# Horizontal Rain-seeking advice



## DE_Carpenter (Dec 7, 2020)

Hello roofers,

This is my first post. I am a carpenter based in Maine that does additions, remodels, home repairs. I'm not a professional roofer but have done a few roofs, so far so good. I have a problem on a sunroom addition that I recently did right on the coast of a semi-protected cove.

It's a small 4 season porch coming off the gable end of a one story house. The house and sunroom are perpendicular to the prevailing wind, which is often a quite strong constant seabreeze. When it rains, it's often horizontal as I'm now appreciating. The roof currently has a few small leaks due to windblown rain. Here are more details:

The roof is a 4/12 decked with 1x10 rough boards to match an existing look at the overhang. Roof underlayment is Eaveguard I/W. The shingles are IKO architecturals. The roof meets the house under a 20 in overhang with about a foot of space between roofs. 

During a 3 in rain during a gale, some water penetrated the step flashing and in a few spots in field of the roof on the weather side. 

I hadn't yet taped the top of the step flashing as I erroneously thought the 20 in overhang would provide ample shelter. I also didn't counterflash the step flashing with flashing tape as the overhang was really difficult to fit my hands under and again I thought that joint would be adequately sheltered. 

I sealed the edges of the step flashing with geocel the best I could and taped the top of the step flashing.

I also sealed the bottoms of each course on the weather side of the roof with a continuous bead of roof sealant. I used Henry's wet patch. I took care to make sure the shingles were also sealed to the step flashing. 

Two days ago we got another 2 in. of rain. No weather penetration through the flashing but I still had penetration around the same spots in the field.

While sealing the shingles I didn't notice any serious error with nailing/shingle installation. They all seemed fine. That said I did set one or two mushroomed nails a little deeper. 

One potential error I made during roofing was when I installed the I/W shield I failed to pull half the paper backing off of the upperhalf of one course of I/W. Possibly the kiss of death? I let it go as I had began shingling this section of roof before I noticed this detail and it was about halfway up the roof. When roofing I normally do 2 courses of I/W then switch to tar paper. I figured that the overlap on the I/W should seal down and prevent water from penetrating the underlayment.

My question is now that I sealed each course with sealant, what can I do now to help troubleshoot this leak? Do I need to peel back a portion of the roof, fix my I/W error? Do I need to try to seal the shingles at the rake? (seems unlikely the source of penetration) Do I need to heat up the roof with a torch/heat gun to try to get the shingles and I/W to seal? What do roofers typically do when faced with fairly extreme frequent weather like this?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.


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## roofermann (Jul 7, 2012)

DE_Carpenter said:


> Hello roofers,
> 
> This is my first post. I am a carpenter based in Maine that does additions, remodels, home repairs. I'm not a professional roofer but have done a few roofs, so far so good. I have a problem on a sunroom addition that I recently did right on the coast of a semi-protected cove.
> 
> ...


Can you post some pics? Will help the users give better advice. And welcome to the forum!


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