Finding the source of a water leak in your Naples home
Finding the source of a water leak in your Naples home can be a monumental challenge.
Here in Naples Florida we have a sub tropical weather pattern. That means every year we have several months of torrential rains driven by high winds. During this rainy season we experience daily thunder storms. These wind driven rain storms create extreme conditions that may cause water intrusions into your Naples home that are unique to this area.
There are several problem areas that are common to a typical concrete block construction home with a hip roof here in Naples Florida.
The Naples Roof: Asphalt shingle roofing is held in place with roofing nails and adheres to the neighboring shingle with asphalt sealant. This sealant degrades over time with the intense sun and heat of Naples Florida. Hip roofs, though designed to resist lift in a hurricane situation, create more outside corners on the roof. These outside corners must be capped with cut shingles. This is a weak spot for water penetration. The high winds of a storm can lift a shingle and driving rain penetrates under the shingle to the roof sheathing below. Once water has penetrated to the plywood roof deck it may drip straight down or travel along a roof truss until an obstacle stops the flow and a drip occurs there. The drip penetrates the insulation in your Naples attic space and shows up a spot on your drywall ceiling. If the paper on the drywall or the paper backing on your insulation stays wet more than a few days mold growth can begin. The same process can occur with tile roofing but tiled roofs are more water penetration resistant.
Naples Roof Soffits and flashing: Extreme horizontal winds can drive rain through the roof soffits and into the attic space. Once into the Naples attic space water will wet insulation and the drywall that is your interior ceiling. Similarly lifting of the bottom course of shingles past the flashing will expose the roof sheathing to wetting.