Repair of flat roofs and soft roofs. Do-it-yourself flat roof repair - types, technology and sequence of work. Repair of mastic roofs

Average term The service life of a roofing felt roof is usually 15 years. And if it breaks down, then you can try to fix it yourself. At the same time, the repair flat roof will not require large financial outlays.

But before your roof needs major repairs, it will likely develop minor defects, which you can fix yourself. But if you do not want to fix small holes, then water will constantly fall on the rafters, and they will begin to rot.

Bitumen mastic will help you seal small cracks in roofing felt roofing. First, you need to remove any loose gravel from the damaged surface. To make it soft upper layer To impregnate roofing felt, you will probably need a hair dryer.

It can be used to remove dust and dirt. When eliminating the crack, it is necessary to lift the edges. If a bubble has formed on the coating, make a cross-shaped cut in the center of the bubble to remove it. Then lift up all 4 resulting edges. Clean the area under the edges of the roofing felt, connected by a seam.

Preparing the surface

Dry the surface under the roofing felt with a construction hairdryer, then apply a layer of bitumen mastic to the exposed areas and firmly press the edges of the crack or cross-shaped cut with a roller. You can also use waterproofing tape if the distance between the edges of the crack is large.

If a leak appears in the roof and it is flooded with water, then you can use special substances for emergency repair of a flat roof. There are also fast-acting substances in aerosol cans, with which you can seal holes in a wet roof, as well as in the waterproofing layer and.

If a lot of cracks and bubbles have formed on the surface of the roof, then you can make it waterproof using bitumen mastic or liquid rubber. It is necessary to remove all debris from the roofing surface before treating it. chemicals, which remove pathogenic fungi and mold.

Before applying bitumen mastic to the roof surface, all holes must be patched.

Then pour some mastic out of the bucket and smear it with a brush. Some mastics need to be applied in two layers.

A sponge soaked in solvent will help you remove mastic in places where it is not needed. All rubber-based substances must be applied in one layer. A layer of liquid rubber will last a long time because it does not lose its elasticity over time. After the applied layer has dried, you need to sprinkle it with fine gravel.

The most vulnerable spot is the junction between the edge of the roof and the wall of the house. If this connection becomes damaged, water will constantly flow through the roof.

To eliminate this problem, make an apron of lead, which is fixed with mortar between the rows of masonry walls. And if a crack has formed in it, then it can be repaired using self-adhesive waterproofing bitumen tape. But be sure to clean the damaged surface before applying tape to it.

Flat roofing is superior to pitched roofing in cost and ease of installation. But there is also a drawback: relatively often you have to do repairs. How and with what materials it is carried out - these questions will be the topic of this article.

Types of flat roof repairs

Roof restoration work is usually divided into three categories:

1. Maintenance.
2. Major renovation.
3. Emergency measures.

Maintenance

Current repairs are a set of works aimed at maintaining the normal condition of the roof: minor damage and defects that may lead to leaks in the future are eliminated. Typically, the total area of ​​the areas being restored does not exceed 40% of the entire roof area, while repairmen are most often limited to manipulating surface layer.

Problem areas are identified through an inspection, which is recommended to be carried out once every six months, or at least once a year.

It is very important to carry out Maintenance in a timely manner, since minor damage on a flat roof quite quickly develops into large ones, which entails a significant increase in the cost of restoring the coating.

Major renovation

In case of severe wear and tear, when the area of ​​areas with damage or unsatisfactory condition exceeds 40% of the roof area, a full-scale reconstruction of the roofing pie is resorted to. In fact, the roof, starting with the vapor barrier, is laid anew - only a small part of the materials in good condition, is reused.

When performing a major overhaul of a flat roof, all layers of the roofing pie are dismantled and re-laid

Emergency repairs

Emergency repairs must be resorted to urgently if the roof leaks. If current and major repairs are usually carried out in the warm season, then emergency repairs are done when necessary, and this is its peculiarity.

In winter, emergency work is carried out to urgently eliminate defects. roofing covering

As part of emergency repairs, as well as current repairs, only the surface layer is usually manipulated. In most cases, the area of ​​damaged areas does not exceed 20% of the entire roof area, but if necessary, the coating is replaced in larger quantities.

