Mancave Leaking

[totalllama82]

Oh dear, after some heavy rain on the run up to Christmas my 4 month old felt gave up the ghost and started letting in the rain.

The cave is a 12 x 6 pent shed which sits next to the house.

Anyway, I refelted the roof last week with brand new stuff and sealant between the sheets of felt. I reckoned that I'd done a pretty good job of it too. All of the layers overlapped correctly and I used clout nails at 50mm intervals.

Tonight I go into the man cave to find that the shed is leaking like a sieve at the lower end. There is no sign on the roof itself of any damage to the felt. It just seems to be letting rain water in

So where am I going wrong? The bike and all of my stuff is currently sitting in a big puddle of water with more rain and shit weather forecast.

I'm now tempted to get a pro roofer to do *something* to it as the contents are just going to get destroyed.
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Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[doggone]

Putting nails through felt might have something to do with it?

[totalllama82]

I see! I studied a few tutorials on Youtube on felting the roof and they used clout nails in the same way I did.

The inside of the roof feels damp right enough - it's pausible that this could be the cause.

The trouble is, your average sheet of felt is 1m wide. My roof is 2m wide meaning I run 3 widths of felt (2 rows of clout nails). I can't see how the wind wouldn't just tear up the felt if it wasn't nailed down.

Pretty confused right now. I've looked at both of my neighbours and they have lines of clout nails at the seems. The difference is that mine is a pent and theirs is a regular apex roof meaning the pitch on mine is substantially less - more sitting water?
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Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[pdg]

If you have water coming through your roof, the most likely cause is that there is a hole of some description. To stop the water, I recommend finding said hole, and making not a hole any more



It's entirely normal to put clouts through the felt. Just so long as you have the appropriate amount of overlap and the clouts are properly in they shouldn't leak. It's usually a good ldea to put decent felt adhesive in the overlap as well, and a blob under the head of each clout when you put them in.

When I did my shed roof, I put the 'sheets' of felt over the roof (with a full covering of bitumen), instead of along it - the joins are 'vertical' instead of horizontal. I used clouts to hold it down, then I put a treated batten along each join (with a double bead of bitumen mastic under) which covered all the clouts.

Problems I have seen with shed roofs have mainly been because people use shed felt (which is paper thin, hard to work with without tearing and sometimes actually lets water through...) I have also seen someone cut off the ungritted section along the roll and then just butt the sheets up against each other - the 'bare' part is for the overlap.
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Any and all advice given should not be followed - if you have to ask it means you don't know so get a man in to do it for you.

[totalllama82]

I put a bead of gutter sealant along the lengths of the sheets before nailing. The sheets overlap by a good 0.5 meters (3 x 1m sheets on a roof thats 2m wide). They are length wise rather than vertical like you suggest.

I bought the best felt I could find in B&Q on boxing day. 8m for £32 rather than going for the paper thin value stuff.

I could go and buy more stuff but I reckon i'm starting to get out of my depth and am going to throw good money after bad. I was fairly confident that I was doing it right going by the Youtube videos and using decent materials which is why i'm so baffled.

Any ideas if a roofer would take on this job? any ideas of costs if I prepared the roof back to the wood?
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Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[Bikeless]

[totalllama82]

Researching a little and it seems that a 1 piece rubber roof which is actually glued down may be an alternative. It comes in at £90 though so is an expensive experiment.

I just want to get the bloody thing watertight so that I can insulate and line the walls and floor.
____________________
Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[Islander]

[Chuffin Nora]

Is the pitch the 6' axis or the 12'?
I presume that it's the 6'.
Do tell.
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There's a fine line between integrity

[totalllama82]

The apex (high side) runs along the 12' length. Its around 6'6" high and runs down to around 5'10" at the leaky end. The 6' measurements are the 'gable' ends of the structure.

The low end sits around 3 inches from the side of my house.
____________________
Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[pdg]

Personally, I would have put the strips of felt across the 6' so the joins all point toward the house. The joins should overlap in the direction of the prevailing wind (less chance of any lifting due to said wind) and then I would batten along those joins.

From your description, I think I have it right that your joins run along the long way (3 strips along the 12' length). Did you start on the low side, putting the next bit of felt over the top of the lower one? If you started at the high side, water will very easily get under the next sheet....

EPDM, as said, is an excellent solution even if it is a bit more expensive than felt.

BTW, if you think £90 is a bit expensive, don't even bother phoning a roofer..... Around here, I would be surprised to see change from £300 for a bit of roof that size.
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Any and all advice given should not be followed - if you have to ask it means you don't know so get a man in to do it for you.

[totalllama82]

[Chuffin Nora]

[mentalboy]

[Pete.]

Was the felt folded or in a roll? If it was folded and had something stacked on it there's the chance it might be split along the fold.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[totalllama82]

[-]

[totalllama82]

Seems like the EPDM might be the way forward. I'm going to try and have a chat with a roofer to see what they'd take to do a professional job.

It's now got about 3" of snow on the roof and there is a constant trickle of water coming down and into the floor. I'm doing my best to mop up the puddles and have buckets under the worst bits. I need to get it sorted soon though
____________________
Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[-]

[totalllama82]

Looks like the EPDM is the way forward. It's around £102 for my 12x6 shed for the kit.

In the mean time, I've bought a massive tarpaulin which I plan to attach semi-permanently to the roof until the weather gets better. I tried to put it on today single handed but the wind was whipping up and the rain lashing. Not a chance!
____________________
Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[spriddler]

I had exactly the same problem after very carefully refelting my 12' long x 8' wide apex shed with top quality felt, oodles of ruberoid gloop between the joins and with the edges well wrapped over the lower edge of the roof..
Eventually discovered that it only leaked in rain AND high winds and that the wet was blowing in between the roof and the side.
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1954 Matchless 350. 1947 AJS 500. 2012 Kawasaki ER6, 2014 Honda CBF 125 (aka The Grudge Special') 1926 ATCO motor mower, Motorhome, People carrier....and vintage bicycle.

[bikenut]

god is good at ripping off the felt isn't he/she!!

mine has had rounded "ends" or "bottoms" fitted so the felt doesn't crack etc due to the std right angle bend........

the inner structure of the roof panels have been reinforced where the run of the cloat nails would normally be, so im nailing into a thicker thickness rather than the thin roof panel timber.........

also the felt is running vertically rather than horizontally, across the roof from side to side rather than from end to end, and the joints a capped with 2x1 screwed into the internal reinforcement timbers etc........the felt has been laid so the joint is wind proof ( wind blows over the joint rather than underneath the joint ) as the prevailing wind is southwesterly ( asof all the uk ) ........overkill perhaps but im fed up of having to replace the bloody felt all the time.

if I could afford the solid recycled thick plastic sheets I would.

pent roof next to the house?? make gap and cover that as well for an extra storage area.
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nuts about bikes

[totalllama82]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I've now strapped down a massive tarpaulin over the whole roof and secured at the 4 sides. Although we haven't had much rain (it's now snow!) the water leaks appear to have dried up.

I've been running a fan heater in there for a few hours at a time which seems to be helping a little. It's probably not powerful enough though.
____________________
Gone: Haotian HT125-8 / Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat / Kawasaki ZX9R C2
Current: Kawasaki ZZR 1400 A7F

[mentalboy]

[totalllama82]