Why is my Roof Leaking?

Why is My Roof Leaking?

Leaking roofs are as common as the number of rainy days in Adelaide.

Roofs leaks can create no end of troubles. Adelaide roofs have to withstand heat, cold, wind, rain, hail and more which can cause havoc. Roofs leaks can create no end of troubles.

We have spend many years repairing leaking roofs in Adelaide generally know the causes of all roof leaks.

The eight most common causes of a roof leaks in Adelaide are:-

1) Skylights:

As soon as holes are cut on a roof to put skylights in, the natural waterproof nature of roofs are violated. Some skylight installations leak the day they are cut into a roof. This is usually the result of a poor selection of skylights or a faulty installation. Then during its life, leaf blockage is the usual reason for skylight leaks. Finally, the life of a skylight is usually less than the roof – so old rusty skylights leak and will need replacement.

2) Broken roof tiles:

Roof tiles do not often break by themselves. If you have overhanging trees, falling branches will break tiles. As soon as you let people walk on your tile roof, there is a danger of broken tiles. Children like throwing things and these things can break fragile roof tiles.

3) Rusty or blocked valleys:

While tile roofs do not rust, there are valleys on most roofs and in the old days, they just used galvanised metal valleys. These have a 20 to 30 years life … so rusted valleys are quite common on Adelaide roofs.

Leaves and valleys do not go together. If you have leaves crammed into your valley, a sudden downpour will create a dam. A rush of water will spill over the edges of the valley and you will see water gushing out of your ceiling…

4) Faulty tile ridge capping:

The bedding and pointing under tile ridge capping crack over time. Water seeps into the cracks.

5) Chimneys:

A chimney is another hole on the roof that needs to be waterproofed correctly. The flashings around chimneys deteriorate and often cause leaks. Chimney pots break.

6) Faulty flashings:

The edges of roofs have to be waterproofed by flashings. It takes a lot of roofing experience to be able to detail complicated roof flashings so that they look good and do not leak. If a new roof leaks, then the roofer usually has made a mistake on the roof flashing. We can usually gauge the quality of the roof installation by how the flashings are finished off.

7) Rusty roofs:

This reason may seem quite obvious. It is easy to see if a roof is rusty. But it takes a while between when a roof begins to rust and when holes form and water starts dripping. Also, often, the rusty areas are very localised and hidden. In these instances, only close inspection will reveal the rust spots at laps and under flashings.

8) Blocked gutters:

Blocked box gutters can cause havoc if there are no overflows to act as a relief valve system. If you experience flooding inside your house and you have a box gutter – then it is quite likely a blocked outlet in your box gutter.

Normal Eaves gutters are often left full of leaves and this will start a nice garden in the gutter as well as overflowing gutters. They do not normally cause problems with leaks into the house. The exception is when the eaves extend over windows. Overflowing water will run along the eaves and fall onto the head of the window – causing a cascade of water along the inside of the window.