Preparation for repair

During repair work on the roof it is often necessary to dismantle the old roofing covering. It is clear that at this moment the structure in some places loses its protection from precipitation, so you need to prepare very carefully so that nothing prevents the repairs from being carried out as soon as possible.

Selection of materials for repairing flat roofs

For the device and, accordingly, four types of materials are used.

Bitumen coatings

The category of bituminous materials includes traditional roofing felt, which is cardboard coated with bitumen, as well as newer coatings such as metalloizol and folgoizol, which are reinforced with foil.

Folgoizol is a multilayer structure with outer covering aluminum foil

Bitumen waterproofing is the cheapest, but also the least durable - the material becomes unusable after 5–7 years. So short term service is explained by the following disadvantages:

• low frost resistance - moisture is retained in the pores of bitumen, which gradually destroys the material during successive freeze-thaw cycles;
• insufficient plasticity - due to temperature changes bitumen coating cracks relatively quickly;
• instability to influence ultraviolet radiation(bituminous materials and mastics used for gluing them under sun rays become even more fragile).

Bitumen-polymer materials

Adding a small amount (usually no more than 12%) of various polymers to bitumen makes it possible to increase the frost resistance of the material and its plasticity, as a result of which the service life is extended to 15–20 years. In addition, instead of fragile cardboard, fiberglass, fiberglass or polyester is used as a base, due to which the material acquires increased resistance to mechanical stress.

Rubemast is manufactured using more modern technology than roofing felt, therefore it has several times longer service life

Currently, a wide range of materials are produced using this technology, for example, bikrost, rubemast, rubestek, hydrostekloizol, steklomast, steklobit, linokrom.

Particular success was achieved when mixing into bitumen crumb rubber, elastomers, thermoplastic elastomers and thermoplastics. Materials made in this way are produced under the brands Filizol, Thermoflex, Dneproflex and Dnepromast, Luberite, Elabit, Mastoplast, Isoplast, etc.

People often call bitumen-polymer materials Euroroofing felt. In addition to increased resistance to negative factors it has one more important difference from roofing felt: laying can be done by fusing, for which the lower surface is heated with a gas or gasoline burner.

To fix the euroroofing material, it is enough to heat its bottom layer using a burner - gasoline or gas

At the same time, euroroofing felt also inherited some disadvantages from its prototype: it also has to be laid in several layers, and, with rare exceptions, it is necessary to sprinkle the surface with stone chips.

The cost of bitumen polymer materials higher than traditional roofing felt, but due to less frequent repairs, roof maintenance costs are ultimately reduced by 2 times (based on 40-year operation).

Single layer membranes

Single-layer membranes are a fundamentally different type of coating, which is made from synthetic rubber or polymers. It has a number of advantages:

• laid in one layer, so it can be installed very quickly;
• is very elastic;
• has no pores, therefore it has high frost resistance;
• perfectly resists all other negative factors external environment- UV radiation, oxidation and temperature changes;
• can be installed at any time of the year;
• does not require powdering with stone chips;
• supplied in rolls up to 15 m wide (the width of bituminous materials is 1 m), due to which the number of seams on the roof is significantly reduced.

The membrane can be secured either with glue or bitumen mastic, or with self-tapping screws. Due to the long service life (more than 25 years), single-layer installation and the rare need for repair work, the maintenance of the roof over 40 years of operation will have to be spent 4 times less funds than in the case of bitumen roofing.

Roof repairs using the single-layer Ecoplast membrane can be carried out at any time of the year

The production of membranes in Russia has been mastered for quite a long time: Cromel, Ecoplast, Logicbase, Rukril and others membranes have proven themselves well.

Roofing mastics

Roofing mastics are liquid formulations, which are applied to the roof in any of the following ways:

• spraying (industrial sprayers are used);
• using a brush;
• using the pouring method followed by leveling with a roller.

After some time, the mass polymerizes and turns into an elastic, waterproof film, similar to rubber. Because of this similarity, roofing mastics are often called liquid rubber. The film is extremely elastic - it does not tear at a relative elongation of up to 1000%. This means that when the building shrinks, the roofing will remain intact.

After polymerization, roofing mastic turns into a waterproof film similar to rubber

Compared to rolled materials, mastics have an important advantage: the coating will be seamless for any roof area. They are also very useful for repair work, as they allow you to fill the most difficult to reach cavities.

