The soft roof is quite easy to install and available to the vast majority of developers, which is why it remains very popular for many years. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever, and often breakdowns happen with any objects and mechanisms that surround us, and the roof lining is no exception. Repair of the soft roof happens quite often, and the owners of the house have to fix it, sometimes even a couple of times a year, people eliminate the defects that have appeared. The only good news is that for such work it is not necessary to attract craftsmen, because the whole restoration process can be done by yourself.
A repair plan is usually made after a thorough inspection of the roof, which allows you to identify all problems that have arisen. There are two standard ways to repair a roofing:
- major repairs of a soft roof;
- ongoing troubleshooting.
Each of these methods is performed according to a separate technology, within the framework of which it is recommended to use various materials, and in case of urgent need, you can take up work even in winter.
The main reason for the frequent wear of the roofing material lies in the properties of bitumen, which is susceptible to sunlight and begins to melt at high temperature, hence the defects, expressed by swellings and irregularities that affect the further operation of the structure. The thing is that when precipitation occurs in the formed depressions, rain water or thawed snow accumulates through the cracks in the bitumen. But in winter you can encounter some problems, because during the thaw the snow melts, and with a sharp decrease in temperature it turns into ice, which expands the cracks in the material and breaks it.
To determine if the cladding needs repair, carefully inspect the roof surface. If in some places the waterproofing has peeled off, cracks have appeared, bitumen has swollen or cavities or moss sprouted out, repair of a soft roof is inevitable. If the defects are insignificant, you will completely get by with a little repair and easily cope with it yourself.
Current roof repair
We will make a reservation right away that major repairs can be made not so expensive if the preventive process is carried out every three years. As for the current repair, it provides for minimal lining errors, and you will not need to dismantle the old rolled materials with dried mastic, which, in fact, require repair. Here you will need to update the existing layer, namely:
- bubble elimination;
- replacement of funnels for water flow;
- replacement of a parapet covering or eaves;
- coating the old layer with primers;
- fusion of a new waterproofing.
Experienced masters advise to pay special attention to the most problematic places, which are the joints of roofing elements, parapet structures and walls, as well as those areas where gutters are fixed. In some cases, you can limit yourself to patches, but they often do not give a sustainable result and are not a guarantee of further operation of the roof without leaks.
The technology for repairing a soft roof consists of several stages, namely:
- Cleaning the surface of debris, dirt and moss;
- Examination of the surface for the presence of rot, and if it is detected, such segments should be cut off with the capture of intact material (up to 2 cm on each side);
- Alignment of bumps with special mastic, which will require mortar materials such as cement composition;
- Cutting off all bubbles, removing dust, drying the surface and leveling it for firm fixation of the patch;
- A patch is made of new material with an allowance of 5 cm;
- Lubrication of the surface with mastic and gluing patches.
We draw your attention to the fact that on the reverse side, the patch must be processed with bitumen mastic. Further in the work you will need a burner, which needs to warm up the patch, after which it is pressed by the press.
Repair over old coating
In professional circles, such an expression is known as “repairing the old”, which means that it is not necessary to dismantle old roofing materials, and defects are fixed on top of them. This method is much cheaper and easier to implement than overhaul of a soft roof. It can be easily done with your own hands, which is why they often resort to this method.
In this case, the old roofing materials, on which defects are identified, will serve as the basis for a new coating. The final coating can be applied in one or two layers - everything here depends on the scale of the disaster and on the financial capabilities of the owner of the house, but a double carpet, of course, is better and more reliable, since its strength is higher. However, it is impossible not to mention that it is necessary to take into account the capabilities of the rafter system, because here the load on the roof surface increases in the value of 5 kg / 1 m2 due to the roll cladding, as well as the additional weight gives the mastic on which it is glued. Repair of a soft roll roof according to this principle is suitable for a roof that is not in a very poor condition. If the old roll lining is completely bad, the risk will be unjustified, and it is better to tune in to a major repair right away. Also, this method should be abandoned if previously laid layers of bitumen exceed the permissible norm (maximum 6-8 layers), again due to the severity of the materials.
Overhaul of a soft roof
If you conducted an audit and found that a significant area of the roof was damaged, and defects reach 60% of the entire surface, you can’t do it with patch and mastic. In this case, only full dismantling of the shabby damaged cladding and laying of soft material in a new way can help to rectify the situation. As a rule, capital repairs are resorted to in case of regular and abundant roof leaks, as a result of which the insulation is damaged and loses its properties or the lining freezes.
The minimum set of works on major repairs of the roof includes the dismantling of bitumen and its replacement with new material, oiled with mastic, the replacement of funnels and cornices, drying of the insulation with the help of special devices, and the replacement of the parapet structure. If the condition of the roof is more than deplorable, and the defects touched the rafter system, you will have to update not only the cladding, but also the frame with vapor barrier and insulation, and the order of the work will look like this:
- We dismantle old materials;
- Eliminate screed defects;
- We carry out the entire roofing process in a new way.
Overhaul of the soft roof with your own hands is best done with assistants, because here you will have to tinker not only with bitumen and mastic, but you will also need to install some roof elements that are difficult to lift alone, not just fix it.
This video shows in detail the entire process of installing the roof. After viewing, you can independently perform all the work.