Q&A – Solving a rooftop mystery

When water began leaking into a neighbor’s home, this Philadelphia homeowner discovered an odd-looking coating and asked our experts to help solve it. 

David from Philadelphia found an interesting mystery in their roofing system, asking: 

Trying to understand what this material is ..... multiple fine cracks everywhere and previous owner said EDPM but doesn't look like it. Perhaps it's a coating they put on top? Either way, there was some water leaking in my upstairs neighbors' closet. 

Our roofing experts, Greg Serevetas and Olief Lecky from USA General Contractors Corp, had this to say in response:  

That is not EPDM membrane on the roof, from the picture zoomed in you can see the size of the material from the lap seams but more importantly see the slag that I circled in the photo. So not sure by the picture exactly where the leak is but a good repair option for you would be to buy SBS cap sheet, asphalt primer and cold application. Apply the primer direct to the aluminum coating then install the cap sheet as an overlay with cold app as your adhesive. Cut out for your pipes and reflash them with roof cement (Karnak) and fabric then flash the perimeter of your overlay with fabric and roof cement. 

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