Flat Roofing Guide:

Flat Roof Repair
Should you fix or replace your old flat roof? See why repairing that roof is MORE EXPENSIVE than getting a new IB's lifetime roof.

Residential Flat Roofs:
Learn why so many people trust IB and CoolFlatRoof with possibly their biggest investment - their home.

Commercial Flat Roofs:
As a building owner you cannot afford any downtime due to leaky roof. Whether it's an office building, a restaurant, a factory - we have solution for you!

Single Ply Roofing:
Benefits of Single Ply Roofing Systems vs. the old asphalt, BUR, modified bitumen roof.

Solar PV Roofing Guide:

SolarWise BI-PV Roofs:
Fully Building-Integrated, Lowest Cost/Watt Solar PV flat roofing system from IB and Uni-Solar.

Solar PV installation Prices:
Detailed guide to Cost/Watt price-structure of Solar PV. Estimate the price to install SolarWise PV system.

Solar PV Guide:
Principles of how Solar PV works, and ways to get Free Electricity / Speed up the pay-off period!

Flat Roof Repair - options and costs involved.

Flat roof leak, is an inevitable outcome for 99% of flat roofs in service today. If you have a flat roof, chances are that it is already leaking or will begin to leak soon - even if your roof is fairly new and was installed within 5-10 years.

This article is an overview of issues related to flat roof leaks. Here we review the costs of flat roof repair, actions you should take to get your flat roof fixed, and outlook of what will happen after your roof is fixed.
Purpose of this Flat Roof Repair Guide, is to help you avoid the costly mistakes many home and business owners make, when their roof leaks, and also to help you choose the best solution for your particular roof and budget.

Due to a wide variety of different flat roofing technologies, this article cannot cover all aspects of flat roof repair.
For specific DIY ways to repair your flat roof, refer to our Epdm or Rubber Roof repair and Tar roof repair How-To articles.

The nature of Flat Roof Leaks

Flat roofs in New England have for decades posed problems for home and building owners. Harsh climate, outdated roofing technology, and very often - standing water, are the major factors affecting the lifetime and performance of flat roofs.

When your roof start leaking, repair is the first option that comes to mind. Second, you begin to to think about the costs of repair, and how to minimize them. Depending on severity of the leak these cost may be just a few hundred dollars, or few thousand of dollars. Here is why: When you begin to see stained ceiling in you bedroom, it is the last stage of the leak. It means that your roof has been leaking for some time now and finally after last heavy rain it showed up on that ceiling. It also means that had to completely soak the insulation, roof deck and rafters before you could see it on the ceiling. So if you choose the cheapest and most common solution which is patching the flat roof, you will leave behind the moisture trapped under the under your roof. This will cause the rotting of your deck and rafters, since there is no way for that water to escape.

What happens if you ignore roof leaks for some time?

Once a flat roof starts leaking, the inside damages will span from stained ceilings in the best case scenario to thousands of dollars in damages. Falling sheet-rock, electrical system damages, popping hardwoods and destroyed carpets, damaged furniture and home goods; these are only some of the outcomes of those leaks. Patching these leaky roofs may seem like the best solution, and the cheapest way out, but in reality, it usually proves to be the worst solution. Consider the following: the cost of patching the roof + fixing whatever damage the leak caused to the interior. Then, in 3-9 months, depending on the type of roof covering and quality of the patch work (which by the way, no contractor will ever warranty or uphold), your roof starts leaking again - maybe in the same place, maybe in a different one, but the process is irreversible. Patch is only a temporary fix and usually won't last, the roof will keep on leaking, and every time you patch it, you through away your money.

Majority of flat roof systems were not 'designed' with repairs in mind - best you could do to repair a flat roof was to pour some tar on the leaky spot. In fact, tar was pretty much the only feasible option. Unfortunately, after a short period of time you had to fix it again, as tar would dry up, crack and let the water in. New leaks would form elsewhere. So it was a constant repair, until a new leak begins and more money is spent. Such repairs are a perfect example of sunk costs, which cannot be recovered, and the fix lasts only a short period of time. After a series of such repairs, the owner would get sick & tired of it, and get a 'new' roof. Maybe a different type of flat roof, which unfortunately had the same inherited problems as the old one, but carried a different name and was made of different materials. Seems like a very sad situation for somebody with such a roof, doesn't it?

Many people are faced with a choice to either continue this cycle for the lack of other options, or to build a pitched frame roof with asphalt shingles on top of their flat roof and be done with it. However there are two problems involved here. First one - such an 'upgrade' is very costly and you would still have to re-shingle your roof every so 12 to 15 years. The second one is more complex. While it might be pretty straight-forward process if you have a small, rectangular house, that is not always the case. Many houses have odd shapes, multiple levels and mixed pitched and flat roofs. Now, if you have a 200' x 100' factory, that task becomes extremely difficult to implement, and I will not even try to guess the costs involved.

The REAL cost of a flat roof repair:

Repairing a flat roof in Massachusetts can and often will cost more than you anticipate (In other parts of the country, market conditions may be different, but the following prices should be just about right). Let's tee what goes into the price of flat roof repair.

