If you’ve ever owned a house, chances are at some point you’ve had to deal with a leaky roof. Having water start dripping into your home is both stressful and alarming. And you can almost always bet it won’t be cheap to have a professional roofer come out to repair the leak.
In Ohio, we’ve had far more rain than usual this spring. A little over a week ago, our roof sprang a little leak, right in the family room.
Luckily, Kirk was a professional roofer for a number of years when he was younger. This comes in pretty darn handy when we have a problem with our roof — like a leak!
Kirk climbs out the office window to access the roof.
Before you ever try to walk on your roof to fix a leak, you must be positive that there isn’t extensive water damage that could have caused the wood underneath the the shingles on your roof to rot. If the boards are rotted, there is a BIG chance you will fall right through. If there is any question on whether or not the boards are rotted, call a professional.
Here are the steps Kirk took to fix the leak in our roof:
Tools Needed
- Either a ladder or window with access to the roof.
- Commercial grade clear silicone (Kirk swears by Osi Quad window, door and siding sealant).
- Caulking gun.
- Utility knife (to cut the tip of the silicone).
- Long sharp object to open the silicone tube (Kirk used a bamboo skewer we had at home).
- Old, worn tennis shoes without a lot of tred. Newer tennis shoes with deep tred can scuff hot shingles.
The tools.
Once Kirk climbed onto the roof, he spotted several possible culprits for the leak we experienced in our family room. The below photos will help you to determine what to look for when searching for a leak in your roof.
Bathroom exhaust vent (left) and close-up of J-channel on vent (right).
The big hole you see in the J-channel in the above photo on the right could be the problem. Kirk filled the hole with silicone and then continued to look for other sneaky leak possibilities.
Gap in J-channel at the roof's peak.
The above space in the J-channel found at the roof’s peak is another likely culprit of a leak. Kirk filled the gap with silicone and moved along.
Nail popping up out of shingle.
Finally, Kirk found a third possible leak cause — a popped nail. The nail was level with the shingle, so Kirk didn’t need to pound it down. He simply covered the nail with silicone.
What to Look For
While the leak could have been caused by any of these three things, we’ll now rest easy knowing that some other potential leaks have been taken care of. The silicone will last about five years, so we’ll need to make a trip back up on our roof to reseal these areas once five years has passed (or if we get another leak).
Kirk explained that typical causes of leaks on roofs are oftentimes caused by small gaps anyplace where the siding meets the house (this includes chimneys). These are areas you’ll want to inspect closely if you’re attempting to fix a leak on your own roof.
What you’ll be looking for are things like those red flags we discussed above.
It’s important that you don’t put TOO MUCH silicone on a potential leak also. If too much silicone is applied, it can cause a small dam where water will build up and cause a leak.
If you do accidentally end up with a large glob of silicone, (I can’t believe I’m writing this) the best way to smooth it out is to spit on your finger (ew) and smooth out the silicone. According to Kirk, the silicone won’t stick to your saliva.
The Cost
Kirk picked up some of the clear Osi Quad silicone at Home Depot for $5.44. He uses a Workforce 160:20 Caulk Gun to dispense the silicone, which costs about $12.97 at Home Depot. There are less expensive caulk guns available, but Kirk says in his experience they don’t stop squirting silicone when you release the trigger. What a mess!
Also, a utility knife will be necessary to cut the tip of the silicone. You can find a good one for under $6.00.
Finally, we used a bamboo skewer to break the foil seal inside the tip of the silicone. You can use anything long, sharp and disposable. Some other suggestions would be to use a long nail or a stick.
In total, you’re probably not going to spend more than $25.00 and 30 minutes if you’re comfortable and willing to try and fix the leak yourself. If you call a professional, you’ll usually get charged a minimum of $150.00.
Have you ever tried to fix a leak in your roof? If so, did it work? If not, what stopped you from trying?
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Great tutorial! You make it seem so easy. As for the tools needed, you might be able to do without the knife and skewer if you choose your caulking gun carefully. I have one, a Z-Pro #3200, that has a built in tip cutter and seal poker. It is also the “dripless” design that stops when you stop squeezing the trigger. I forget how much it cost as I’ve had it a while, but I’m pretty sure it was under $20, and probably came from either Lowe’s or Ace Hardware.
Hey Mike! Thanks for your additional tips!
