LESLIE: John is on the line with a leaky roof. Tell us what’s going on at your money pit.
JOHN: I have a section of roof. It’s like 2 feet by probably 30 feet. It pools up at one end and I believe the water is getting up above the membrane, up on the side wall, and it’s leaking into the house.
TOM: Yeah. OK. So, look, in situations like this, what often happens is people will try to use different types of sealants in that space. I have found, time and time again, they just don’t work. If the water is getting in there, between the roof and the siding, the only thing – the only way to fix this permanently is to peel the siding back and to reflash that. The flashing has to go all the way up well under the siding. And probably between the time that that roof was put on and now, there’s a lot more products that are out that are actually much better at making that joint between the siding and the roof really, really watertight.
JOHN: Right. That’s what I thought, too.
TOM: Yeah. While you can caulk it and all that sort of thing, in my experience it just doesn’t work and it ends up kind of ruining the shingles in the process. So I would tell you that at this point, you probably should peel the siding off of that area – or have a pro do this, you know – and then …
JOHN: I just had a roof that cost me 15 grand and it leaked again.
TOM: Alright. So here’s what I think. What I think you have to do, in this situation, is you’ve got to take the siding off and it’s got to be reflashed. And I think if you do that, that’s going to be a permanent repair.
By the way, if this happened in a storm, you may actually be able to file a homeowner’s claim for storm damage. So, think about that if all else fails, OK?
Alright. Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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