This is a dumb question regarding a leak in my roof?

Question

I have a sky..When I am in the attic of my house...I can see the sky outside right next to the chimmeny..Not much mayby 1/2 in
wide by a foot long....Next year(cuz I won't have the money till then)..I had rooffer over to look at it.. but because of the pitch of the roof..Plus a room that was added on... the top peaks of the do not match. So I need to know if it is possible to repair that leak till next year..Can I put that really stickey stuff that you put around windows when you install them. From the attic (I do not care how it looks) that will do a temp repair...Any suggestions..Thank you .....God bless...BN

Answer 1

Get a can of spray insulation foam, it works great and it expands to fill in the tiniest spaces. You can get it at any Home Depot or home care hardware store.

Answer 2

No questions are stupid if your looking for an idea or answer that might collaborate with your own thoughts. NOT asking questions or soliciting advice is no smart at all. .A quote i read a long time ago went something like this. " He who ask a question may be a fool for five minutes. But he who never ask a question is a fool forever".

Now getting back to the leak in your attic (lol) If you can get at it from the inside okay then you could do one or two things. If it was not to important how it looked for a few months than just get a can of expandable foam. The kind that is used around windows and what not. Let it expand up through and along the crack. After it is set. Use a utility knife to cut off the excess so it is now flush with the inside of your attic. Now coat the foam surface with a good grade silicone. If the crack is only a 1/2 inch wide you could also slowly build it up with a black or brown silicone to match your roof color. Hope this helps you out.

Answer 3

Theres no way you can temporaily fix from inside the atic. It has to be done on the roof top. But, If you can get on top of your roof, all you have to do is. If you have shingles it's easy, all you need is 1 sheet of shingle dosen't need to match in color. and 1 qt to maybe a half gallon of roofing tar. you can buy these at your do it yourself depot. take the tar and apply it about 3 to 4 inches around the gap. Then take your shingle and cut it to fit over the space. Then you need to fold the shingle long ways. In other words try to fit the shingle up side the chimeny about 3 to 4 inches high and same on the roof side. Then apply the tar all over the shingle, 2 inches past the shingle ends and sides. I hope this will help. This will help no matter what type of roofing material you have.

Answer 4

If you don't feel comfortable getting up on your roof, use the roof pitch (it is black) that comes in a tube and try to squeeze it into the hole so it will come out through the roof. Even a small hole can cause problems. If you do a thorough job it should take care of the problem. My chimney had small holes in it and caused big problems- the humid smell and all. The plastic pitch really made a difference! Just be thorough!

Answer 5

get a ladder and some tar or quality exterior caulk. smear the tar or caulk around your chimney. that should stop the water from getting through for a year or two.
if you only try to seal it from the attic the water will still continue to get under your roofing and cause more damage to the wood on the roof, and any repair done that way likely would not last even a month let alone a year. you really need to fix it from up on the roof.
and btw.... it's not a dumb question.

Answer 6

I used to have that problem.

I had a variety of goopy things, both amateur and professional grade, that I tried. I ended up spending a year with pots and plastic wrap up there to catch the leaks. You can never really stop the leak from inside there or even outside if you can't find the exact point of entry. It is possible for a point of entry of the water to be far from the point at which you see the drip. Try the goop but plan on spending a year with some big pots under the drip point until you can have the roofer do a professional job there.

Answer 7

It sounds like what has happened is that the flashing has pulled away from the chimney. Get a roof or chimney repair person to look at it. If it is just the flashing pulling away it can be repaired by using a roofing tar and fixing the flashing. It shouldn't be too expensive.

Answer 8

You can do a temp patch job with caulk, but you need to use the stuff made to use outside, put a small bead around the leak, then the next day do another one. Keep doing this until you have good coverage. Put it inside AND outside.

Answer 9

I would get some metal flashing from home depot (or equivalent) and then goop some henry's sealer around the chimney, put the flashing in it and goop more henry's over the top of the flashing. You can get henry's in a tube and squirt it on with a calking gun.

Answer 10

It is almost impossible to fix a leak from the inside. Butyl caulk will give you a band aid til next year,but it has to be applied on the outside.