roof leak detection work to trained professionals.
What will your neighborhood roofer do for you? Your roofer will perform a complete roof inspection, tracking down the cause of the roof leak. You can expect to learn of your options for resolving the problem, from spot repair to complete roof replacement.
Metal roofs have lifespans of 50 years or longer. Your local roofer will most likely recommend quick, efficient repairs to deal with your metal roof leaks, saving you worry, money, and frustration. Your residential roofer is no magician, but a metal roofing contractor really is the cure-all for metal roof leaks.
Homeowners in the North Port area have Mark Kaufman Roofing to turn to for all their roofing needs. Please, contact us today to see how we can transform your home with beautiful, durable metal roofing. Still sticking with shingles? We perform flawless shingle, tile, and green roof installations, too!
