So I need to do a few little roof repairs to tide me over. I really DO NOT want to start selectively removing shingles, etc. That will just be a bigger mess.

Which type of roof patching material would y'all recommend?

I've got a leaking valley, a leaking ridge, some torn shingles from Thursday's storm, and some leaks at vents. --207.69.137.23

You could either roll out tar paper and nail all the way through and put some 2x's on the edges or you could simply put some heavy plastic and be sure to lay/fasten something heavey on all the edges. If you have and extremely pitched roof you would need to run the stuff from one side to the other.

Good luck --66.76.130.112

On the vents, roofing cement should work.

A piece of ridge vent might fix the ridge.

The difficulty in roofing repair is locating the precise source of the leak. In almost every case, roofing cement could fix the problem if the source is found. --67.31.136.238

There is no Jury that would find you guilty under these conditions.

My bet would be that these clowns will not get in your face.

PUT YOUR ROOF ON, to hell with that crap!!

Take lots of photos before you start any work, and have the news media there on your beginning roof work day (solid evidence) --152.163.252.193

Need a permit for any work or repairs over $1k. New roof meets this requirement. As part of reroof, I want to replace a shed roof on the side of the house that covers a 50 year old addition with a gable.

In order to get a permit to do any work, first they verify your property. I bought it in 1994. Long story with an alley behind my house I did not own, and the city claimed was part of my property. Could not start the permit application process until my lot matched their lot of record, or until I got their lot of record fixed. I acquired the alley in December, so planning will now sign off on the application.

House was built in 1925, when setbacks were only 4'; now they are 7'. So I have what is called existing nonconforming and to do any work on that part, I have to get a variance.

To get a variance, I post a notice, and get all owners within a 400' radius to sign off that they agree with what I want to do in the 3' in question or sign that they disagree, or prove I made 3 attempts to contact them. Once I have that I can get on the neighborhood meeting agenda if I ask at least 3 weeks before the meeting.

Then I present to a neighborhood association meeting, that is held monthly. They make a recommendation, taking the signatures of the 400' radius neighbors (or lack thereof) into consideration.

Then I get on the next NPU (Neighborhood Planning Unit) agenda (another monthly meeting), and present to the NPU. Each NPU is made up of 10-12 neighborhoods, and there are about 20 NPU's in the city. The NPU votes, taking the neighborhood association vote into consideration.

Then I get on the Urban Planning Committee agenda. They take the NPU vote into consideration. Usually they will refer it to another committee for administrative recommendation at the next meeting, so this step takes 2 months.

If I get all the approvals to get the variance, then I can submit the design for Urban Design Commission approval and if I get that I can submit for a permit.

If anything "material" changes in the process, I go back to step 1.

I expect this process to go rather smoothly, since part of my responsibility with my day job is to get these approvals, so I am far more familiar with the process than most and the staff at the city knows me and is willing to help. This is the other reason I would not go ahead without a permit or call the media - I could lose my day job for pulling a stunt like that.

Also, I know I should have started this process a year ago when I knew I would need a roof soon. It's my fault for putting it off to the point that I got a leak, and then I got 4 in a week.

You might be interested to know in my area, builders building more than 30-40 houses/year have a full time staff person to do nothing but pull permits and obtain approvals. Others hire professional expediters, who for a house with no variances will charge $1,500 to get your documents through the building permit process. Variances and the cost goes up.

Now, back to my questions - seems like the answer is I am to use roofing cement. I did that today. I did not use the fiberglass mesh with it. I hope it will work ok without the mesh. --207.69.93.213