Emergency Roof Repair for Heavy Damage
Emergency Roof Repair: For heavy damage:
1. For the heavy damaged roof you need some good, sturdy tarps. If you are in an area devastated by a hurricane, look for a FEMA assistance trailer. They may be able to get your home tarped for you. If not, they might have tarps you can use to do it yourself. Try to get those if you can. You may want to go get a good tarp from your local hardware store to have as a back up, before a storm and the stores sell out.
2. The problem with blue tarps from home improvement stores is that they just don’t hold up very long in the sun and wind because they are cheaply made. It may be months before you can get a new roof so the heavier the better.
3. 1″ x 2″ wood battens will help to secure the tarps in place. Get enough so you can run them VERTICALLY about every four feet apart from the eave to the ridge. Don’t run the battens horizontally if you can help it, as that tends to trap water that can get in at the nail holes.
4. You will also need nails to hold the battens on. Although a framing nail gun makes short work of this emergency roof repair, a hammer and eight-penny common nails will do just fine. Drive the nails about two feet apart and keep them at least a foot away from the valleys. Have both types, nail gun and hammer available. You may be without electricity and a nail gun will be useless.
5. Tarped the damage area ONLY. Areas that have been tarped usually need to be re-roofed because of all the nail holes through the roofing. If only the back of your home is torn up, just tarp the back. Make sure the tarp is under the roofing so that the water won’t run under it.
6. When walking on the roof, take caution! The tarp is slippery and will be difficult to walk on. Try to do the repair without walking on the tarp, plan it out carefully. Make sure you are tied to the roof with a rope if you don’t have a harness available. It’s always better to wait for professionals, but at times it can’t wait.