Roofing mastics are produced in both one-component and two-component versions. In the second case, the base composition must be mixed with a hardener.

The composition of mastics varies quite a lot, and accordingly, their service life is different:

• butyl rubber, for example, “Germabutyl NMG-S”, “TechnoNIKOL No. 45”, “Polikrov M-120/M-140” serve for 25 years;
• chlorosulfopolyethylene, for example, “Polikrov-L”, “Izokrov”, “Krovlelit” also protect the roof surface for up to 25 years;
• bitumen-latex, for example, TechnoNIKOL No. 33, BLEM 20, Master Flex must be updated every 20 years;
• bitumen rubber, for example, REBAKS-M, MGH-K, Venta U, will require repair after 15 years of operation.

For gluing roll materials You will need bitumen mastic (not to be confused with roofing mastic - “liquid rubber”). You can buy it at the store, or you can make it yourself. There are two varieties of this material:

• cold mastic - used for gluing the internal (lining) layers of rolled material;
• hot mastic - applied over the coating as a protective layer and to fix the stone chips.

Cold mastic is prepared from the following ingredients:

• bitumen - 2 parts;
• gasoline - 2 parts;
• filler, which can be used as gypsum, lime or ash powder - 1 part.

The bitumen is heated in some container and kept for some time so that the moisture completely evaporates from it. The temperature at which evaporation is carried out is approximately 180 o C. Then filler is poured into the bitumen, after which the mixture is thoroughly stirred with a wooden stick. Next, you need to pour it into gasoline.

If the bitumen is heated, then it is this that needs to be poured into gasoline, and not vice versa. Otherwise, a fire may occur. After cooling, the mastic can be used for its intended purpose. It should be borne in mind that it is not stored for a long time, so cook large volume there is no point in the future.

The technology for preparing hot bitumen mastic involves cooking bitumen at a temperature of approximately 200 o C. During this process, filler is gradually added, while the bitumen is mixed.

If a small amount of bitumen is needed for repairs, it can be heated in a metal bucket, and for large volumes special installations are used

If, when mixing bitumen with filler, the temperature of the mixture drops below 160 o C, the material will greatly lose quality.

To insulate the roof, you should use a material that can support the weight of the coating and snow without being greatly deformed. These are:

• extruded polystyrene foam. Its composition is identical to regular polystyrene foam, only the structure is homogeneous and not granular;
• rigid slabs from mineral wool. The density of the material (varies from 50 to 400 kg/m3) must be selected in accordance with the snow loads characteristic of a given region;
• expanded clay The cheapest, but at the same time the least effective heat insulator.

Video: repairing soft roll roofing using mastic - what you need to know

Budgeting

For large volumes of work it is useful to make a calculation necessary materials and calculate their cost. Having an estimate in hand, the owner of the building is guaranteed to acquire everything he needs, so that during repairs he will not have to be distracted by secondary actions. In addition, the estimate will show what funds will need to be allocated, because with large-scale repairs the costs can be quite significant.

If it is decided to entrust the repair of the roof to a team of hired workers or a specialized company, then to draw up an estimate they need to provide the following information:

Preparing tools

To carry out the work you will need:

1. Assembly cutter. With its help it is convenient to remove worn roofing coverings. This tool can be replaced with a well-sharpened ax, which, instead of an axe, is attached to a handle made of steel pipe suitable length.
2. Construction knife. Used for cutting panels roofing material.
3. Gas or gasoline burner (blowtorch). It is used for fusing bitumen-polymer roll material, if it is decided to use it as a roofing covering. It is easier to work with a gas burner, and the fuel for it is cheaper. But it is also more dangerous, so in the absence of skills it is better to use a blowtorch.

   Application gas burner requires the roofer to pay increased attention to safety rules

4. Construction hairdryer. Helps quickly dry the area being repaired, and can also be used for fusing some materials.

   With help construction hair dryer you can quickly dry the area being repaired or fuse roofing material

5. Maklovitsy. This is the name of the special brushes with which in the process roofing works apply mastic and primer. If there are no brushes available, you can use an old broom instead.

   Apply primers and mastics with a wide brush - a paintbrush.

