Penetration Areas

Vent Pipes

Vent pipes are an easy place for water to enter the home. Especially, when the average home in North America, have 3 of these. How many you actually have is dictated to some degree by how many bathrooms, kitchen, laundry service areas or anything with running water or venting is needed.

A traditional vent pipe flashing and can work fine with a new roof. However, today with the technological changes that roofing manufacturers have made with their products, a properly installed asphalt architectural roof is warrantied for 50+ years and these traditional boots have a chance of failing in that time span. These boots are made of a neoprene rubber and plastic. The rubber can be affected by excessive weather conditions, such as dry rot or splitting can occur, as pictured here.

If the roof you are having installed will be on your forever home or the house is a legacy home, then an upgraded vent pipe boot makes sense. A Perma Boot, which is made of a heavy-duty polymer which comes with a lifetime no leak warranty. The point is, a vent pipe, along with wood stove exhausts, and any type of penetration through your roof is an area of leaking concern. These areas must be discussed and properly addressed during the installation of a roofing system.

Skylights

The technology in the glass, framing, flashing, and sealants used in skylights has come a long way in the last 10 years, including the Velux skylight. First off, anyone not using a Velux product may not have your best interests at heart. Velux has been the leader in skylights for decades and does a great job in making their product the best available product, while keeping them affordable. Many other brand skylights are still in roofs today and need replacing before or during a roof install. The rule of thumb is; if you are having a roof replaced and you have skylights that are older than 3 years, it makes sense to replace them.

This is an economy of scale determination. Even if you have a Velux skylight or another brand that is three years old and you are replacing the roof, the costs associated with having it done at the time of the roof makes sense. It may cost $600.00-$800.00 to have a (fixed) skylight replaced during a roof replacement, whereas, it may cost you $1,500.00-2,500.00 to have it done as a one-off repair.

When skylights fail, there is always a chance of major damage inside the home. Some of the signs to look for are, staining around the perimeter of the skylight itself, flashing that has begun to fail on the outside (a little more difficult to see from the ground) and the glass fogging up due to seal collapse between the two pieces of glass. Again, a skylight is a penetration through your roof and is a potential leaking spot.

We Know Roofs

Whether, you are looking at repairing an existing roof, or replacing a roof, there are plenty of questions to answer. Old Colony Roofing is here to provide credible and honest information – from a true expert.

The goal of these pages is to arm you with the pros and cons of a variety of roofing questions and answers.

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Roofing Repairs

The good news is, roofs can be repaired. The bad news is, there are reasons why this may not make sense. First, it is important to discuss common roofing failures and why these result in leaking. See below for a list of common roofing failures: