Fixing a Flat Roof

I don’t understand why anyone would put a flat roof on a building.

Flat roofs collect puddles of water and have to withstand heavy snow.

Worst of all, they frequently leak.

But I have one on my 100-year-old, three-story building in Conrad.

No surprise, it leaked.

I’m not a roofer so I hired a company to remove all of the asphalt gravel and seal the roof with silicone, tapering the roof toward the 6-inch drain.

The silicone is thick and guaranteed for 20 years and, really, the only financially feasible solution to this old, leaky roof.

The contractor would seal the roof himself, but first he sent a couple of workers to remove the gravel from the roof.

Apparently, they tired of shoveling gravel.

They hooked up a power washer and sluiced the gravel to the cast iron drain.

No surprise, the drain clogged.

The workers attempted to stick a broom handle down the drain to unclog it.

The drain pipe is vertical for 24 feet before it makes a right angle in the basement and connects to the city sewer system.

The 3-foot long broom handle only packed gravel tighter.

So the workers brought an electric snake with 25 feet of coiled wire.

They turned it on and stuck it down the drain.

I wish I had been there to laugh.

When I found the electric snake on the roof, it was a twisted, ruined mass of mucky black coils.

The drain was still clogged.

The roof contractor called a plumber.

The plumber attempted to suck the gravel from the drain with his high-powered, portable vacuum.

He cleared about two feet of gravel, but couldn’t get the rest of the pipe clear.

On his next trip, he replaced about 6 feet of cast iron drain pipe with PVC and cleared the rest of the gravel out.

That was last September, during our warm and dry fall.

Then, finally, it snowed.

I climbed up on the roof to check the drainage.

When I pulled the screen from the drain, I discovered a gap between the drain funnel and the drain pipe.

At first, I thought the plumber had accidentally reset the pipe at the wrong angle when he installed PVC.

After all, he was working in the basement and did not have access to the ceiling of the first floor. I could understand how a misaligned pipe could go unnoticed.

I was wrong.

When I took a closer look, I could see that the pipe was anchored, but the metal funnel to the pipe was beat all to pieces.

Sharp edges of bent metal surrounded gaps that funneled water directly down to the first floor, missing the pipe completely.

I considered calling the roofer again. His workers had severely damaged the funnel with their flailing snake.

But by now, I didn’t have much confidence in the repair people, 4 inches of snow was sitting on the roof and the forecast predicted melting temperatures.

I gathered some tin, sticky roof caulking and some tin snips.

I forgot gloves.

I had to pause my repair job when so much of my blood mixed with the caulking. I was afraid it wouldn’t stick anymore.

I waited until my tin-induced gusher quit bleeding, bought some more caulking and tried again.

The tin snips weren’t getting the job done so I pulled out the big gun.

My Sawzall cut through that floppy tin just fine and even kept my fingers out of the danger zone.

I love my Sawzall.

A few bends to mold the tin to the shape of the drain and another tube of roofing caulking took care of the hole.

Sometimes, it’s easier to solve a problem myself. Even if I spill a little blood.