Product- DAP Roof Caulk Test - Applied to roof to fix leak. Cost- $3.50 Conclusion - Less than two months old the bead was cracked, hard and weathered. Did not hold up well in a short amount of time.
Sometimes a roof leak does not mean a major roof repair. A simple item as a nail not covered could be the problem. Roof caulk is inexpensive and could save you hundreds of dollars in repairs if the roof leak is not fixed.
Buying products just to review their quality is sometimes difficult in that you need to have an environment in which to test them. I believe the products should be tested in real world applications. So what a better way to test roof caulk than applying it to a leaky roof.
I found my first item to play guinea pig for my test. It was a leak around a skylight. I purchased a tube of DAP roof caulk at the local hardware store and went on the roof to figure out what part was leaking. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary because it was a three year old roof and skylight. However, I added some caulk around the sides where the shingles met the step flashing. I also added some caulk to the underside of the flashing at the bottom of the skylight. I let the caulk setup and waited for it to rain.
After about two rains and sixty days later the skylight still had the leak. I went back up to see what I may have missed. To my amazement the new beads of caulk were cracked and hard. They had also discolored and look weathered.
So my recommendation for this product is two thumbs down. Roof caulk needs to stay flexible and not crack. It should have a life expectancy of longer than sixty days. Some might say that it could be related to the manufacturing batch, but I have used this product before and have had similar results. My goal next time is to add another product to this review from another manufacturer. I just need another guinea pig.
As for fixing that skylight leak... Well it happened to be not on the roof but on the corner of the glass where the sealant started to crack away from the flashing. So now I am waiting for a warm day to fix the leak permanently with the parts from the manufacturer of the skylight. To stop the weather from entering the house I used a small amount of plumbers dope that remains flexible and easy to remove.
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