Flat asphalt roofs are best repaired with fabric re-inforced waterproof coatings. (See photo at left.) The good news: Do the leaky section this way and you now have a permanent roofing membrane that can last the lifetime of your structure. Simply topcoat every 7 to 15 years using only a fraction of the original material. Repeat indefinately. Later, when the rest of the roof starts to leak, and your budget permits, you can do those sections also. They will all tie in together in together beautifully. Instead of wasting your money with temporary repairs, you are reroofing in increments you can afford.

LeakMaster was a leader in switching flat roofs from the dreaded old hot tar kettle to the "torch welded" membrane, commonly known as "Brai." Today, few roofs are torch welded because of insurance regulations. The movement has been towards "self adhered" membranes, also referred to as "peel and stick." Too bad, in my opinion, because the torched roofs worked well. The self adhered roofs have a tendency to unravel at the seams unless great pains are taken. It's safer to use them on roofs that have at least some kind of consistent slope, and don't have ponding water. Hopefully, as the adhesive technology improves this will become less an issue.

In any case, when either system leaks they can be fixed by rewelding the suspect seams. Or, we cover the seams with a fabric reinforced coating and re-granulate them to blend in with rest of the roof. Both ways work well.

Happily, most old metal roofs can be easily repaired and made to last the lifetime of the building. An exception would be when an old roof that is allowed to rust so badly that the rust is coming thru the underside of the roof. To prevent that from happening we do the following procedures:

1. Cover all rust holes with a thick asphalt membrane, such as Mulehide, Brai, or JM Modified Bitumen.
2. Caulk all exposed fasteners with a urethane caulking.
3. Seal all panel laps with a non woven polyester fabric and cover with Hawaiian SunGuard roof coating.
4. Spray the roof with a total of 3 to 4 gals. of Hawaiian SunGuard Cool Roof Ceramic Coating to preserve the panels. This also minimizes the expansion and contraction of the panels due to heating and cooling cycles of the sun and rain.
5. If the Owner wants an even longer Warranty, we add a top coat of our InfraRed Roof Coating which further reduces the heat and can add 5 years to the Manufacturer's Warranty when approved.

We took a lot of heat from our industry for suggesting that you could coat your shingles with a waterproof coating instead of tearing them off and replacing them with new shingles. Why not save your money and our valuable landfill.? We have done it for years with great success.

The secret is using 5 gals per 100 SF on most roofs. That way the shingle laps are firmly cemented down and will resist high wind blow off. Even better: have us put an aluminum termination along the roof's edge (see photo) to protect the vulnerable first row from blowing off.

How confident am I of our application? I did this on my attorneys' home in Kailua and she loves it. The ceramic based coating keeps her home cool (acting as a heat dump) even though she decided to tint it to a light brown. If you want a new shingle roof, we do that also.

Wood roofs have grown very expensive over the recent years, due to high material costs. The good news is that even when they are missing many shingles they can be brought back to life with an expert repair. You want to replace those missing shingles because underneath is a thin, black roofing felt that will be eaten up by the sun's UV if they are not covered up. Once the felt is burned thru, a leak will occur. Often, the "ridge" of the roof (at the very top) and the "hip shingles" (which come down the roof in a triangular fashion) will be blown off by high winds. To prevent that, we recommend nailing them all down with a stainless steel fastener that won't rust out over time. If you wish us to rejuvenate the roof with boiled linseed oil we will do that. However, it is a waste of money unless you do the repair work first.