Is Roof Caulking Right For All Types Of Roof Repairs?

“What is roof caulking?” a friend asked me recently after seeing a picture on the Internet. He had seen pictures of leaky roof trusses in his own backyard. The question was whether or not the damage could be fixed by a roofing contractor. My answer?

“Yes! We are the preferred roofing contractor in Moriches, Long Island, New York. From small roof caulking jobs to large scale projects, we can help with any task that involves opening up the roof to avoid leaks and cracks. From repairing cracks to laying new insulation, we can do it all. From repairing weak spots in your shingles to laying the replacement shingles over the existing ones, we can do it all. If you need to repair any crack or leaky spot on your roof, call us for a free quote.”

So what is roof caulking? I had been browsing a picture of one of our newer roofing projects when I read that they were doing a small caulking job around an attic vent. I can’t imagine what they used but some kind of foam or rubber caulking. This intrigued me and I began to do some research. In addition to the question of what is roof caulking?, I also wondered if this would be a good time to apply the roofing caulking.

The area I chose to check out needed some basic repairs and a few more filling gaps. It wasn’t a major problem but it was just one of those things that always happens. My husband suggested we call a roofing contractor because it was bothering him that we had to do this on a weekend. We never did get an explanation as to what the problem was, but by doing some research, we found it may have been due to improper roof caulking.

For starters, we learned that the material used to caulk a roof isn’t all-natural and it’s not designed to crack or mold in any way. Even if it was, we probably would have used a different type of roofing caulking and not used the roofing silicone we used. We ended up using a roofing spray to fill in the cracks and holes.

This did a lot to make our repair job go faster and went on very nicely. We found that by adding some extra roof coating to the roof, we could greatly reduce the time it took to seal the entire roof, especially around chimneys. We also found that roof caulking doesn’t always seal all of the cracks in the roofing, so we applied a water based silicone caulk around all of the major cracks and water filled up the cracks with silicone after it dried to make them much stronger and waterproof.

So, is roofing caulking right for all types of roof repairs? Of course, we know now that the roof needs to be sealed and caulked just like any other type of roofing repair. But, if you don’t mind a little extra work and the caulking costs less than having to replace the roof, then this may be a good option for you.

Keep in mind that this shouldn’t be done on your own, unless you have some experience with roofing. Do your homework and find a reputable roofing contractor in your area. If you find one who doesn’t mind doing a roofing project this is great, but don’t let them save you money! Make sure you can trust your roofing contractor and that you understand what they are doing before you pay anyone to do it.