Comments on: Which Roof Penetrations Cause Water Damage?

By: leif Jenkinson

leif Jenkinson — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 19:08:15 +0000

Thanks, Allison. Excellent.
Kurt: Thanks. Your ideas/comments appreciated.
Unable to snow-rake due age & disability. Don’t bother to suggest high school students! This is rural.
Three comments
One. At short overhang (16″) my intention is to use foam-board between the joists, on south side, and selected places on North side.
Two. The clothes dryer and the bath exhaust fan causes ice to form up the N. roof to 6-8 feet up. Since the clothes dryer exhaust is at porch level and the snow that slides off reaches 4-6 feet above the underside of the porch, the only choice is to rout the exhaust up to the porch cover, then out. That means two 90-degree angles. Not ideal. Will insulate the pipe, too.
Three. The wood-stove chimney (principle heat, S side) backs up the snow (not as a heat source, but as a physical obstacle, even with a cricket. This year, the weight of the snow bent the chimney supports (attached to the ridge.) Have to invent a better way to divert the snow at the chimney (4 feet up from the roof line). EV panels not practical
Bizzare winter with rain on the snow, worse break-up.

By: Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 20:51:38 +0000

One thing my roofer did when we re-roofed our house 2 years ago was add an additional rubber seal on the top of the rubber seal on the cast iron vent stack flashing. The roofers add the extra seal over the top of the primary flashing seal to protect the primary rubber seal from UV damage. It is much easier to replace the secondary seal too when it does eventually fail. He said that he has had great success with this method and greatly reduces leaks from these type of roof penetrations. It was one of the reasons I chose them because they cared about having practical redundancies. Ice & Water shield is not installed in valleys much in my area but he has learned that it just takes 1 event to make it worth it. Not even a year later it passed with flying colors during the historic Texas freeze. Other neighbors with similar roofs had some ice damming that resulted in some drips inside the living space but my house’s valleys stayed dry.

By: Paul Szymkiewicz

Paul Szymkiewicz — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 14:30:10 +0000

Just remembered an article I read about roofs in Germany, can’t recall what the source was. The gist of it: builders in the USofA look at the choice of roofing materials and try to decide between 25, 30, or maybe the so-called lifetime warranty. Builders in Germany have a dilemma: their choices are 200 or 300-year warranty. I am paraphrasing the article, but this pretty much sums up what historically have been the practices on the opposing sides of the big pond.

By: Barry

Barry — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 07:18:42 +0000

In reply to Rollo.

I like the idea of the secondary storm collar. I’m a believer of …. “a properly flashed roof penetration won’t leak”.

However, sometimes the product itself fails over time. I have had several minor leaks arising at pipe vent penetrations, but never due to bad flashing or shingling. What has happened, is that the rubber boot cracks (perhaps from UV rays , or just natural age limitations) and a strong wind-driven rain will eventually come through the cracked boot. My “solution” has always been the same and has always worked. I lay fiberglass tape mesh (of the drywall taping variety) into a bed of roofing cement over the boot, then cover (and smooth out) a 2-nd layer of roofing cement on top. I’d bet that a storm collar would have prevented the deterioration of these boots.

By: Tiffani Irwin

Tiffani Irwin — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 03:16:40 +0000

In reply to Tina Gleisner.

Tina, I encourage you and your daughter to look into installing an IBHS FORTIFIED Roof (https://fortifiedhome.org/roof/). Florida is one of the states in which insurance companies reward resilient building strategies and offer lower insurance rates for homes with verified FORTIFIED Roofs. The insurance savings will often offset any additional charges for compliance, and the roof will withstand high winds and heavy rains much more effectively. This program is really a reflection of best practices.

By: Kurt Johnson Sr.

Kurt Johnson Sr. — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 22:11:01 +0000

Hi Dr. Bailes,
I just wanted to emphasis the comment from Leif in Alaska. Snow slide in our climate (Maine) would make a nightmare of those low pipes. Even ones half way up or more are susceptible. I’ve seen snow push chimneys over. Though I must add, putting a bunch of solar collectors right around those pipes will likely lessen the push. In fact, just today I was up on the metal roof clearing the snow off the panels. Yeah, the downside of being this far north.

By: Grant Vogel

Grant Vogel — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 15:12:08 +0000

In reply to Allison Bailes. Right. Thank you.

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 15:09:52 +0000

In reply to Grant Vogel. Grant: I have open-cell spray foam in my attic. It makes absolutely no difference about what happened here. With closed-cell, water from leaks can travel farther down the slope, but this was at the eave, where the foam ends, so it would have done about the same thing, I believe.

By: Grant Vogel

Grant Vogel — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 14:43:38 +0000

Allison, do you have open cell or closed cell foam in your attic? Would either application change the end result here?

By: Rolf H. Scholz

Rolf H. Scholz — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 21:28:18 +0000

In reply to Allison Bailes. Many thanks, Allison, this manual is awesome !