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Garage Roof Repairs That Anyone Can Do

ChrisFH | Jun 25, 2010 |

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A roof is an important part of any building, and should always be kept in top shape. On the other hand, you should not be terribly intimidated about doing a bit of repair yourself. It is not always too difficult.

Perhaps garage roof repair is a good place to start if you are new to this. At least you will not wreck your actual house if something goes wrong. Garages are often simple buildings, with correspondingly simple roof constructions, so there is not nearly as much that can go wrong as on a house with dormers, chimneys and such. Usually, it is a matter of a simple pitched or flat roof, with no windows, skylights or anything like that.

An asphalt roof is common on many garages, so let us look at that. If the roof is pitched, you will often find asphalt shingles on it. An asphalt roof in shingle form, is one of the easiest types of roof you can work on. They are easy to build, and not hard to repair most of the time. Felt roof repair is a bit trickier, as you will need to be careful when patching the felt, to ensure it is completely watertight. There are repair kits available for fixing roofing felt though, and these usually contain quite exhaustive instructions, so don't panic. Other types of shingle roofs are basically also easy - except you need to think about distributing your bodyweight, if you have to get up on the surface of the roof to do the repair - especially if the roof is a slate roof. Slate can take a lot of bad weather for many years, but if you stand on it, it may crack.

Easy garage roof repair jobs are cases like missing flashing, soffits and such - especially if they are made of aluminum or vinyl. It is mostly just a case of going up on your ladder and put on a new one with a couple of nails or the like. These things can sometimes be blown off by strong winds, and it is quite normal to have to replace some of them, once every few years. There is not much you can do wrong - just look at how the others are attached, and do it the same way. Eaves and rakes are no problem either. It may be, that any raw material you buy to make replacements from, has to be cut to the exact size. Make sure you ask about the right tools for this job, when you buy the material. You don't want to cut a piece of aluminum with a coarse-toothed saw intended for wood.

Generally, a lot of the damage you can see on your garage roof, is the stuf that is easy to fix. An exception may be large leaks which have been permitted to soak the trusses or rafters for too long. Here, a lot of material may have to be removed, and it can quickly get complicated - even dangerous - to do this without proper equipment and training.