6. Roller. Used for leveling mastics.
7. Protective glasses. According to safety requirements, glasses must be worn when working with a gas burner, as well as when knocking down screeds.

Flat roof repair technology

Each type of defect flat roofs ah is eliminated according to its own method.

The roll material has peeled off

The sequence of actions is as follows:

There is a crack or bulge in the coating

The easiest way to repair such damage is to install a patch. Before this, you need to determine how deep the moisture has penetrated into the roofing pie.

1. The area with the crack is cut out with an ax or a mounting cutter, and the swelling is opened with a cross-shaped incision. If the underlying layer of roll material is wet, it needs to be cut out. Do the same with other wet layers until they reach dry.

   The area with a crack or swelling is opened using a cross-shaped incision

2. In the resulting hole, place one on top of the other as many fragments of rolled material as were cut out, gluing each one with mastic.
3. If the defect was a swelling, then 4 triangular valves, bent after opening, are returned to their place and securely glued with mastic. Some craftsmen nail these flaps with slate nails.
4. The roof area within a radius of 10–15 cm from the damage site is cleared of debris, dust and dirt, and the cleaned area is filled with bitumen mastic.
5. Apply a patch of the appropriate size.

   A layer of mastic is applied to the opened and treated area, and then a patch is laid on it, the edges of which are also coated with bitumen

6. The edges of the patch are coated with mastic and sprinkled with stone chips, pressing them into the bitumen using a roller.

Installing a patch is not always guaranteed to provide the desired result. The master may not notice hidden damage, so after repair the roof will still leak. They often make the mistake of installing a patch above the place where the water appeared on the ceiling: in fact, the damage can be located up to 2 m from the leak.

Taking into account all that has been said, many craftsmen prefer to simply lay a new one over the worn-out coating, which is commonly called repair the old way. It must be taken into account that laying new layers one after another significantly increases the load on the walls. For safety reasons, it is not allowed to lay more than eight layers of coating on the roof, but even with fewer layers, it is advisable to perform strength calculations of the walls and ceilings.

Video: technology for repairing cracks and blisters on a flat roof

Roofing membrane damaged

Single-layer membranes, which were described above, withstand atmospheric influences, but can be damaged, for example, when removing snow from the roof with a metal shovel. The tightness of such a coating is restored as follows:

If peeling occurs in the seam area, then the peeled area is welded in the same way, having previously treated it with inside solvent. If the broken section is more than 5 m long, it should be restored using a special repair tape, for example, Eternbond.

Cracks have appeared in the mastic roofing covering

Cracks in the mastic coating appear as a result of aging of the material. Restoration is carried out with the same mastic from which this coating was made. They work like this:

In case of extensive damage, the repair layer must be reinforced with fiberglass mesh with a density of 100 g/m2. First, a layer of mastic is applied by spray, then the mesh is laid, and after that the mastic is applied again, which should completely hide the mesh.

Stages of flat roof repair

Any repair begins with an inspection of the roof. Here's what you need to pay attention to:

WITH special attention areas adjacent to pipes, parapets, ventilation shafts and other objects on the roof.

If the damage covers more than 40% of the roof, a major repair is performed, which includes the following steps:

1. Removal of existing roofing material.
2. Dismantling the screed (bumpers or special machines that cut grooves in the screed can be used).

   Major repairs to a flat roof begin with complete removal old roofing and the concrete screed underneath

3. Removing insulation.
4. Replacing the vapor barrier or, if possible, restoring it.
5. Restoration of elements of the internal drainage system.
6. Installation of insulation. If mineral wool slabs are used for this purpose, you can purchase varieties that have the slope necessary to ensure drainage (they are called wedge-shaped).

   When using a wedge thermal insulation material The slope of the roof can be done already at the stage of its insulation

7. Sloping the surface by adding sand or expanded clay (if the slope was not formed by insulation).

   The slope of a flat roof can be done by pouring a layer of expanded clay on top of the insulation

8. Installation of funnels for water drainage (elements of the internal drainage system).
9. Laying a screed from a cement-sand mortar and then covering it with bitumen (prevents moisture evaporation).

