Where does flashing leak first on a Hartford-area roof?
Usually at the chimney, at a dormer or wall joint, in a valley or around a plumbing vent. Those are the places where the roof has to be sealed against something that is not roofing, and where metal, mortar and shingle all move at different rates through the seasons.
Older Greater Hartford houses are full of those joints. West Hartford's early twentieth-century Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival houses, for example, have steep gables, dormers, chimneys and valleys, and every one of them depends on flashing staying tight. A roofer looking at a roof like that is often tracing a leak through three or four candidate joints before settling on one.
Hartford's own housing leans toward duplexes, converted homes and small apartment buildings, with a reported median year built of 1931. Frog Hollow was built out with three- and six-family houses for factory workers, so a single building can have a chimney, a porch roof and several wall joints close together. The more joints, the more places a leak can start.
Can I just seal a flashing leak with roof cement or caulk?
It can slow a leak for a season, but it rarely cures one. Sealant is a patch on top of the roof, while flashing works by lapping so gravity carries water over the joint. Thick layers of old roof cement also hide the real failure and make a proper repair harder.
Roof cement dries, shrinks and cracks as it goes through freeze and thaw, and the crack tends to open exactly where you smeared it. A roofer who finds three coats of black patch around a chimney has to scrape that off before seeing what the metal underneath is doing.
If you need to get through a rainy week, a tarp placed by a roofer is more sensible than climbing a wet or snowy roof yourself. The repair that lasts is metal lapped in the right order.
- Sealant is a good finishing step on a joint that is already shingled and flashed correctly
- Sealant alone over rusted, lifted or missing metal is a short-term patch
- Layers of old patching should be photographed and removed before new metal goes in
How do ice dams make flashing leaks worse?
Ice dams back meltwater up under the shingles at the eaves and along roof-to-wall joints. Flashing is designed to shed water that runs down a roof, not water that is forced uphill, so a small gap that never leaks in rain can let a surprising amount in during a thaw.
Heat escaping from the house melts snow on the roof, and the water refreezes where the roof is cold. Where a lower roof meets a wall, the ice can build against the metal and lift water above it. That is one reason a flashing leak that only appears in February is often a sign to look at the attic as well as the roof.
The ice dam removal page covers the ice itself and the attic page covers why it forms. A roofer who only reseals the flashing without asking about the attic may be fixing the symptom.
Does a flashing repair need a building permit in Connecticut?
Usually not. Connecticut guidance indicates a full re-roof needs a building permit under the 2022 State Building Code, while minor repairs, such as replacing a few shingles, typically do not. Rules differ by town, so ask your town building office before work starts.
A flashing repair that stays inside the existing roof is normally treated as a repair. Flashing replaced during a full re-roof falls under the permit for the re-roof, and the roofer who pulls it will usually say so in the quote. The roof replacement page covers that side of the job.
If the work touches a chimney's structure or changes the shape of a roof, ask the town. Do not rely on a general rule when the town building office can answer in a minute.
