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You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Home Improvement/Repair > Roofing > Rubber roof - saturated insulation
Roofing - Rubber roof - saturated insulation
Expert: Brad Zacharia - 11/12/2009
Question
New rubber roof summer 2008, installed over non-leaking tar & gravel roof in MA, as a preventative measure. Roofer had flapped rubber over low end of roof into gutter and nailed it (no drip edge or termination bar). Tar melted into gutter. Now fiberboard under rubber is soaked, perhaps about 8-12’ back from low (gutter) edge. (Not sure, just guessing based on what other roofers have said and by sound of knocking on the roof). No leaks yet into the house. Connection to adjacent tar and gravel roof with metal flashing and tar (?) shows some cracking, and rubber-to-flashing seam has a 1-foot spot where not sealed properly. He used .045 EPDM. Boots and seams are imperfect. Rubber over metal flashing is apparently the wrong stuff (they just used strips of the regular roofing rubber, not uncured rubber). Roofer who did this lousy job can’t be found.
I’ve had many estimates, some from highly-recommended folks from Angie’s list (for example) and proposed solutions range from repairs ($650-4000) and complete roof replacement ($4000 to 13,000). I don’t know who’s right. Opinions vary as to cause of wetness: (1) water caused by ice dams in the gutter due to lots of tar in gutter and no termination bar over the rubber; (2) imperfect boots and improperly-finished penetrations. Opinions vary as to whether the wet fiberboard needs to come up. Opinions vary as to best way to do connection to adjacent tar and gravel roof: (1) “scratch down” on the T&G side, use flashing, tar on T&G side, and cured rubber on rubber side; (2) build up a little divider; (3) dig down and put in a “cold tar” barrier to prevent water from leaking into my roof from under the adjacent T&G roof. Also vary on temperature range for doing work: (1) 50 degrees plus; (2) 40 degrees plus; (3) 30; and (4) as long as there’s no snow.
Most places offer a minimal warrantee for repair work.
I do a lot of projects myself, and I have some help available. (1 or maybe 2 people).
My questions:
What will happen if I leave this as is over the winter?
Should I just remove the whole thing and keep the tar and gravel roof which was working fine? (I had installed this new one as a preventative measure). If so, how do I patch the screw holes from the insulation boards?
Or should I replace the 10-12’ of wet stuff, put lap sealant on the seams, and re-do the boots (I can research how to do that; I’m very thorough).
If I replace the wet fiberboard and replace with ISOboard, is it OK to have both on the roof?
Do I need to replace the entire roof? If so, what’s a fair price?
I don’t want to get ripped off but I don’t want to pay too little and get shoddy workmanship (again).
What IS the best way to connect a rubber roof to a tar and gravel roof?
What IS the lowest temperature for proper installation of rubber roof materials?
Because the opinions are all over the map, I don’t know who to trust at this point!
Your help is greatly appreciated.
Answer
I would need to see pictures.
You can't put EPDM on a roof that has asphalt products on it. Also, EPDM is very fragile. It's for commercial roofs where they get little traffic and no trees or debris falling on it.
If you have water under the roof then you have holes.
Once fiberboard gets wet it's completely ruined. It MUST come up. It disintegrates once wet. Iso board is better and can be mixed.
You can't revert back to the original roof. You probably now have hundreds of holes in it from the screws. It would be like taking a window screen and trying to seal up each hole.
Roofs can be done any time of the year if you do certain things, like preheat the material.
It sounds like you need to take everything up and then start over with an asphalt type of roof - do modified.
Brad
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