Fixing A Roof Valley Leak

Roof valleys carry a lot of water.

Fixing a roof valley leak.

Roof valleys are created wherever two roof surfaces intersect to form a shallow v shape. The sealants and roof pitch used can crack and chip away over time. Roof valleys are prone to leaking and are a well known weak spot on older roofs. How much it costs to repair or replace a roof valley will depend on what it s made from.

Step 2 remove the shingles. Finding the actual spot where the roof leaks is difficult because water can enter the roof in one place and run down to another before it starts soaking into the ceiling. By gary hedstrom peg hedstrom judy ondrla tremore. If leaks continue to occur from ice dams consider installing roof edge heating cables.

In order to lay the flashing the shingles on the roof will have to be removed. Although professional roofers take great care to properly install roof valleys they can be susceptible to roof leaks. The valley flashing laid over the joint where the two roofs meet should overlap the step flashing at least 2 in. If your roof valley leak is an old repair gone bad consider having a professional repair the leak properly.

In other cases water can become trapped under shingles which have been overlaid to create the valley trough. Sometimes an older home s roof is more prone to leaking in the roof valleys because of old repairs. How to find a leak in a roof may be the hardest part of fixing a leaky roof. And the valleys are leaking real bad and i wondered if there s some way to repair that without having to tear the whole roof off again.

Once the roof valley has begun to leak you will need to cover the valley with flashing in order to prevent a repeat of the problem. If you re not sure what a roof valley looks like check out the photos on this page. Roof valleys are channels designed to drain runoff water and like any other part of your roof they can degrade over time with exposure to the elements. Though roof valleys are com mon leak sites on shingle roofs it s typically fairly easy to fix these problems with a little know how.

Check the entire roof valley carefully to locate the source of these problems.