Roof Leaks
Winter is the rainy season here in Perth, even more so up here in the Perth Hills, where we cop an average of 216 mm in June, compared to 124 mm for the Perth metro area.
It just so happened that we moved into our new house in May, just before the start of the rainy season, and one evening, while still in the mist of unpacking and setting up my home office, I heard the sound of rain outside. Then followed by a very unsettling sound.... drip... drip... drip...
I quickly found the source of the drips, it was easy to spot because a small puddle had already formed in the location. Luckily, it was on the tiled floor (not carpet) right outside of the office, and the source of the drips was our cathedral ceilings. I could see that water was dripping down a timber beam, flowing down a tall wall, and onto the floor below.
I found a bucket to catch the drips, and then discovered another little puddle meters away, on the other side of the cathedral ceiling. Another bucket was summoned! Next, my extinct was to quickly check for other leaks.
I grabbed the ladder, and hopped into the main roof space. With torch in hand, and the sound of pounding rain above me, I quickly scanned left to right, and up and down expecting the worst. However, all was good, and the only leaks seemed to be from the cathedral ceiling area at the front of the house.
I called a local roofer, who happened to be in the hospital because his wife was in labour with their second child! It seemed like he welcomed the distraction of my phone call, and wanted to chat more about my problem. He said he can send someone out ASAP, but there would be a *steep* cost involved. "I'll let you know" I told him, and ended the call, trying to think of what to do. The rain eased a bit, and dripping slowed, and I went to bed.
The next morning, I thought I'd have to tackle the problem first hand. It's not rocket science I thought, there's probably just a cracked tile (we have a terracotta tile roof).
But it wasn't that simple, the tiles were fine, and there were no obvious water entry points. The next few days were dry, so I let it be...
A couple of minor rain showers came, and no leaks. Did the problem fix itself?
Then a few days into winter, another down pour, and more leaks!
I waited for a dry day, and climbed onto the roof again, this time with milk cartons full of water in hand, determined to reproduce the problem.
In my industry, software, whenever we have someone report an issue or bug, the first step is to try to reproduce the problem in an environment where we can determine what the cause is, and why things are not working as they should. In this case, why is water not being shed off the tiles/flashing, and why is the water appearing on the underside of the roof!
I poured out the milk bottles over the same area that I suspected the leaks were coming from, and rushed back down the ladder, and inside. A-ha! the same drips and subsequent puddle as before!
Another trip up the ladder and onto the roof, this time I pulled off roof tiles, and discovered that the water was actually going over the tile, onto the flashing, but there was a gap in the flashing, and the water was then flowing onto the sarking below, and then inside. I could see the dampness of where the water was going.
I quickly started pulling all the flashing out, in a bid to go back to square one, and redo everything in the proper waterproof way.
Again, in my industry, software, there is an analogy to this, the "code re-write", where you find a piece of code that isn't doing what it should, but you have no idea how it works, so you start again, you remove that piece of code and start re-writing it from scratch in a bid to make things right.
After a good half hour of re-arranging the flashing, adding some butyl flashing tape, and making some minor adjustments, I was ready for the next step, re-testing!
Back down the ladder, mop up the puddle, fill up the milk bottles, and then back up the ladder again. Gulg, Gulg, Gulg... as the water oozed over the tiles, and over the flashing. Back down the ladder... check inside... no more leaking!
Problem Solved! Just need to wait for the real world test of the next down pour!
It just so happened that we moved into our new house in May, just before the start of the rainy season, and one evening, while still in the mist of unpacking and setting up my home office, I heard the sound of rain outside. Then followed by a very unsettling sound.... drip... drip... drip...
 |
| An unintended water feature |
I quickly found the source of the drips, it was easy to spot because a small puddle had already formed in the location. Luckily, it was on the tiled floor (not carpet) right outside of the office, and the source of the drips was our cathedral ceilings. I could see that water was dripping down a timber beam, flowing down a tall wall, and onto the floor below.
 |
| An unintended Indoor shower |
I grabbed the ladder, and hopped into the main roof space. With torch in hand, and the sound of pounding rain above me, I quickly scanned left to right, and up and down expecting the worst. However, all was good, and the only leaks seemed to be from the cathedral ceiling area at the front of the house.
I called a local roofer, who happened to be in the hospital because his wife was in labour with their second child! It seemed like he welcomed the distraction of my phone call, and wanted to chat more about my problem. He said he can send someone out ASAP, but there would be a *steep* cost involved. "I'll let you know" I told him, and ended the call, trying to think of what to do. The rain eased a bit, and dripping slowed, and I went to bed.
The next morning, I thought I'd have to tackle the problem first hand. It's not rocket science I thought, there's probably just a cracked tile (we have a terracotta tile roof).
But it wasn't that simple, the tiles were fine, and there were no obvious water entry points. The next few days were dry, so I let it be...
Then a few days into winter, another down pour, and more leaks!
I waited for a dry day, and climbed onto the roof again, this time with milk cartons full of water in hand, determined to reproduce the problem.
In my industry, software, whenever we have someone report an issue or bug, the first step is to try to reproduce the problem in an environment where we can determine what the cause is, and why things are not working as they should. In this case, why is water not being shed off the tiles/flashing, and why is the water appearing on the underside of the roof!
I poured out the milk bottles over the same area that I suspected the leaks were coming from, and rushed back down the ladder, and inside. A-ha! the same drips and subsequent puddle as before!
Another trip up the ladder and onto the roof, this time I pulled off roof tiles, and discovered that the water was actually going over the tile, onto the flashing, but there was a gap in the flashing, and the water was then flowing onto the sarking below, and then inside. I could see the dampness of where the water was going.
 |
| Dodgy roof flashing |
 |
| even dodgier roof flashing on the other side! |
I quickly started pulling all the flashing out, in a bid to go back to square one, and redo everything in the proper waterproof way.
Again, in my industry, software, there is an analogy to this, the "code re-write", where you find a piece of code that isn't doing what it should, but you have no idea how it works, so you start again, you remove that piece of code and start re-writing it from scratch in a bid to make things right.
After a good half hour of re-arranging the flashing, adding some butyl flashing tape, and making some minor adjustments, I was ready for the next step, re-testing!
Back down the ladder, mop up the puddle, fill up the milk bottles, and then back up the ladder again. Gulg, Gulg, Gulg... as the water oozed over the tiles, and over the flashing. Back down the ladder... check inside... no more leaking!
Problem Solved! Just need to wait for the real world test of the next down pour!
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