I got some good news today

[chh]

I doubt you would regret the roof change Rox. Flat roofs around me are only common on commercial buildings. I know of several that after years of redoing flat roofs finally spent the money and had a peaked roof put on. Most of the owners say they will get the money back fairly easily on maintainence costs alone.
I am with you all on the back injury thing. I never had an injury as bad as Roberts, but it was sure enough to get my attention on taking care of myself.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Flat roofs are a terrible idea for most applications. We had more work repairing and maintaining flat roofs then a peaked roof. I would never willingly put a flat roof on my house. Good luck on your repair.

 

[rox]

Flat roofs are a terrible idea for most applications. We had more work repairing and maintaining flat roofs then a peaked roof. I would never willingly put a flat roof on my house. Good luck on your repair.

Arghhhhh, I totally agree with you with the flat roofs. We have a flat roof over our livingroom adn the rest of the house has peaked roofs. I am sure it looked "cool" to the guy who built this house but a real PIA to maintain for us. The product used is a roll of a tar like substance with foil backing. You lay that out and take a blow torch to the back and that heats up and softens the the tar and makes it stick to the roof.

The problem is with the wind it is hard to get the blow torch to stay concentrated. He tried our heat gun but then he must have held it up too close to the material since he broke the gun. Today just our of the blue (kind of a Wrought Iron Harv momnet) I had an idea, why not use an iron? I believe it is leaking just the edges of that new tar roll he laid down. It is windy like 60mph winds, but an iron might work. Plus with an iron you can press down hard as it heats up with a blow torch you can't as you'll burn your fingers. So tomorrow I'm going to go up on the roof with my iron and some aluminum foil and lay down the foil and then put the iron on top and press down real hard. Any tips or ideas from TBNers on how I might improve on this will be appreciated. Maybe I should have started a new thread. Robert I am sorry for hijacking your thread.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I am not positive about the type roofing you are using but we put a modified rubber on flat roofs where we torch the rubber to the roof with a roofing torch. A roofing torch has plenty of pressure to heat the roofing material even in a strong wind. A calm day is always better but the torch is able to do its job still with a good wind. For a patch job it is most likely more money then you would want to spend as these torches are not cheap and you wouldn't really need it after the leak is fixed.

 

[ScottAR]

The one flat roof we have to deal with was recently covered with TPO. I don't know the
code to the acronym but it's a white membrane type thing. The TPO will tolerate standing water unlike the torch down rubber. Word is you could line a swimming pool with the stuff but that's a bit of a boast I think.

It's double the price roughly over the torch down rubber.
The roofer gives a 5yr warranty on his labor and the maker gives a 15 yr warranty on the
product. We'll see.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

The one flat roof we have to deal with was recently covered with TPO. I don't know the
code to the acronym but it's a white membrane type thing. The TPO will tolerate standing water unlike the torch down rubber. Word is you could line a swimming pool with the stuff but that's a bit of a boast I think.

It's double the price roughly over the torch down rubber.
The roofer gives a 5yr warranty on his labor and the maker gives a 15 yr warranty on the
product. We'll see.

We use that also. There are a few different types of solid rubber sheets that you glue down to a properly prepared deck. It is easy to repair also but more prone to puncture then the modified rubber which is at least 3 times thicker. Both systems will not leak if there is standing water on it if they were put down properly.

 

[DocHeb]

Are you sure the heat is applied to the back (foil) side? Rolled torch down roofing around here is put down by heating the undersurface, and as it starts to liquify you roll it down so that it sticks to the subsurface. A usual propane torch doesn't put down enough heat, but for $12 for 8 hours I rented a torch heater that puts out the quantity of heat that was needed.

 

[rox]

Chris,
Oh my gosh what a good idea, renting a torch heater. There is a rental store here I'm going out in a few minutes, I'll swing by and see if they have that. Because of the many people who offered their suggestions I see that our main problem is not having the correct tool. It is terribly windy so my hsuband doesn't want me going up on the aluminum ladder in the wind, the forecast is for a nice day Monday so I have decided to wait until Monday. Since this stuff is already on the roof I dont' ahve the option of heating it up on the ruberized side, I'll have to heat it on the foil side. If I get a chance I'll look down the basement to see some leftover stuff and take a picture.

 

[rox]

Are you sure the heat is applied to the back (foil) side? Rolled torch down roofing around here is put down by heating the undersurface, and as it starts to liquify you roll it down so that it sticks to the subsurface. A usual propane torch doesn't put down enough heat, but for $12 for 8 hours I rented a torch heater that puts out the quantity of heat that was needed.

Chris,
I went to our local reantal store and they ahve one! Kiloutou.fr > Location > Location - Outillage > Location - Soudure > Lance brûleur
only 21 Euros including tax per day. I am totally excited to find this. Probably Monday we'll go rent it. If it were not for everyone here saying how roofers have a special torch etc. and you Chris saying you rented one, that I would have known bout this. My hsuband isn't here right now, he is over at the airport picking up our son and his partner, so we he gets home I'll be thrilled to tell him. This means we will get the roof fixed and not have a leaking roof while our son is here. Tha will be very nice indeed. Many thaks to all.

 

[DocHeb]

I don't know how well it will work from the foil side - I have only used it by heating the underside. You apply the heat to the asphalt base, and as it gets shiny it is ready to roll down. Once it's down you can't peel it back up.