I've been called by a church about the bats they have in the attic. The whole job is pretty straight forward except for their new metal roof. How would you seal up a roof like this and maintain propper ventalation? It does have large round louvard vents in the peaks of the building. It has "bird caps on the ends of the ridges in MOST places, but not all. I'm not a fan of shooting everything full of foam, but may be the only option here. What do you do that doesn't void any warranty for the roof? I have just received the contact info for the installer, but haven't talked to him yet. How do you bid this? (PM's welcome on bidding).

The suggestion I've had so far was to increase my bid by 50% to make up for the call backs that are going to happen.

Good luck.

Not that I know anything, but why not just find the entrances used and work those areas ? I would think the openings you showed have underlayment which would hold bats back ??

From inside the attic it appears that the ridge is open from the previous roof and one of the entrances seems to be the gap between the roof and decking along the front of the building. I will have to close any access that the bats have to the ridges. The main access is around the chimney.

Can you mud (mortor)it up. That is what would be used on a clay roof.

Perhaps a calk of sorts ??

get a hold of new unused metal shingles, cut em up to fit the gaps, seal up accordingly.
Ive got a church right now Im bidding and am just figuring in all the time its going to take.

I talked to the guy who installed the roof this morning. He said there is no way a bat can get in past that roof.

hes the bat expert.....

Hope he didnt have that in his warranty information.

That's the first fake terracotta roof I've seen. Metal, molded to look like terracotta, right?

Along with all the other things I've done, I've been a roofer in the past. So, I'm speaking with some experience.

To start with, I see LOTS of problems with the roof itself. Not the least of which is all the exposed nail heads. A couple of problems around the chimney where there are gaps that shouldn't be and it looks like a couple of the tiles are damaged.

The roofer is right to some extent. If the roof had been done correctly, then there would be no bat problem. The problem is, though, it WASN'T done right in the first place.

Caulk and foam and don't worry about the warranty. It's probably not worth any more than that roof is to start with. It just looks to me as if the Church got took on a bad roof job.

Yes Muddawg it's a fake terracotta roof. From talking to the contractor, the church bought the roof and then hired him to install it.

Have you conducted an evening/early morning inspection to determine the most used exit/entry points? Are there soffit vents to allow air to enter the attic and exit through the “large round louvard vents”? I have never done a job on that type of roofing material. To me, the evening/morning inspection, is one of the most important aspects on jobs similar to this. I often video the inspections to show the client the magnitude of the problem.

No LA I haven't done an evening/morning inspection yet. From the guano piled in the attic, it appears that they are entering and exiting around the chimney. There is also guano on the front steps derectly under the front edge of the bat proof roof. There are no soffit vents, everything goes through the louvard vents.

You can see where the "tile" is pulled out from the facia (3rd tile from bottom). There is guano under that point.

One of the vents and of some of the roof lines on a newer addition.


Notice, top of chimney is already screened off.

Thanks for the reply. I would certainly conduct an evening inspection. In your pictures, I don’t see any staining or guano accumulation around the chimney. It does look like there are many potential entrances into the attic. I couldn’t make any further recommendations without seeing it myself. Possibly other folks can. I have never found bats entering through an open top chimney flue either. I have found them in the chimney chase though. Of course, I have never found a raccoon in a chimney down here either.

Laps and cut pieces are face nailed ...(for most systems of this Type)



Drain areas for the side wall flashing..........
Does look like a crappy job of installation in general though,,,,,

Sometimes it looks like this under the roofing?????
And they do not have to enter from the chimney flash

Vinke,

Sure, there are times when nail heads will show. But they always get covered with silicon or something. If not, then they just rust out and cause a leak.

But take a look at those photos again. They have nails through the end of the tiles to make them lay down. That's like nailing down the bottom of the shingle tab. Again through the side of the capping. If the capping is down right, it shouldn't need nails on the side to hold it in place. And they don't have anything on them.

As far as the gap between the chimney and the roof sheeting, that's actually code here. Any time you have a heat transfer vent through the roof or wall there must be a gap between the vent(in this case the chimney) and any flammable building materials. That's to prevent conducted heat from starting a fire.

I agree just because your finding guano accumulations around the chimney inside does not indicate entry, but more likely roosting. I always have best luck determining entry ways based on external guano, if there is guano on the porch i would start there. And I always do an evening bat watch on any type of difficult bat job, sometimes multiple watches. Twice I've seen bats going down an uncovered chimney, both times it was an OLDER unlined chimney (no clay flu, just bricks/rocks and mortor) and the bats were landing on it and climbing down. But Ive never seen them in a modern chimney with a clay or metal flu.

Actually I'm suspecting that they are going through the soffit and the chimney on the underside, but haven't been on the roof to inspect it. I didn't want to walk on a type of roof that I knew nothing about. All I've done so far is an additional inspection, measurements, and took a few pictures. The guano on the steps says that they may be going in that front edge, but don't see any oil stains there.

This type roof is nothing more then a "pretty" cover to protect the underlayment ,,,just like tile or wood shakes,,,,