please give me your input

i am trying to stop a leak on a grvel roof. i already stripped the roof to the decking,saw the water and kept going untill it was dry. i then put fiberglass base and granulated torchdown to the area and then cemented around the perimetr. in a light rain it doesnt leak, but when it pours it is still leaking a little. ive been trying to fix this leak twice. my next step is to spud bac 3 feet around patch and put fibered emulsion around the whole thing! is that the right move? what would you do?

Spud back two feet around the patch, mop on three ply glass, feathering each edge, and gravel it in.

---Done this many times...We seldom tear down to the deck. We spud the gravel for a smooth surface to torch to. We never use granulated as the granules make it harder to seal. Then we torch to the clean spudded area. Pay special attention to protrusions. Depending on the configuration we may torch all the way to the ridge just to make sure we cover the leak. If the leak is in the gutter then we don't go too far from the gutter as that is pretty specific. ---Most such leaks are fairly visable once the gravel is removed. And you can torch a 10x10 area if you have to fairly simply. We use no mastic, tar or sealant at all. Torching to the old roof if it is clean will be watertight. ---We have done dead flat commercial roofs 20sq at a time. At the end of the day we torch our last sheet to the old roof. If we get shut down by bad weather the roof is tight. We pick up again at the seam and do another 20 sq. We have come back several days later to standing water but no leaks. Get out the squeegees & shop vac and then tear off another section. ---You are still leaking because there is another leak or your seal is no good. Emulsion & tar will just make a big mess. Not only that is is hard to torch to. When you seal to the old roof make your seal 12 inches minimum. Even more is better. That is why we do not remove any of the old roof. It is great to torch to. Lanny

I like what Lanny said.

Some questions: What kind of decking? How close to a wall? What kind of wall? Any pictures? My first thought is that it's traveling. Or you didn't go far enough.. How else could you have missed it with what you have already done?

Check your end laps on your granulated to make sure have a good seal,if its a steal deck it could run 30 or more feet easily.If this is a permanent patch you will need to mastic and membrane the perimeter.About a year or so down the road the torch seal will start separating from the tar,seen it to many times before.I dont see no mention of membrane in your post,so i presume you used none in your tie in?

Emulsion won't "make a big mess," nor is it likely to solve your leak by itself. Emulsion sets up very quickly and then can be walked on with no tackiness, especially if you buy the 5 gal buckets available at your supplier or big box.

I'd probe-check your seams first, and the perimeter. If you aren't sure about both, and still want to use a liquid to repair it, you could:

Option #1. Use a fibered cutback asphalt or fibered cutback aluminum found at your supplier or big box (NOT lap cement!!!). Seal the whole patch and 6" onto old roof surface at about 8 gallons/SQR.

Option #2. Apply 4 gal/SQR of emulsion with a kitchen broom, roll in Tie Tex T-272 poly fabric found at supplier, then coat off with 8 gallons/SQR of emulsion.

The reason for poly in Option #2 but not #1 is because cutback tends to be a little more flexible than emulsion. however, the cutback remains sticky for several days, and longer in hot weather.

Good Grief, Emulsion, mastic, three ply glass, fibered custback aluminum, what ever the hell that is.......... No roofer pours emulsion/cold process on a leak area, that's jacklegge bullshit from someone who has no clue of the correct procedure for leaks on a gravel roof- it's no more than a hail Mary and if it misses then you gotta whole 'nother mess to work out. Keep spuddin' and TORCHING like youv'e been doing and as lanny says eventually you'll find the pourous area and kill the leak. You are doing the right thing you just ain't gone far enough. Good luck.

Now, now. Be nice. I'm not too pusillanimous to extract my three-ply glass from that list. The top of the line is always to make whole, like to like, and to leave it looking like there is no patch.

