"I'm Fixing A Hole Where The Rain Gets In..."

After multiple attempts at fixing a leak over the bathroom area, I think this last time finally did the trick ("Knock On Wood!"). A week or so ago I got up on my roof and worked on the area over the bathroom for what was probably the forth time since I've lived here in this house I bought going on 5 years ago. But this time, instead of merely throwing more tar on it, I went into the attic first and surveyed the area where water kept coming in.

I can't get access directly to the bathroom area because that ceiling's been dropped over the years and the openings were much too small to get into. However, "someone at some time" had put three pans in the area to catch leaking water. How they got them in that area had always been a mystery to me and they were where I couldn't reach them. Each of the three pans were at least half full of water.

So...I looked around this whole area and notice there was a considerable "hole" between where the roof and the walls met at the top in one space. That got me to thinking that perhaps the leaking was mostly caused by water being blown IN from the wind, rather than a leak on the roof itself.

So up on the roof I go (again), but this time armed with a dozen or so plastic grocery bags (who says you can't recycle them?), some small pieces of wood and my bucket of tar.

I stuffed the spaces full of these bags, then put the wood around and into them, then heavily tarred over it all again. Since that time we've had two hard rains and no leaks.

Then I had the job of once again repairing the water-stained areas of paneling in the bathroom ceiling, so I went and purchased twelve more of those 12" panels. That was the job I did this morning. And, while taking down those panels, I happened to notice that I could actually see those pans with water in them above me! Finally, the "mystery" of how the previous owners of the house had gotten them into that area: they removed the paneling themselves, along with a few pieces of old wood and placed them there, then laid more wood under them for support. So, while I was at it, I had my wife hold a bucket under me while I tilted two of the pans and drained them of water (drenching us a bit, but the job was accomplished). There's still a third pan I couldn't get to, but at least, two of the three are drained. And I left them up there "just in case" there's still a leak. Then I replaced the panels and cleaned up the bathroom from all of the old debris and the ceiling was once again "fixed".

A good project on this, a snowy & cold day here in South-Central, KY. while I had the weekend off from work