Fixing the New Roof, Episode 1

The heavy rain and wind that hit last night was a test of roofs all over the city. My new roof, only about ten days old, leaked badly – though I think the leak was confined to one entry point. I called the roofer immediately and told him about it, and he showed up at my front door this morning at 9 AM. I showed him the incriminating evidence and he said one of his guys – Jesus – would stop by later and do some repair work.

Around 1:15 PM I left the house. I returned at 1:45 PM and Jesus had already gone up on the roof, had come back down, and was starting to put his ladder on the truck. I asked him if he found the leak. He answered, “No.”

“It’s a big leak,” I told him.

“Big?” he asked.

“Big leak,” I repeated. “A lot of water came in.” I tried to describe where I thought the leak was located. Jesus does not speak English well, but using simple words and a few hand gestures I got the idea across. Jesus went back up on the roof.

I went upstairs and took the air conditioners out of the dormer windows so that I could close them tightly. I wanted to eliminate any possibility that water was entering around the air conditioners and then somehow getting though the vinyl window sill to create the leak.

When I finished I went outside. Jesus had installed a piece of “ice & water” shield and a few new shingles, and was caulking along the intersection of the dormer wall with the roof. Finally he came down off the roof. “Finished,” he said.

“Is it going to leak?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said.

I call this attempt to fix the leak in the roof “episode 1” because my experience is that the roofer will make a couple of attempts to fix the roof, he’ll fail, then he’ll hit the roof with everything he’s got, sealing anything and everything that looks like a potential leak. In the meantime, I’ll put down sheets of plastic and basins where the water dripped. Hope for the best and plan for the worst.

“Muchas gracias,” I told Jesus and shook his hand.

“No problem,” he answered.

I hope he’s right. No problem is what I want.