Leaky Roofs.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 5, 1 March 1909, Page 177

Leaky Roofs.

Leaky roofs should be like the snakes in Ireland— they oughtn't to be there. There ought to be no leaky roofs. Most people will agree with a writer in the National Builder, writing in a recent issue, who says that if the roof work of buildings is properly executed, they should remain perfectly water tight as long as the material lasts. The bad workmanship which results in leaky roofs is frequently due to the owner's parsimony. Cheapness and good

quality do not run in the same channel. And it is only so far as owners are careful to engage or enter into contract with thoroughly competent mechanics — aiming more to secure good work than to save a few pounds in expenditure — can they reasonably expect to obtain good work, either in roofs or anything else. This is true in reference to building houses as it is in relation to goods and merchandise ; and so long as owners follow the practice of admitting botchers in competition with competent mechanics, and accept their low estimates with favour, making no distinction between mechanics in a proper sense and mechanical frauds, no right or intelligent cause of complaint can exist. If men undertake to do work for ten or twenty per cent, less than a right and paying price, it is but natural that they should seek to compensate the discrepancy by doing the work undertaken in quality on a par with the price for which the work is undertaken. Some hmts in this connection are very useful. For example : — It is Avell known it is difficult to solder tin when it is covered with water, yet it often happens that in removing ice or snow from a roof holes are cut in the tin by the shovel. Such holes can be stopped without much trouble by taking a piece of heavy iron, of suitable size, with countersunk holes for ordinary sc-rew heads. A piece of thick cloth is to be cut the size of the iron, well soaked in heavy iron paint (red oxide )_. the cloth placed over the leak, and the piece of iron screwed down over the cloth. Holes can be punched through the tin by means of a prick punch. If the tin can be wiped dry before applying the cloth, so much the better. If water is running down the roof, a dam can be made above the leak, of putty or clay, to keep the water off until the leak is stopped. In some eases white lead, iron paint, or putty will do ; or, if the leak is not exposed at the time to running water, the cloth and paint Avill do. A little varnish mixed with the paint will make it stick better. After these cloth patches become dry they will hold water as well as solder, and perhaps better, as they are more elastic. If the flashing breaks away from the brick fire wall, it can be fastened by taking fence nails and putting them through suitable washers to enlarge the heads of the nails and driving them through the tin mto the mortar joints ; then the tin (where it joins the brick) can be plastered with ri cement made by mixing dry sand with iron paint to the consistency of mortar. This cement is the best medicine for repairing roofs known, and is cheap enough to suit anyone. If a leak occurs between wood and brick, the same cement can be used, and in many cases it can be used on gravel roofs. For repairing about chimneys this cement is unequalled. When a gravel roof is wet, it is evident it would be difficult to repair it with paint, cement, or hot tar. Yet, if the roof leaks, it is at this time the repairs are required. In such a case take the best Portland cement and, perhaps, sand, mix it with water and apply to the leak. As the cement will harden under water, it will adhere to the gravel on the roof, and should stop the leak. When the cement becomes hard and dry, it can be painted with iron paint or coal tar. A good cement for roofs can be made by mixing coal tar that has been boiled, or when hot has some pitch or resin mixed

with it, with dry sand. This becomes as hard as stone. It is something like what cement pavements are made of. The sand has a tendency to keep the tar from running off.