Ugh.
My new wife woke me up this morning with news that a small drip in our roof that was just discovered yesterday had graduated into a larger problem. What we thought we had under control with a simple bucket requires 7 buckets today. Two in the kitchen, and 5 in the crawl space over the kitchen.
New Jersey has been getting pounded by unrelenting rain for the past few days, and apparently it has revealed a flaw in the roof. So this morning, I went to Home Depot, bought some flashing compound, and some plastic sheeting, and up on the roof I went, in the pouring rain. If you ever have the chance to do this, my advice to you is to skip it if you can, and wait until it’s not raining.
Anyway, I discovered a couple of shingles that were not quite lying flat, so I glued those back down. I also discovered a weak board in the roof where it meets up with a dormered section. Next I tacked on a 10’x25′ plastic sheet starting just on the oppossite side of the ridge, and extending over the area where water is evident and all the way down to the gutter. If the dripping stops, then at least I know it originates somewhere under the plastic sheeting, which makes inspection easier. Water can travel considerably from the origination point of a leak and the point where you see it dripping from the ceiling, so this is significant.
When I went back in the house, it appeared that all dripping had ceased, which is good news, so I went to work. We’ll see what things look like tonight, and hopefully I can do more work when it stops raining, which looks like it won’t be until next week.