Repairing A Roof Valley

Climb into the rafter below the roof with a good flashlight and look around for any water intruding through the roof.

Repairing a roof valley. Position an extension ladder against the lower edge of the roof near the valley that is repaired. Clear any debris in the roof valley and surrounding area. And you can tar it but it s a real stop gap band aid like measure. This will usually occur at a seam between water barriers or in the valleys.

The right thing to do here is to pull a valley basically pull a valley apart and rebuild it. Typical valley flashing is 14 inches wide. If leaks continue to occur from ice dams consider installing roof edge heating cables. Measure the width of the sheet metal valley flashing.

Move to the highest end of the valley and work your way down cleaning. If you find that this is a problem then you will need to repair your roof valley before anything serious happens such as plaster loss or even major water damage. Using different metal to patch valley will cause corrosion. Find them locally at hardware stores or home centers.

Most valleys use either aluminum or copper. In order to stop the leak in your roof you need to get to where the leak is occurring. T o repair an open valley. You can patch small holes with the same type of sheet metal valley is made of.

A lead valley is a particularly difficult item to dispose of as lead is toxic and so a repair may involve simply patching up your lead roofing. Step 2 tear down. Inspect valley for holes all along joint. The valley flashing laid over the joint where the two roofs meet should overlap the step flashing at least 2 in.

Clean surface of valley with wire brush. If the ice and water shield is missing then you will have to remove the shingles on both sides along the valley put ice and water shield in place and re shingle the roof. And if they put a second layer of shingles on they brought it up the valley but they didn t replace the valley it s probably leaking and cracking and split. Follow these three preparatory steps to get ready to fix the valley leak.

A crack in the valley can cause major damage and i. A properly flashed roof valley should have an ice and water shield installed with roofing felt being properly secured over the ice and water.