# New Bitumen Roof Standing Water in Gutter



## Burger (Oct 19, 2010)

Hi,
I have standing water in my gutters after it rained yesterday. I had a new modified bitumen roof put on in July of this year. Prior to that I had a tar and gravel roof and there was no standing water in these areas. It has been over 24 hours and the water still has not drained. I'm very concerned and called the roofer. He sounded surprised and talked about putting more gutters in. I told him the old roof did not have that problem. This water is not draining at all. That portion of the roof has a 3/12 pitch, so it isn't flat. 
What would you recommend. He said he is coming over to look at the problem. More gutters won't work for me because they would be in the center of my house on both portions where it's leaking. What did he do that was different from my old roof, since that Tar and Gravel roof did not puddle?


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

Pictures please.

According to most manufacturers, the NRCa and the United States Military a puddle up to 48 hours is acceptable.

I'm really not sure what you mean by gutter, unless there is some sort of internal valley in the roof. To me, a gutter is a metal thing that hangs on the outside of the roof to collect water run off.


----------



## Burger (Oct 19, 2010)

*Here's the pics*

Thanks, I've incuded the photos here. My roofer is supposed to come out today to "look" at it. He wasn't too happy. But you know, it didn't pond there before! So what do you think he should do?



http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/?saved=1


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

Ahh OK Got it. Bad design if you ask me. I have dealt with this type of house before and we always yank off that built up edge on the side of the roof and put on a traditional gutter. It's much easier to make water tight and waaay more practical.

if it didn't puddle before, there may have been some kind of build up in the gutter area. The short answer now is to either build up the gutter area, possibly using tapered insulation. The other option is to install additional downspouts in the areas where the water is puddling.


----------



## Burger (Oct 19, 2010)

*reply*

Thanks,
Now you tell me about tearing off the fascias and using a drain system...

I will pass that on to my roofer. It is day 3 and I still haven't heard his reply. I was thinking that before, when there was gravel, the gravel could have been piled up where it pooled and thus diverting the water to the drains. By the same token, that's what your saying by building up the roof there with insulation. Does that mean tearing off that portion of the roof?

Then there's the option of moving the drains closer to the corner towards the pooling area. Each drain (not in picture) is around the corner and not right next to the fascia (they're up by 1' and the other was moved about 6" from the fascia).

What do you think?
Thanks Grumpy


----------



## blageurt (Dec 15, 2009)

You could also ad a drain ( Scuffer is what we call them here) It is basically a square drain that you tie into the edge and attach a downspout to. For it to work the roof needs to be sloped correctly to it however ..... Looking at the picture I would put one in the inside corner ....


----------



## Burger (Oct 19, 2010)

*Scuffer*

That might be the answer, or just move the corner drains to around the corner. I know the roofer is going to go for the cheapest solution.....I'm sure he's not going to try and re-slope that area. Wouldn't resloping require tearing off the current roof in that area?


----------



## Slyfox (Oct 30, 2008)

I may be misreading your words, but, I get the impression you think the roofer did something wrong and will be paying for this fix and from what I see in those pics and what your telling us, that's not the case.
The setting water has always been there, it was simply soaked into and hidden by the build up of gravel on your old BUR roof.

The best way to deal with the situation now, which also happens to be the cheapest, is to add a couple scuffers like blageurt suggested.
Installed properly with a color to match/blend in with the color scheme of your home.


----------



## buildpinnacle (Apr 18, 2009)

Scuppers. Collector Head. Down spout. Sly is correct, though. This does not appear to me to be a problem that I would hang on the roofer unless he specifically addressed this drainage issue. My roofing contracts specifically state that we are not responsible for ponding water unless explicitly addressed in the specifications. We cannot be responsible for structural issues. I also notate the mfg 'definition' for what constitutes ponding water on my contracts. I have had too many people try not to pay us for water standing when they didn't want to pay the extra money up front for us to address it.


----------

