In my experience, if there is a large volume of water entry, then it is a broken roof tile. This is a simple roofing repair job. Just replace the cracked roof tile. If there is only a drip and it happens only during persistent long duration rain, then it is quite likely to be a ridge capping issue.
There are various reasons why water leaks happen at the main (horizontal) ridge. The most common is the ingress of water through cracks in the bedding or pointing that support the ridge caps. It is not the water getting in that is the problem. This is why weep holes are needed under along the main ridge.
There are a lot of tiled roofs in Sydney’s western and southern suburbs that have badly cracked bedding (and lots of water ingress) at the main ridge and they don’t leak!
As shown in the video below, the problem is water that gets in and cannot get out. This is the reasons why painting a roof can cause new roof leaks at the ridge caps. Fancy having to repair leaks on new tile roofs!
A proper repair of the main ridge involves the removal of the ridge capping and the old bedding. Then fresh bedding is laid to support the ridge capping. It is important to install weep holes on the bedding.
Then the ridge capping is re-pointed with a flexible pointing to bind the ridge caps to the tiles. The weep holes should be re-instated through the pointing.
This is what a proper roof repair should be like
Hi Jack,
My tiled roof was painted and supposedly restored correctly in OCT 2019. Last APR I had a leak come through my ceiling due to the prolonged rain over Easter.
There was a crack detected by the insurance assessor however another roofing contractor told me that my roof does not have ‘weep holes’ (i.e. along the main horizontal ridge). They obviously didn’t do this when they lay down the fresh bedding during the restore.
What is the way around this to prevent future water leaks? Cheers
Hi Eric,
To prevent future leaks, the main ridge should be weep holed.
Sometimes, ‘drilling’ weep holes into the existing bedding can be successful.
Otherwise, it is back to square one. The ridges have to be removed and re-laid on fresh bedding with weep holes.
This is the main reason why I cringe every time I see a painted roof.
Jack