Sometimes you fix a roof and it still leaks like a colander. Had one customer swear they heard dripping behind their walls months after a new install. Spoiler: they weren’t wrong. Dormer saddles. The sneaky weasel of roof junctions. No one talks about ‘em because they’re tired of explaining the thing twelve times to stone-faced homeowners staring at their phones. But that saddle—wedge of roof where dormer meets main slope? If water’s getting in, odds are it’s through there or two feet near it.
The Soffit’s Not Smiling, That’s Rot
So, first, you get up there. Not in flip-flops, genius. And for once, don’t trust the caulk. That white bead from 8 years ago is looser than a popped balloon. People put faith in caulk like it’s space-age. Ain’t. You got layers, like flaky pastry, only the stakes are drywall and mold instead of breakfast. If you see black goo where flashing should be, you’re looking at somebody’s weekend shortcut.
Flashing should lap under the dormer siding and OVER the step flashing. Don’t reverse that unless you want mushrooms in the attic. Seen it. They grew.
Chimneys Get All the Blame, But Dormers Do Damage Too
Anyway… people always talk about flashing chimneys like that’s the hard part. Pfft. Try matching the saddle flashing to both the slope and the vertical dormer wall with shingles that won’t lie down flat because someone used three layers of felt paper like letterhead. Then talk hard. It’s surgery with roof knives. Like making origami out of sheet metal while bees yell at you.
Also, tar is not a philosophy. I mean unless your philosophy is “sticky regret weeps through drywall three months later.” Tar ages worse than boy bands.
Crickets: The Good, the Bad, the Lumpy
Now here’s where terminology gets lazy. Some folks call that saddle above the dormer a “cricket.” But the term is so jumbled now, you might as well call it Steve. Whether it’s cricket or saddle, if it’s not angled right, you’re funneling water straight to your frustration. I saw one today. They’d built the cricket flat. Like, casual horizontal. That’s not a cricket, that’s a nap.
If your cricket can’t guide water off the roof like it’s catching a train, it’s wasted wood and bad math.
Checking for Leaks? Pray for Wind and Stand Back
Testing’s not high-tech. Sometimes it’s two guys, one with a hose on the roof and the other shouting “STILL DRIPPING!” from inside the attic. There was a method involving vapor barriers and heat sensors. Too clean. We prefer the scream method. Holistic, loud, occasionally damaging.
That said, sometimes it’s not the saddle. It’s the siding butting in like a nosy aunt. If the dormer sidewall flashing is behind clapboards that warp in sun like lasagna noodles, jokes on you. It’ll trickle for years and dry up on inspection day.
To fix a roof leak, you have to find its source. Unfortunately, finding the roof leak is not always as straightforward as you may imagine. If you have water dripping from your ceiling, the source of the leak may be directly above the water, or it may be several feet away.
As water moves through your roof and the layers of your attic, it may not flow directly down. In fact, water typically creates a puddle on your attic floor until it finds some way to escape, such as a soffit vent or a light fixture. It’ll pop out where it can, not necessarily directly beneath where it drips through the roof.
https://www.iko.com/blog/how-to-find-roof-leaks/
Materials That Don’t Laugh in Your Face
Use copper if you can afford it and don’t mind feeling like a medieval roofer. Or kickout flashing—janky name but solid work. If water’s rushing down that dormer wall and slipping behind the gutter, it’s mutiny. Kickout flashing tells it to go home.
Then there’s peel-and-stick. Not perfect—has the shelf life of a banana in August if left exposed—but beneath shingles it’s like insurance for careless hammering.
The Part Nobody Likes: Tearing That Stuff Up
Fixing a botched dormer saddle means pulling shingles. That sound? It’s your weekend plans unraveling. The shingles, if they’re old, crack like burnt toast. You pull off siding, peel dry rot, find wasp nests, and suddenly you’re in home maintenance Jumanji.
Every layer has a lie underneath. Felt paper that’s been eaten by time. Staples where nails should be. Sometimes I sit there and read each past repair like forensic roofing. You can see the history of mistakes. One guy used duct tape. I swear.
Roofing shingles are arguably the most important building materials used to protect your home from the elements. Designed for installation in an overlapping pattern of rows, they shed water in the direction of a roof slope to keep a home dry. Roofing shingles come in a variety of shapes, colors, and materials. Since a roof is highly-visible, you will want shingles that reflect your aesthetic and design preferences. However, you also need to take into consideration factors like price, utility, longevity, and region-specific performance needs (like algae protection in humid areas). These factors make choosing the best roofing shingles more complex than just picking a nice design and color. While your options may seem overwhelming, this page will help you evaluate different shingle types and develop a set of criteria to choose the right product for your roof.
https://www.certainteed.com/how-choose-right-type-roofing-shingles
Summing Up is for People Who’ve Finished
If you’re looking for closure, this ain’t your article. Because dormer leaks don’t give you closure. You patch one, another starts five feet away because some bright light thought foam insulation was waterproof. It’s not. It’s a sponge in denial.
Anyway, don’t trust flashing that doesn’t shine. Don’t let siding touch metal without a plan. And for the love of all soggy things, stop blaming the shingles when the real villain’s whispering behind your dormer.
Yeah, patch it. Then check again in the rain. Preferably with a bucket nearby.
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