Perplexing Tile Roof Leaks

The first leak seemed simple enough.

Perplexing tile roof leaks.

Dirty or broken watercourses. And once in awhile even professionals are baffled by a roof leak and must do a little detective work. It must be sealed below the tiles. Consequently i have been hired to track down some of the toughest leaks in town.

Leak repairs to tile roofs cannot be repaired by sealing anything on top. We recommend against walking on clay tile roofs as you are likely to damage the roof leading to the need for costly repairs. Some roof leaks are tough to locate. There is no such thing as a tile roof leak where the repair can be done without first deconstructing the area of tiles and flashing.

Sometimes the water shows up at a ceiling spot distant from the leak. If the roof is in a tree zone leaves are washed into the watercourses and over time this leads to clogging and eventually blockage during heavy rain. The resultant overflow will cause leaks. If your roof is old the chances are that your tiles have been fixed using mortar.

Some leaks are so inexplicable only a highly trained professional can figure them out. Tiles that are broken or have large cracks need to be replaced in order to fix the leak. Use a hammer to assist in the removal but be careful not to damage any of the good tiles. The water courses will leak and on concrete roof tiles water will also leak over the upstream edge of the tile.

The case of the outside wall. For this you will need to remove all damaged tiles using a pry bar. More discussion on walking on fragile roofs is later in this article. Clay tiles may leak because of several reasons.

While some issues will go beyond your roof and will be related to other things to do with roofing or the installation methods some of the common issues with clay tiles are.