   Before pouring the screed, reinforcement mesh and wooden beacons are installed on the roof surface

10. Laying roofing material. Bitumen and bitumen-polymer roll materials should be laid in 3–5 layers (the lower the roof slope, the more layers). The strips are laid with an overlap of 10 cm or more, gluing them with mastic. In the first layer they are laid parallel to the cornice, in the second - perpendicular, while the ends of the strips of the second layer are placed on the walls and glued or fixed with dowels. Next, the direction of the stripes in the layers must be alternated.

It is not always possible to perform the tilt correctly. To identify errors, perform the following test:

• before installing the last layer of coating, the roof is filled with water;
• Mark with chalk those areas from which moisture does not drain.

After drying such dents, you need to pour a thick layer of mastic or glue a piece of rolled material (no thicker than 1 mm), after which you can lay the finishing layer with stone powder. If there is no powder (ordinary roofing felt), it is applied independently onto a layer of hot mastic, into which the stone chips are pressed with a roller.

Video: flat roof repair on the roof of a house

To reduce the frequency of flat roof repairs, you must initially rely on quality materials. And during maintenance, you should protect the coating from mechanical damage - when clearing the surface of snow and ice, it is not recommended to use a metal shovel or crowbar.

Arrangement and repair of flat roofs is done by two types of materials: soft or self-leveling. They provide excellent sealing of roofing layers, protecting the house from damaging influences environment and long service life. There are typical damage to roofs made of soft materials that occur periodically regardless of the quality of the materials used.

Types of damage

You can find out whether there is a need for roof reconstruction by carefully examining its surface. You can detect defects in the roof of a house if you simply walk on it. Damaged areas may crunch, sag, and swell.

Roof Condition Assessment

Types of flat roof damage:

• separation of the “pie”: complete or partial;
• swelling of the coating;
• the appearance of bubbles;
• the appearance of cracks;
• the formation of depressions and funnels filled with rainwater;
• peeling of the coating around chimney pipes;
• germination of all kinds of vegetation inside the coating layers.

If you periodically carry out a preventive inspection of the roof of your house for defects, then minor routine repairs to the surface can be done with your own hands. But if this is not done in time, the defects will gradually progress and the roof may begin to leak. In this case, you may need not only a major repair of the roof of the house, but also restoration interior decoration premises.

Consequences of untimely roof repairs:

• the growth of moss and other vegetation;
• the appearance of mold;
• deformation wooden walls and floors of the house;
• violation of interior decoration;
• occurrence of leaks;
• icing of house walls and ceilings in winter;
• the appearance of multiple cracks,
• peeling finishing materials, accelerated destruction due to rotting.

• early autumn to avoid problems with a leaking roof;
• in the spring, after the snow melts - to eliminate damage after winter;
• in summer it is necessary to remove leaves and clear the roof of moss;
• In winter, you need to clear the snow on time.

This will help reduce the cost of ongoing home repairs.

How to repair a flat roof

Depending on the size and nature of surface defects, two types of repair can be noted:

• small current;
• capital.

There are two effective methods repair a flat roof:

• sticking to mastic;
• fusing using high temperature exposure.

Membrane roof installation

PVC membranes are soft material for roof repairs, with which you can carry out repairs easily and quickly. The big advantage of such coatings is that installation can be done in one layer directly on the previous roofing felt coating. The only requirement is that the surface must be clean (no stones, debris, old greasy stains, puddles of water).

To carry out the work you will need:

Work technology

The rolls are rolled out on the roof surface and the required pieces of sheets are cut off. The canvases are laid with an overlap of 12 cm. The edges of the canvases are fixed with dowel nails every 40 cm. The edges are connected with heated air from welding machine. In this case, a stream of hot air is directed under the canvas and immediately rolled with a roller. This method is justified when repairing large areas.

Application of euroroofing felt

This repair technology is much more economical, but the surface must be perfectly clean. The material is laid in two layers. The first is the main one, and the second is decorative. Thanks to a special powder, decorative roofing felt is not afraid of the sun, frost, does not crack or dry out, is chemical-resistant and has a long service life (about 30 years). The material is produced in rolls.

