Metal Roof Edge Seal Problem

Here is another do-it-yourself tip, just because something makes sense to you, doesn't mean that it's going to work effectively. Obviously someone thought that this medal roof edge would fix their problem, but I don't think it's going to.

The arrow is pointing to a large gap, that should have been sealed. This isn't my biggest concern. Whoever installed the roof edge metal, hasn't sealed the edges properly.

If you look at the corner in the upper right-hand corner of the picture, you will see a small piece of wood exposed. At the far right edge of the picture you can also see another spot where some more wood is exposed.

If the metal was a U-shaped instead of L-shaped, you would have solved your problem. The metal laps over on the outside of the building, but should also lap over on the inside of the roofing materials.

Home Repair Tip: You could install another piece of roof metal edge materials on top of the then new metal, but facing the inside of the roof wall and seal the top of it with a good roof sealant or caulking.

You could have a sheet metal contractor install the correct thickness, shape and size of roof wall cap metal. There's a good chance that the galvanized roof edge metal that you're looking at in the picture above, isn't the right thickness and might not last a long time.

I run into problems like this constantly, where the homeowner hires a handyman who isn't familiar with these types of problems and comes up with their own solution. Every once in a while these solutions don't work or they don't work for a long time. You could actually end up paying twice to fix the same problem within a few years.