Jed Said: Good Grief, Emulsion, mastic, three ply glass, fibered custback aluminum, what ever the hell that is.......... No roofer pours emulsion/cold process on a leak area, thats jacklegge bullshit from someone who has no clue of the correct procedure for leaks on a gravel roof- its no more than a hail Mary and if it misses then you gotta whole nother mess to work out. Keep spuddin and TORCHING like youve been doing and as lanny says eventually youll find the pourous area and kill the leak. You are doing the right thing you just aint gone far enough. Good luck.

Jed, pay attention or just stay out of it. Did you miss the part where I said: "...nor is it likely to solve your leak by itself"??? You have a problem with me, tough! But don't drag your crappy attitude into every topic.

Emulsion is used every day to solve leaks. It's one of the few materials which can let trapped moisture escape. You obviously have no clue as to its characteristics or you wouldn't have said it's not a good repair material. Personally, I think spudding to solve a leak is risky - you expose yourself to 10 potential new leaks in search of 1. Plenty of material will seal unspudded gravel.

The fact that you don't know what fibered cutback asphalt is, is something that should embarass you. How long have you been involved in commercial roofing anyway? Are you one of those guys who is an infallable expert after only 10 years?

But more importantly, why don't you drop the 6th grader attitude and try to move on with your life rather than trying to hyjack every single thread in a gooberish attempt to make me look bad? I think this forum could use a break from this crap!!!! Better yet, why not stop being such a sissy and make private posts or e-mail to you possible - that way you and I can have our knock down and dragout away from the audience you seem to crave. I'm sure the other group members would appreciate that...

egg Said: Now, now. Be nice. Im not too pusillanimous to extract my three-ply glass from that list. The top of the line is always to make whole, like to like, and to leave it looking like there is no patch.

I agree with most of that. We try to leave a "patch" looking presentable, but we don't put gravel back into it until we know for sure the leak is solved...no sense making future repairs that much harder.

My experiece is that commercial roof owners don't much care what they look like, nearly as much as that they're watertight. Get it watertight then come back and make it pretty 3 months from now when you know you got the leak solved.

Why would I want a "knock down drag out" with you"? Yer a nasty little shitheel as was proven last year on NRG and here, and having scampered of with yer balls in yer pocket you are now only back to tout what ever new tinpot "invention" you are unveiling in Vegas. Don't assume that everyone suffers from the same lack of intelligence as you. BTW, not to many will have missed the edit of the S from Custback in your original post. Just backs up what a nasty little piece of work you really are. Unhappy with your life? Look in the mirror.

Delete-d.

I would remove loose gravel at the perimeter 12" out,and fully prime those areas,use a smooth torchdown leaving 6" of primed area at the perimeter of the repair,then lay rubberized flashing grade cement 6" on the new edge,and 6" onto the primed perimeter,lay 12 " membrane,and then a heavy coat of the rubberized flashing cement.

---I can see there are many ways to approach this as others have their own system. ---I never use tar, sealant, emulsion, etc etc. Why? Because I don't always know where to put it. The beauty of just spudding and torching is that I can cover a large area (shot gun approach) easily, quickly, with little detail & fanfare. We can spud an area 10x10 in less time than it took to drive there. Then torching is fast also and we trowel the edges to be sure they are tight. ---I do not believe spudding gravel will hurt the original roof and if it does we will have torched over it before we leave anyway. ---If the roof you are working on is dead flat then you especially need to seal a large area. Lanny

Big issue to me is priming the perimeter for good adhesion ,To me Ifeel safer with that on a repair where I`m not doing the entire area,just torching down to a surface not primed wouldd at the very least require it to be thoroughly cleaned,which doesn`t always work out. Doing the hot tar 3 ply repair ,I would still want the perimeter,I`m ending my work on to be primed beforehand.

And yeah I wouldn`t have a problem with spudding the perimeter prior to installing the primer

---While I am not against priming I see no need to do it on this kind of repair. When torching down the membrane I am also heating up the old roof and bringing the original asphalt up to the surface. The old roof liquifies right as the torchdown is rolled over it creating what I consider to be the greatest adhesion you could ever get and much more than any primer would provide. Lanny