We already had a utility knife and caulk gun, so the only thing we needed to purchase was the silicone.
I’m not brave enough to fix a leaky roof! Right now we have to paint Cora’s roof. It’s metal and it has started to rust in spots (no leaks though, knock on wood). Even that feels a little intimidating though. I’m not very good with heights!
You’re lucky you caught yourself a handyman type.
I actually like climbing around on roofs — as long as they’re not too steep! The view is always so nice. My best friend and I would climb out her bedroom window to sit on the roof all the time when we were growing up.
And yes, Kirk is quite handy.
Good luck painting Cora’s metal roof. That has to be a tricky job!
We’re um… planning on outsourcing. I feel pathetically unfrugal admitting that!
Sometimes you just have to outsource jobs that would make you miserable attempting on your own! It’s not worth torturing yourself if you’re petrified of heights.
Great tutorial! We have a leak, too, but we think it is coming from rain blowing against the chimney. Water seeps in, runs along beams, then follows a stud in the wall all the way down to the basement. Going to attempt to tuckpoint it soon, but none of us are cool on roofs :/
Hey Meg, thanks! Our leak was caused by the wind blowing the rain in a direction it doesn’t usually blow. Kirk fixed our leak, but I *think* I would have climbed up there and taken a look myself. Especially now that I know what to look for!
I hope you get your chimney fixed soon!
This is timely for me too, thanks! I’m also in Ohio and a leak near our chimney/roof that I thought (prayed) was repaired has resurfaced this spring. Ugh.
I would gladly pay someone to fix this for once and for all, in fact I’ve paid several people, but it keeps coming back. Argh. Keeping your guide in mind I might be desperate enough to climb on my roof and try to suss this out myself.
Well hello fellow Ohian! It’s great to meet you.
I hope you get up there and take a look around the chimney. Look for any gaps, small holes or loose shingles. And let me know if you find the leak!
Wow, some life-saving advice here, especially about falling through a water-rotted roof! Thanks for writing this, it’s helpful to guys like me who are not experienced roof repair and don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for a pro. Cheers.
Hey Tom! I’m so glad the post was helpful to you.
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Any advice on what to do if your roof is missing a piece of felt (underneath the shingles) and the roof is leaking through a light? I do not want to replace the whole roof because they forgot to put a piece of felt down but am not sure what I can do. It is a single layer roof and it only leaks through where they cut out the light fixture and I c an tell they forgot to put felt there. Any advice would be spectacular because all of the roofing companies are saying it would be a couple thousand and they would rip off half the roof so they could replace the one piece of felt and then put a new roof on that half.
My roof out here in Sweden started leaking a little after a wild rainstorm with rivulets coming down the chimney breast upstairs. A bit stressful knowing what it would cost to get a pro in.
From asking around it seemed that the silicon/caulking gun route was the way to go, so I welcomed the additional info you have posted. Apart from the tube of stuff I was sold (which also seems to have fibre-glass in its contents) they advised cleaning the area with some kind of chemical solvent first. They sold me red ethanol for this. I still have to wait for the weather to co-operate. It’s snowy and -9C!
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I really like this post, it is really easy to read and makes the process seem less stressful. I know it’s not always the first thing you think about when you have a leak, but I always stress the importance of safely accessing the roof as a leaking roof issue could turn into a trip to A&E. In England we use access platforms/cherry pickers to get onto our roofs as there has been so many accidents. What do you think?
Hi, I own a professional roof repair company in Birmingham, Al. In fact repairs are all that we do. I do not recommend the average homeowner to climb up onto their roof and risk injury. Kirk is a roofer so he knows how to get around on the roof. Also silicone caulk is not a cure all for your roof. Sometimes applying sealant in the wrong place can make the leak worse. There are numerous causes for roof leaks. To find and fix them properly you need to know all the causes and solutions. Only the most minor of leaks can be stopped simply by squirting a little silicone.
Chuck – here in Sweden it is common for a roof ladder to be in permanent situ on the roof – usually facilitating access to the chimney. I may be only an average homeowner but it isn’t rocket science after all. My squirt of silicon/fiberglass cost about £10 and worked 100% as all we had last summer over here was record levels of rain. If it hadn’t worked I would perhaps have called in the pro’s – but you would be in a better position than me to say what that might cost.