Materials and tools for work:

1. Two types of euroroofing felt;
2. Gas-burner;
3. Special scissors;
4. Hook.

Fused technology

Strips of the required length are measured and rolled again for convenience. Each canvas is heated using a gas burner and rolled out, holding it so as not to get burned with an iron hook.. In this case, the material is firmly attached to the surface. A decorative layer is placed on top of the bottom layer using the same algorithm. The two layers are then melted simultaneously, ensuring a secure adhesion and long-lasting coating.

other methods

Minor repairs soft roof can be made at home using ordinary roofing felt. It, of course, does not have all the advantages of modern analogues, but in case of minor roof defects, you can use pieces of roofing felt, laying them on molten bitumen. The material can even be laid on top of iron or slate surfaces.

For small cracks in the slate plane, scraps of fabric in oil paint– they can repair minor damage.

Large fragments of damage must be replaced or the roof completely covered with new material.

How to correctly calculate reconstruction costs

The technology for carrying out minor routine repairs does not require such preparations; it can be carried out spontaneously without any preliminary preparation.

When planning a major roof repair, it would be quite reasonable to make a preliminary calculation of the costs of repairing a roof made from roll materials.

Procedure for planning repairs:

1. Carrying out measurements of the territory within which it is planned to replace the coating.

2. Compiling a list of all required materials, taking into account the nature of the defects.

3. Adding to the list of materials for manufacturing cement-sand mortars, if you plan to update such areas of the roof.

4. Add 10-20% excess consumption of materials to the result obtained.

5. Consider offers from various building materials stores, take note of promotions and conditions for delivery of materials.

Major renovation

Major roof repairs require large expenses and a lot of time, but the procedure itself can be done with your own hands, provided you have some skills.

Event technology:

1. Dismantle the roofing pie and check the condition of all insulating layers.
2. If damaged coatings are identified, the entire area should be replaced.
3. Make a cement-sand screed, following the instructions on the mixture packaging.
4. Pour the solution in a layer of 2-4 cm and wait for the surface to dry.
5. Prime with bitumen emulsion.
6. Treat the entire roof area with mastic.
7. Lay the pre-heated parts of the solid sheet on the roof surface, pressing with a stick. The procedure is easier to do with two people.
8. Lay all the strips overlapping, maintaining 15-20 cm of overlap.
9. Seal seams, joints and hard-to-reach places.
10. If desired, you can do additional layer soft roof, rolling out the roll in a perpendicular direction.

In order for a major roof repair to produce results and save you from carrying out such events for the next ten years, you must follow all the rules when laying the covering. You should also take into account the fact that the condition of the coating will depend on the quality of the selected material. It is better to choose products from reputable manufacturers.

Flat roofing is an excellent way to cover high-rise buildings and outbuildings, the price of which is several times lower than the prices for the construction of pitched analogues. It is created by layering bitumen or polymer materials onto concrete or wooden base. Thanks to such multi-layering, the roofing pie has high degree waterproofing and resistance to mechanical damage. Unfortunately, the harsh climate of Russia, low temperatures in winter and a large number of precipitation leads to premature destruction of the coating, cracks, leaks or peeling appear on it. This article will tell you how to do a major or partial renovation flat roof.

The cost of installing a flat roof is 2-3 times less than construction pitched structures, thanks to the absence of massive rafter frame. However, the service life of a bitumen-polymer coating, depending on what materials were used, ranges from 5 to 15 years, and difficult conditions exploitation and lack regular maintenance only worsens the condition of the flat roof. Damage to the roof surface occurs for the following reasons:

Important! The advantage of a soft roof is that you can carry out routine or even major repairs to the roofing yourself. Most minor damage can be repaired with liquid rubber. The technology allows you to do the work yourself at any time of the year, as long as the weather is dry.

Minor repairs

In most cases, homeowners have to deal with minor damage to their soft roofing. After several years of use, small cracks and swellings appear on the surface of the roofing material. The technology for eliminating these defects with your own hands is as follows:

Important! The price for partial reconstruction, taking into account the cost of materials, is 700-800 rubles. per sq. m. Doing the work yourself will save 20-30% of this amount. However, patching holes in roofing felt only slightly delays major repairs without completely solving the problem.

Major renovation

The service life of a flat roof using modern polymer materials is, according to manufacturers, 20 years. However, in real conditions operation need for major renovation occurs within 10-15 years. The technology for complete reconstruction of the coating is as follows:

Note! The price for a complete reconstruction of flat blood is from 2500 rubles per 1 sq. m. m. Installation is carried out using a gas burner by fusing the bottom layer of roofing material onto concrete base. If the base of the roof is made of wood, then the bottom layer of roofing material is nailed down.

