Keeping a SOUND ROOF

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Get your flashlight and trace the leak story to story, from drip to source on the roof. Water seldom moves straight down through a building. It will flow down sloping beams for many feet. It will flatten and move sideways up to 2" by capillary action - and do so repeatedly in its course downward. Look for dark spots in walls and glinty wet spots in a dark attic. Look especially carefully at the ridge peak, at the inside junctions of roof eaves and attic floor, and around chimneys and plumbing vents.

With the leak source located, your alternatives are to call in a roofer or try doing a patch yourself.

ROOFERS

No roofing contractor is going to stay in business for long by overcharging or doing shoddy work, but they all suffer from the tricks of a few itinerant or "gypsy" roofers. Then there's the occasional kid who thinks he's learned it all in a year or two of apprenticing and promises or tackles jobs that are over his head.

Worst are the gypsies. Decades ago, they used to arrive in small country towns with a hot-top tanker truck loaded with a mix of cheap asphalt and used motor oil. They targeted older homes with curled-shingle roofs and dirt drives. The ladders went up and the goop was sprayed on in short order. The perpetrators had cash in hand and were hightailing it to the next county before the black ooze began dripping off the roof or sticking to the dog's paws or homeowner's shoes - a mess which left the roof unfixed and the interior carpets ruined forever.

I haven't seen a gypsy hot-topper since the '70s. Their modern counterparts, having read of local storm damage, arrive in flashy new pickup trucks. They dress and speak well and convincingly and will try to sell you a whole new roof - "Doing it all now will save you money down the road." They may offer a low price or claim they want to use your roof as a "demonstration project." Their tales of what an unre paired leak can do to your home will top your worst nightmares.

DO IT YOURSELF?

Never hire a roofing contractor who lacks a good-size office/storeroom, a major display ad in the Yellow Pages and most important-excellent recommendations from your neighbors (take the time to canvass the neighborhood). Expect to pay $130 a "square" - a 10' x 10' area of installed roofing - and specify fiberglass-asphalt shingles from a recognizable firm such as Certain-Teed or Owens-Corning. Stone, sawn-wood-shingle or split-shake roofs cost more, and slates will run you $500 and up per square.

Before you head to the roof, be honest with yourself: Are you comfortable on high ladders? How about getting from ladder to roof and vice versa? Feel confident running the roof ridge with a 75-pound bundle of shingles on your shoulder? If your answers are yes, frankly, you are in the minority. Most of us are naturally afraid of roof heights and unprepared for the summer temperatures of any roof. No roofing-inexperienced homeowner should climb out onto a second-story roof or any roof with a sharp slope. And never do high ladder work or roof work alone; have someone around to call the ambulance should you fall.

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