How To Access top of sunroom

TaSeThat

Hi

I have 3 leaks in the "sunroom" roof. They are all in line with each other and under a beam (see pics with red circles/exes), so I suspect the sealant is old/worn, from above, where the water is getting in. I would like to put on new sealant but I don't know how to access the roof. I have a ladder and can get to the height but can't reach across the roof.
No kids so can't send them up and I doubt it would take my weight. Ideally, I'd like to seal above all the beams but would be happy to just do it where the leaks are.
Any ideas how to do this, are there any tricks of the trade - was thinking of "painting" on the sealant, if there is a more liquid form of sealant, as I do have a paint and roller extention, but I'd presume you would need to clean all the area first so back to the problem with access

cheers in advance

Calahonda52

The weight issue is easy enough addressed, you prop the rafters vertically in a few places with timber uprights or maybe rent a few acrows for the weekend,
pretty wide spacing between the rafters so you cant afford to put too much pressure on the poly-c midspan.
.
How i dealt with a similar issue was I fixed a 1.5 by 1.5 angle iron all the way along the bottom, screwing it through the white plastic ridges into the timbers with stainless steel coach screws.
This I left in place.
.
Then, to do the work, I put a 4 by 2, on the flat along inside it, fixing it twice through the vertical leg.
Then I fixed a similar 4 by 2, flat, to the top of my ladder
Then I fixed a ply board over the rungs and I slid the ladder up the roof, all the way to the top of the roof, spanning 3 rafters with the 4 by 2.
My rafters were at 16" centres.
I tied the ladder to the bottom 4 by 2 so as it would slide off.
You could then crawl up the ladder, which was sitting on both 4 by 2s on hands and knees and do the work.

It worked out really well and leaving the angle there meant easy access when i got new leaks

kadman

Is the capping bar on each beam fixed with screws or clipped in.

Best long term fix is to replace the capping bar, and gaskets.

Hard to see the type of bar with the pics, but similar to an exitex bar.

You could possibly place a new bar, wider on top of the existing, and sealing a wider area.

TaSeThat

Cheers for the responses lads.

@kadman - not sure if clicking in or screwed. If the sealant does not do the trick I'll try the idea of wider capping.

@Calahonda52 - I'm intrigued by your McGuyver tweak for continued access but i'll be dammed if I understand it...sorry! The whole roof could do with a clean and if i can get full access to it I may as well run sealant along all the caps. Are you saying to run the angle bar along the top of the sunroom roof (outside), parallel to the house (same as guttering for sunroom). Then a 2x4 on the angle iron flat side, so it would also be going across the roof but with the angle iron supporting it. If there was weight to be put on this 2x4 now, would it not be the same problem or is it a case that the "wall" would support any weight. After that I'm not sure what you mean with the ladder..
Is it more or less putting something across as many beams as possible to support the weight? If so, could I put my ladder along the roof, parallel to the house, probably reaching 3 of the beams (so it would be supported by 3 beams and an outer "wall") and then some plywood on top of the ladder so I could lie/kneel on it and work away. Do you think that may work?

Calahonda52

TaSeThat wrote: »

Cheers for the responses lads.

@kadman - not sure if clicking in or screwed. If the sealant does not do the trick I'll try the idea of wider capping.

@Calahonda52 - I'm intrigued by your McGuyver tweak for continued access but i'll be dammed if I understand it...sorry! The whole roof could do with a clean and if i can get full access to it I may as well run sealant along all the caps. Are you saying to run the angle bar along the top of the sunroom roof (outside), parallel to the house (same as guttering for sunroom). Then a 2x4 on the angle iron flat side, so it would also be going across the roof but with the angle iron supporting it. If there was weight to be put on this 2x4 now, would it not be the same problem or is it a case that the "wall" would support any weight. After that I'm not sure what you mean with the ladder..
Is it more or less putting something across as many beams as possible to support the weight? If so, could I put my ladder along the roof, parallel to the house, probably reaching 3 of the beams (so it would be supported by 3 beams and an outer "wall") and then some plywood on top of the ladder so I could lie/kneel on it and work away. Do you think that may work?

Will try put a sketch together.
ps I trained mcguyver

TaSeThat

Ah I see, good old pen and paper. Yep makes sense and of course my ladder does not reach that far. I might get some wood cut to that length instead that can be wipped down and up as needed for access.
Cheers for the effort/time and I'll definitely be doing a version of that plan.

Calahonda52

TaSeThat wrote: »

Ah I see, good old pen and paper. Yep makes sense and of course my ladder does not reach that far. I might get some wood cut to that length instead that can be wipped down and up as needed for access.
Cheers for the effort/time and I'll definitely be doing a version of that plan.

Make sure you prop the rafters inside, maybe at the 1/3 points, before you do anything.

You can buy very good tape, cut to width from national seals in Dublin, I forget what it is called, can be got in white.
Not cheap but lifetime plus