• First: is the cost of patching a flat roof - $300-500 or more. If some one offers you to fix a flat roof leak for less than $300, that person either desperately needs money or in not a Pro, and does not really know what is involved and what to do (unless all that has to be done is to apply s bead of caulking, something you - the homeowner can usually do yourself).


• Second: cost of interior repairs - fixing wet sheet-rock, painting ceiling, etc, - $250-400. If it's just a stain on the ceiling, then you could pick up a can of white paint at Lowe's or Home Depot and do it yourself.

Above, are your direct coats of flat roof repair. Let's also consider the indirect cost, to which most people don't pay attention:

Cost of Your Time. When your roof starts leaking, you don't usually wait until the weekend to take care of it. You grab a phone book and start calling local roofers, or someone in the trade, whom you know already. You set up earliest time for the roofer to look at it and give you the price. You may get a few more people too look at your roof leak, but since it is more of an emergency, you need to fix it fast. So you give the job to the first reasonable bidder. Unfortunately leaks usually start when it is least convenient - during the week, at night or when you are away. So now you have to take a day off at work to meet with the roofer- thus you use your sick or vacation day. If you make $20/hour, you just lost $160.

Lets do the math. I will be conservative and use the low numbers - so you are looking to spend at least $300+250+160 = $710 in direct and indirect sunk costs which you cannot recover. Keep in mind it is usually won't be that cheap. You also get what you pay for. And when six month later your flat roof starts leaking again - double that $710.

Bottom line: Flat roof repairs are a wast of money. They last only a short time and are not covered under warranty. If you opt for a more expensive repair such as aluminum powder-based coating form Home Depot, you might face an issue of incompatibility, as well as others. In the end, when you finally decide that you are sick and tired of repairing your flat roof and wasting money, you may have spent as much as it would cost you to get a new IB Flat Roof. This is the what happened in our second Case Study. Replacing a flat roof is what we recommend 99% of the time.

But I cannot afford a new roof now...

Although there are different payment options, new IB Flat roof can be costly, and might not always be able to afford one. When that is the case, we recommend the following steps to minimize costs and aggravation.

• Only hire a roofing contractor - not a handy-man. You need a professional, who knows the aspects of flat roof repair, not a jack-of-all-trades.
• If you are not in a big rush and can wait a day or two, ask your friends and neighbours if they could recommend someone. See if there are flat roof houses nearby, and talk with the owner. They must have encountered a problem with their flat roof in the past.
• Use Angie's List - people there discuss local service businesses, including roofers. Contractors have no say in what others write there, and cannon buy advertisements.
• Do not use referral services like QualitySmith or Service Magic, as contractors go to them when they cannot find any work - maybe due to bad reputation. Their so-called pre-screening is nothing more than obtaining a copy of Contractor's License. All these companies really care about is getting paid - not your satisfaction. Contractors pay for these appointments anywhere from $35-75. That is how you get 'free estimates from 3 contractors'.
• Finally, replace your flat roof as soon as you can afford it. Stop the endless repair cycle once and for all. Choose a new flat roof that you can trust - not the inferior, but cheaper option like Epdm rubber - which most roofers will offer you. For more information on different flat roof choices, visit our Guide to Flat Roofing Technology and see what your options are.

Flat roof repair articles:

Repair of EPDM or black rubber roof - Procedures involved in repair of Epdm rubber roofs. Solutions that should be use, that those you should avoid.

Repair of BUR, Tar & Gravel, Modified Bitumen flat roof - Options that you have when you need your Built-Up Roof roof fixed.

Single-Ply Flat Roofing - Stop repairing you old flat roof that has exceeded its service life, and wasting your money. Learn about Single-Ply - roofing technology of the future

IB Single-Ply CPA/PVC roof - Finally, there is a solution to the endless repair cycle, and it has been around since 1978 with a proven track record of zero material failure and leak-free service for 30 years.

Case study: how IB roof eliminates a constant repair cycle.

Case One: Home-owner's struggle with a 1 year old Epdm rubber roof.

In October of 2006 we received a call from a homeowner living on the East Side of Providence. We had just completed a f flat roof near the Miriam Hospital, and the person calling us happened to live in the same neighbourhood. We scheduled an appointment with them and at the meeting the said that they just had a new roof installed a year ago. However this new roof was leaking like a sieve and they actually had to remove a skylight to get rid of the major leaks. It did not eliminate their problems though, as there were other leaks here and there - mainly around a hot-stack pipe.

After thoroughly examining their roof we came to a conclusion that repairing the roof was not an options as the system installed there was not up to the job. First, due to the roof's shape, two large puddles of ponding water would form in the center of the roof, including the spot where a badly leaking sky-light once was. The Epdm rubber was not designed to withstand the ponding water accumulating on the roof, and the water was slowly coming inside the house. Second problem was the mentioned above round-shaped hot-stack pipe that was patched a number of times, and was still leaking.

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