July 6, 2021
Nowadays, many home-owners are choosing to become “do-it-yourselfers” instead of contacting an expensive contractor to help them with roofing repairs. This is going back to the days of the 50’s and 60’s, when people were more apt to try projects on their own, instead of immediately contacting someone to do it for them. It seems these stingier economic times are pushing people to become more competent, and in turn confident, evolving a whole generation to learn and adapt, or suffer the economic consequences. The drawback to doing it yourself is that if you have no idea what you’re doing, you can spend much more money on a crappy job than if having just hired a contractor in the first place. So if one plans to repair the roofs on their own nowadays, its better to read up as much as you can about the problem and solution.
One of the most common problems in roofing repair are roof valley leaks. This is where two slopes to join together to create a type of “valley”. As time goes by, nature often takes a toll on these valleys, for their often the point of discarded water and take the most damage inflicted by things such as freezing/thawing and hail. Even little things like the wind and sun have a huge impact on the valleys over time. It simply seems to deteriorate as the time goes by. Decomposing organic debris may even cause the roof to rot in these valleys! With all these elements combining for their demise, it’s a modern miracle most roof valleys last as long as they do.
The first part of repairing a roofing valley is determining the source of the leak. You want to remove all branches and leaves that might be obscuring your view. You want to look for shingles that appear cracked or broken. If a shingle appears rotten ( it might seem decomposed, and it will easily pull away from the roof), then that too might be the cause of your problem. Once you have located your problem, you can move on to fixing it. Remove all damaged or rotten shingles in the area of the leak. Make sure to not damage any of the good shingles or the base of the roofing with your tools.
Once the old shingles are gone, replace them with new ones. Make sure they correlate to look the same as the other shingles, and place them down with nails and base cement. Make sure to leave no gaps open, or your just begging for another leaking problem to develop. If done properly, you will have just accomplished in saving hundreds of dollars and a huge confidence booster to your self-esteem!