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Repair Flat Shingled Roof
Tips on Repairing a Flat Roof with Cracked,
Pealing, Bubbling or Split Shingles
By Mark J. Donovan
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You basically have three courses of
action to repair a flat shingled roof when it springs a leak. First, if the
shingled flat roof is relatively new you can try contacting the roofing
contractor who installed it to come and repair it. Second, if the shingled flat
roof is older and you can’t either find the original contractor or he refuses to
repair it, you can do your own flat roof repair. Third, if the flat roof is
quite old, you can find a new flat roof installation contractor to replace the
original flat roof.
Regardless of what path you precede down to repair a flat shingled roof, it is
best to quickly pull out the buckets to catch the water dripping in the home.
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Once the weather has abated and the
roof is reasonably dry place a tarp over the roof until you can actually perform
the roof repair.
How to Repair Flat
Shingled Roof
After the weather has improved the first step in repairing a flat roof is
finding the leaking area of the roof. Once you have located the damaged
shingles, remove any dirt and dust from the area. It is critical that the leak
area be completely clean to enable the roofing cement to stick to the surface of
the roof.
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Use a utility knife to cut out the
cracked or peeling section of shingles on the flat roof. Try to make neat and
regular shaped cuts such as a square or rectangular shape. A carpenter’s square
works great for making straight cuts. This way you can use the cut out pieces as
templates for fabricating the new sections of flat roofing shingle material,
however make sure to cut the new sections of roof shingle material approximately
2 inches wider than the sections you cut out. Note that you may end up cutting
through a couple of layers of shingles to get to the roof sheathing. If this is
the case you will need to cut enough patches to bring the repaired patch up to
the finished level of the adjacent roofing shingles.
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Next, apply roofing cement under the
edges of the area that you cut out. Use a putty knife to help lift the shingle
edges while you apply the roofing cement.
Then apply roofing cement in the cutout area. Use the putty knife to spread the
roofing cement out evenly.
Press the new bottom layer shingle piece(s) into the cutout area and tack it
down with roofing nails. Then apply the top larger layer shingle(s) over the
bottom one(s). With the top layer shingle(s) you can simply nail them down and
forgo the cement with them.
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If there are any exposed nails when complete, which there should not be if the
top layer shingles are nailed down correctly, apply roofing cement over the
exposed nails.
Finally, apply roofing cement around the perimeter of the top patch to form a
tight and permanent seal.
Split or Bubbling Flat Shingle
Roof Repair
If during your inspection of the flat roof you identify a split or bubbling
shingle, simply cut the shingle along the split or bubbling line with your
utility knife and apply roofing cement underneath the shingle edges on each side
of the cut. Then apply a couple of roofing nails to each side of the cut and
apply a shingle patch over it as described above.
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