Time to give your roof a raise !

Concrete tile is a very popular roof covering in Arizona. I am sure that comes at no surprise to you. Yes, tile is a pretty good roof covering material. It last for 50 something years, and I think it looks very nice. Very southwestern.

While the tile itself might last nearly a life time, the base sheet under it is another story. Most of the tile roofs in Arizona consist of a mechanically fastened, saturated asphalt base sheet, 1X2 wood "batons", and various flashings. The batons are nailed directly to the deck, each one up to 4' long with a 2'' gap between them. The theory is that shorter "batons" with a 2" gap will allow water to flow down the roof.

Oh you didn't know that water gets under the tile? Depending on the volume of rain, the wind, how fast the rain is coming down and so on. Your tile can let quite a bit of water in. At some point in time, with the roof system that I just described you are going to get a leak.

Most tile roof leaks are in the same places. With in the first three minutes of a phone conversation, I already have a pretty good idea were the leak is. And not to brag, well may be a little, I can drive in any neighborhood and point out leaks with out even getting out of my truck.

Why is that? Well its not because I have some kind of super power. It's because these roofs almost always installed the same way. To the very minimum standards allowed by the law of Arizona. (Arizona workmanship standards can be found at www.azroc.gov) Being installed almost identically, they share identical problems.

One of the problems they all share, is that the batons are nailed to the roof with no space between the baton and the base sheet materials. Compounding that problem, the base sheet material is not all that great to begin with.

What happens is that debris ends up collecting along the batons, creating small "damns" all over your roof. The water then back up the roof, or sits there. Either way it's slowly deteriorating the base sheet. Until inevitably your roof will  develop a leak.

How do we solve the problem? That's EASY  ... we raise the batons. Yes, that's it, get some space between the batons and the base sheet. It wouldn't hurt to up grade your base sheet as well. There are some very good products on the market.

The picture at the top of this articles shows one way we can raise batons on a tile roof. There are several ways that it can be done, the one you choose to use is up to you. What is important is that your roof is designed in way that allows water to flow down and off your roof as quickly as possible.

Thinking of getting a new roof? I provide an inspection and specifications services. Let me design your roof for you, and when you go out to find roofers (which I can help with too) they will all know exactly what to do. Its time to give your roof a raise. Its time to give me a call.

Henry Staggs

Roof Consultant, Certified Roof Inspector

(480) 265-1613