The Honest Courtesan

The other major task I have to get done this summer, other than the chimney installation, is application of a Durabak coating to areas of the roof which have exhibited small but persistent leaks.  Both of them are around areas where I’ve joined new roof sections to old, namely the western leaf of the atrium roof to the original house roof, and the awning roof to the shop roof.  I used roof patch material to seal the former join, but for some reason water still comes through during heavy rain; I want to try to close that off for good.  The latter actually has less to do with the join itself and more to do with the fact that the previous owners used substandard metal sheets for the shop roof; while I can walk on the atrium roof without causing problems, the shop roof slightly buckles every time it has to bear human weight.  The result is that every time we’ve applied waterproofing material to the roof, the application process itself has damaged what we were trying to fix!  I managed to seal up most of the problems last year, but there are still a few pinhole drips, so I’m going to cover the whole problem area with Durabak.  While I’m at it, I also need to do the ramps because they get dangerously-slick in the rainy season, and none of the solutions we’ve tried have proven satisfactory.  Of course, the already-pricey material has been just as affected by inflation as everything else, so although it still won’t cost as much as either the stovepipe or the bathroom and shower, it’s still up in the high triple-digits; if you’ve been planning to send a little financial support my way, now would probably be an especially good time.  And barring issues, I should have pictures of my leak-free roof and skid-resistant ramps in the next month or so.