Video instruction

The main function of a flat roof, like any other, is to provide reliable protection the house, and therefore everything that is in it, from atmospheric influences. Of course, over time or due to defects that may have been made during its construction, leaks may form in the roof. In such cases it is required flat roof repair.

When pronounced damp spots are found on the ceiling and walls, this means that the roof is leaking somewhere. It is clear that in such a situation it is necessary to urgently identify the cause of the leak in the roof structure and immediately eliminate it.

It is quite possible that you will find problem area It will not be possible right away, since it may be located away from the leak site. Therefore, to find " weak points» It is necessary to carefully examine the roof surface. It must be admitted that finding minor defects in soft roofing bitumen material, such as burst bubbles or cracks, are not that difficult. It is much more difficult to detect the source of a leak on a roof covered with a layer of gravel.

According to the nature of roof damage, a distinction is made between current (up to 40% of damage) and major repairs. In the first case, a “patch” local repair of simple damage is assumed, while in the case of a major one, a thorough repair of damaged structures is carried out.

How to carry out routine flat roof repairs on your own

Such simple defects as, for example, cracks, swelling, or loose seams of roofing laid in strips can be quite easily eliminated on your own. For this purpose they most often use bitumen mastic cold curing, that is, during repairs you can do without using a special boiler in which the bitumen is heated.

Repair of blisters on flat roll roofing

This defect is usually a consequence of delamination of the roof covering. If the swelling is dry, a patch is applied to it. If moisture is detected, you must first locate the leak and completely replace the area affected by the dampness. Need for special equipment to execute the current one flat repair roll roofing , No.

Elimination of bloating looks schematically as follows.

• If the roof is covered with a layer of fill (gravel, marble chips or pebbles), then it is removed from the swollen part.
• The bitumen coating at the site of the swelling is well heated using blowtorch or a hair dryer. When the material has softened well enough, the swollen area should be pressed, for example, using a wooden block of suitable size.

• If there is water in the swelling, open it with a cross-shaped movement with a knife and turn away the edges. The incision is deepened until it reaches the base and the coating is dried. To speed up the drying process, use a hair dryer.

• Repair is performed using cold mastic. Using a spatula, it is applied to the sides of the cut, the edges are folded again, pressed to the base and nailed using 20 mm roofing nails at a distance of 15 mm from each other.
• To cover the damaged area, use a patch made of roofing felt. It should protrude beyond its boundaries by 50 mm in any direction. Cold mastic is placed on the damaged area, a patch is applied and pressed to the roof surface. The patch is secured with nails, its edges and nail heads are treated with mastic.

Repairing cracks on the roof surface

To cover cracks on soft covering you can use any self-adhesive material for repair.

• The surface of the crack is thoroughly cleaned of contaminants and a special primer is applied to the surface.

• After waiting about an hour, carefully separate protective layer and apply adhesive material to the surface of the defect. If the size of the crack is small, the required length can be cut off immediately. If the damage is long enough, the adhesive tape must be unrolled gradually. Then the tape should be pressed well so that the edges lie firmly on the base.

Patches on the roof, of course, do not add aesthetics to it, so it is advisable to decorate them by applying paint or bitumen to the entire surface.

Major flat roof repairs

The need for major repairs arises when flat roof structures are damaged. They can be caused by its incorrect design. Let's look at a few examples.

• If violated minimum height parapet on a flat roof , It is not always possible to ensure the necessary overlap of the waterproofing layer on the surface of the parapet. This, as a rule, leads to a violation of the roof's tightness.

The insulating layer must have a vertical overlap of at least 25 cm.

• If the ventilation of the flat roof is impaired , this is a direct path to the accumulation of moisture vapor from below, which will lead to condensation of moisture in the insulation.
• If there are no compensating layers , structural elements may shift, which will lead to their uneven “work”. Of course, in this case, you can apply an additional sealing layer to the damaged areas, but this will only solve the problem for a short time. At any time, damage can occur in a new location.

The list of cases when major repairs may be needed could be continued, but all of them have one thing in common - the need for certain costs, which depend on the method of solving a particular problem. Among them are the following.