Valley Leak Repair on Tile Roofs

If you have a leak on a tile roof and nobody has yet worked out where it is coming from, the valley is the first place we look. More tile roof leaks in South Florida start in a valley than anywhere else on the roof, and the reason is simple: every valley is a funnel carrying water from two roof planes at once, and the only thing between that water and your ceiling is a strip of metal and the underlayment beneath it.

Tiles do not waterproof a valley. They cover it. The metal does the work.

Why Valleys Leak

• Debris damming. Oak and ficus litter, palm fronds and pine needles collect in the channel, water backs up behind the dam and rises above the lap in the metal
• Corroded valley metal. Older galvanized valleys rust through along the crease at the bottom of the channel, which is exactly where the water runs
• Tiles cut too close to the center. When the tile edges crowd the channel, there is not enough open width to carry a South Florida downpour
• Failed underlayment laps. If the underlayment was not correctly lapped into the valley, water that gets under the metal has a path straight to the deck
• Mortar and debris from other work. Fragments from a ridge repair or a tile replacement upslope wash down and lodge in the valley
• Fasteners through the channel. Any nail placed in the water path is a future leak

What South Florida Does to Valleys

Two things here are harder on valleys than a northern climate. The rainfall arrives in short and very heavy bursts, so a partly blocked valley that would cope with steady drizzle overflows in minutes. And wind-driven rain during tropical weather does not travel downhill, it travels sideways and upward, pushing water back over laps that would be perfectly adequate in still conditions.

That is why a valley can perform for years and then leak suddenly during one storm without anything visibly changing.

How We Repair a Valley

A valley repair is not a surface job, and it cannot be done from a ladder at the edge of the roof.

• Lifting the tiles on both sides of the valley, working up from the bottom
• Clearing the channel completely, including the debris packed under the tile edges
• Assessing the metal along the full run rather than only at the point where water appeared inside
• Replacing corroded metal and repairing or replacing the underlayment lapped into the valley
• Re-setting the tiles with proper clearance either side of the channel so the valley can actually carry water
• Checking the valley termination at the eave, where the water has to get out

The Repair That Does Not Work

The single most common bad valley repair in this region is roof cement or sealant troweled into the channel. It stops the leak for a season. Then it cracks, holds water against the metal underneath, and accelerates the corrosion it was applied to hide. If someone has already done this to your valley, it is usually still fixable, but the sealant has to come out.

Where We Work

We repair tile roof valleys throughout Broward and Miami-Dade, including Hollywood, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Dania Beach, Pompano Beach, Cooper City, Weston, Pembroke Park, Miami Lakes, Coral Gables and Boca Raton.