A suddenly leaky roof is one of the most serious problems that await owners of private houses. The prompt call of qualified repair specialists in such cases is not always possible and often you have to cope on your own. Therefore, the ability to independently make a quick and high-quality repair of the roof of a house can be considered one of the most necessary for a comfortable life in the private sector. In this article we will consider the basic principles for such repairs.
Main stages of work
Repair of the roof of a country house can be divided into several successive stages. Among them:
- Initial inspection.The leak is installed and marked. It is carried out from the inside of the roof.
- Finding the cause of the leak. A more substantive now external examination of the problem area will help determine specific problems and methods for their elimination.
- Choice of repair method. It all depends on the information obtained at the previous stage, as well as on the material and type of roof.
- Direct repair work. Taking all the necessary safety measures, the required actions are being taken to eliminate the cause of the roof leakage.
- Control check. It is carried out in order to verify the success of the repair and the elimination of the existing problem. In case of finding some minor inconsistencies, you can quickly correct the situation, without leading to the need for another serious intervention.
Initial Inspection
Regardless of the roofing material used and the type of roof, repairs should always begin by identifying the location of the leak.
To do this, you must rise on the very roof or other area directly under the roof and carefully inspect it for various signs of leakage, such as:
- puddles on the floor, indicating serious damage to the roof above them;
- areas of dampness on the ceiling and / or rafters, indicating places of possible leakage;
- streaks on the walls, which may indicate problems in these areas.
After finding signs of a leak, you need to clearly identify them so that they can be recognized after a while, when there is a favorable opportunity for repairs.
For this, ordinary chalk is perfect, for example.Having outlined the existing traces of leaks, you can immediately determine the approximate location of problem areas in the roof of the house.
Attention! Despite the fact that the consequences of a leak are especially clearly visible in inclement weather, it is not recommended to start repairs in such circumstances - at this stage, you should only identify problem areas so that they can be found in more suitable weather as soon as possible.
Finding the cause of a leak
Before you repair the roof of the house, you need to clearly determine the problem that caused the leak. This can be anything from poor-quality installed or displaced roofing to natural processes such as corrosion and the appearance of microcracks.
To conduct a substantive inspection of problem areas, you need to go up to the roof and, taking into account the assumptions about the places of leakage based on the location of the signs of a leak, carefully inspect the necessary sections of the roof for possible problems, which include:
- loose or displaced roofing elements;
- varying degrees of severity of damage to individual parts of the structure (rust, cracks, etc.);
- partial or complete absence of fasteners (screws, self-tapping screws, etc.), as well as their various defects;
- and many other problems based on specific construction types and materials.
Having decided on the specific cause of the problems, you can begin to choose an effective method to eliminate it.
Choice of repair method
Roof repair involves considerable flexibility in the choice of means to eliminate various coating defects.
After all, as there is a large variety of different options for creating roofsand roof repairs can be done in many different ways.Everything depends on the specific conditions.
For example, roofing elements that have caused a serious leak can be replaced with new ones, or you can put patches on them from the same material and fix them accordingly.
small cracks on the roof can be filled with a sealing compound, or can be sealed with a special tape. The same applies to smaller problems, the ways to fix which can be in the dozens.
At the same time, repairing a concrete roof will be very different from working on a more modern roof, and repairing an old roof is different from maintaining a new roof.
In a word, the decision on specific repair measures should be taken on the basis of the existing conditions and opportunities. Everything is taken into account here - the type of roof, its age, the angle of inclination and the coating material.
As well as many other important factors. If the roof was originally built with his own hands, then the owner, like no one else, knows by what means it is better to eliminate defects in its design.
Repair work
When the decision on how and with what to repair the roof is thought out and finally accepted, you can proceed directly to carrying out all the necessary work to repair the leaky roof.
To do this, stock up on all the tools and materials necessary for repairs, clearly consider a plan for upcoming actions and wait for the right weather.
Many neglect the need to choose the most favorable conditions for repair work. This is understandable - after all, every day of waiting brings more and more discomfort and is fraught with more and more serious consequences.
However, we should not forget that a poor-quality repair of an old roof carried out in a hurry can lead to even more serious problems over time. Not to mention the fact that working at height in bad weather is in itself very unsafe.
Thus, the correct timing of the repair is an important factor that should never be neglected. You can’t rush to fix the slightest problems in a hurry, but it’s also not recommended to delay the moment of repair.
In addition, even in the most sunny and calm weather, one should not forget about the necessary safety measures.
A roof in need of repair, by definition, is a completely unsafe place, and given the specifics of its location and design, you need to be especially careful and careful.
Results control
And finishes the story about how to repair the roof, the final stage of the entire repair process is a check of the quality of the work performed.
Control methods can be completely different and again depend on the specific conditions, existing problems, as well as the work done to eliminate them.
However, the main criterion for the success of the repair work still remains the resistance of the corrected area to difficult weather conditions.
If the repaired fragment of the roof holds back bad weather no worse than the rest of the roof, the repair was successful.
Now the roof has regained its former integrity and has become a reliable defender from all external threats. And its owner acquired valuable skills that will undoubtedly be useful throughout life.
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