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I have a roof leak, Tesla says rotten wood
- Thread starter Gixx1300R
- Start date
charlesj
Active Member
Are you able to get up into the attic under the panels and inspect where the screws missed rafters?
charlesj
Active Member
Update…. I had 2 different roofers take a look. One also inspected the attic and says there is more than one leak. He took video of the leak where the installers drilled through the decking and tried to reseal it. He temporarily sealed to holes by lifting the shingles and patching the holes from underneath and on top of the shingles. I got estimates from both for repairing the leaks. I have one more roofer coming by later this week.
Are you 100% positive that Tesla did it during the solar install? I ask because one of the patched holes you showed a picture of looked close to what looked like a satellite dish mount...
And as far as timing every roof doesn't leak until it does. It could be that the extra walking around during the solar install caused a prior, poor, patch to fail.
How old is that roof? It doesn't look young. Even though my roof had some years left I had a new roof installed before installation.
Also my installer has absolutely no flanges exposed, everything is under the panels. Very tidy.
Not depending on any "goop" and then the solar panels themselves add another layer of protection.
Also my installer has absolutely no flanges exposed, everything is under the panels. Very tidy.
Not depending on any "goop" and then the solar panels themselves add another layer of protection.
How old is that roof? It doesn't look young. Even though my roof had some years left I had a new roof installed before installation.
Also my installer has absolutely no flanges exposed, everything is under the panels. Very tidy.
Not depending on any "goop" and then the solar panels themselves add another layer of protection.
My roof is 10 years old, I am in Florida so the sun is pretty tough on roofing.
charlesj
Active Member
Yes, but, rain still runs down the roof under the panels from the top.How old is that roof? It doesn't look young. Even though my roof had some years left I had a new roof installed before installation.
Also my installer has absolutely no flanges exposed, everything is under the panels. Very tidy.
Not depending on any "goop" and then the solar panels themselves add another layer of protection.
or wind driven at times from other sides.Exactly.
Mine was about 10 years old too, I ditched it. Insane to do "new work" on brittle old shingles. You want soft pliable self sealing new shingles.
That was problem #1.
Most installers will remove panels for work that needs to be done for free and reinstall. Just get them removed and have a roofer fix it.
Yes, but, rain still runs down the roof under the panels from the top.
Not much wind will get under there. Snow won't get under there. No sun. Not even much rain because there isn't much roof left in my case.
Sun is the killer.
They have very large flashing for each mount/bolt and it was a new roof so it will seal to bottom shingle it tucked under. Super tight job. Not a single wire or conduit exposed directly or visible. Not one dab of caulking exposed [even without the solar panels] (which never lasts anyway).
That's not for a asphault shingled roof.
This is not what they used on mine but looks similar.
Solar Mounting System | Solar Panel Installation | Asphalt Shingle
chrisbailey13
Member
Looking at the holes that are away from the panel installation...It looks like where they would have attached their safety anchors for their tethers. They did the same thing on my roof, but the installer patched Under the shingles with flashing that he sealed and filled in the hole in the shingle.
Seems like drilling lots of extra holes would cause leaks in new shingles too.
Not if it's done right. Proper flashing is needed for anything permanent and new shingles are 10x easier to work with. It can be done with old shingles of course but you have to be way more careful and more likely to have leaks.
And if it was for a safety rig you usually would lift the shingle and attach UNDER it. But if they are old brittle shingles, they might be afraid of the shingle cracking. So they might have gone through the top.
Good luck peeling a 10 year old shingle back like that. Depends on lots of things on how pliable old shingles are (including current weather). You still goop the holes when you take it off, but it's all under the shingle so you have two layers of defense and the goop is not directly exposed to the elements that will separate and leak.
Doing "new work" on an old roof is leak prone. They might have lifted some shingles to flash under and cracked them. Hard to say.
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charlesj
Active Member
I noticed all the flashing.
Yes, you got a great installation. The other install with all the holes with plugs visible did not get such treatment.Must have been a different crew, new.
Update…. I had 3 different roofers take a look, all 3 agreed that the leak is coming from underneath the panel in one small area. 2 of the roofers says it was one of the worse jobs that had seen with the additional holes drilled in the roof ( for anchoring points while installing the panels). I filed for arbitration last week, I heard from Tesla Energy after I filed the arbitration asking if a crew could come out and look again. Today 2 Tesla installers got on the roof, removed the panel and attempted to stop the leak, before they left one of them informed me if the leak continued that would come back to replace the shingles, well..... the roof is still leaking so I called Tesla energy customer service, again I was told that it is not their problem and that I would have to get a roofer to repair the damage. I will continue with the arbitration.
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