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Flat roofs receive a lot of bad press. While they are cheaper to build, if you don’t maintain them, they will haunt you.

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Here are some common problems that can lead to flat roof leaks.

 

Ponding: Unlike pitched roofs, flat roofs don’t have perfect drainage of rainwater. Without perfect drainage, rainwater will sit on the roof. This is known as ponding. Allowing water to pond on your flat roof will reduce its life span. Water will creep into small cracks, joints, and marks on your flat roof. In cold weather water freezes and overtime expands these cracks and marks.

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Blocked Drains: It is essential to remove debris such as moss, dirt, weeds, non-organic waste etc. from your roof. Failure to remove this debris can clog and block your drain trapping rainwater on your flat roof. The free flowing of drains removes water from the roof and helps prevent ponding.

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Alligatoring: On older, unprotected flat roofs sunlight and UV rays cause cracking along the surface of the roofing felt. Overtime, these cracks increase in size and allow the roofing felt to become porous. Failure to protect or waterproof your roof will eventually require you to re-roof the property. 

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Blisters: Blisters are bubbles or bulges in the roofing felt. They are caused with air or moisture is trapped. When the moisture is heated it expands. As a result, the size of the blister increases and stretches the roofing felt.

In some cases, it is recommended to leave small blisters alone. However, if the blisters are large and are close to a joint then they must be attended to. If a roof blister pops or opens a roofing felt joint, it can cause a major roof leak.

 

Our Solution:

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We strongly advise using a liquid waterproofing system to repair roof leaks and damage and also to extend the lifetime of your flat roof.

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At Doyle Systems, we offer liquid waterproofing products suitable for the repair and rejuvenation of flat roofs.

 

Our Recommendation