Roof waterfall

Went to a repair estimate and this caught my eye.

Here's it up close.

This is what's above it.

It's a dead spot about 6' wide with no slope, but it has a large piece of sheet lead laid in it, then bent at the end to try and direct the waterfall into the eyebrow roof gutter below. There was a light mist at the time, but since there is quite a lot draining into the area from above, I imagine in a downpour the waterfall could get pretty loud.

I'm a big fan of no seams. So if a dead valley is small enough to make it from one sheet, I go metal. Otherwise, I go with a single-ply sheet, usually whatever I have in stock. Right now that would be heavy rubber.

That said, I have done numerous SA dead valleys without any problems. I don't like anything requiring fire or flames in tight, wood-framed spaces.

The reason I ask is because I've went back and forth on the best option for dead spots. I've went metal with good results. I've went mod bit w/ good results. But I want the LONGEST lasting option other than soldering copper. (I'm practicing that last bit)

Clvr, most of the cleanings we do are pressure wash. If the underlayment is bad, the tile too fragile, or a slurry-coated tile in a color other than grey-tones, we might sweep, then blow it off. Sometimes there might be a pre-treat as well.

We have competitors that tell people to NEVER let anyone pressure wash tile, so frequently we have skeptics. I tell them that, indeed pressure washing is the equivalent of a couple years normal wear, but it is also the first step into a program of cutting the need for future pressure washings by getting it clean enough to begin a treatment/maintenance program the year following the cleaning. Keep them coming back.

The lead sheet on this house is "working" as far as keeping water out. The siding and cornerboard at the bottom are getting wet more often than they should. I didn't look to see what the lead looks like where it bends, the most likely place it would crack. I have replaced lead in dead valley areas on two other houses in this neighborhood that had crickets built that provided slope, but the lead had cracked. I don't know if it cracked because of movement (it wasn't attached anywhere other than under the siding and tile), or if the roofers bent it during installation and weakened it or whatever. All I know is I replaced it and got a bunch of free lead for repairs.

Just curious, what kind of process is it to clean the tile?

Would the lead sheet have worked if they had installed it correctly?

No money to be made on this one, Robert. The woman was hoping for a cleaning around $1200 like I did for her neighbor. And while I was at it, check on a small leak on her front porch.

There are 2 spots in the front where repairs are needed totaling $1900. I showed her where soffit had previously been replaced from these leaks. I told her about this thing in the back and it would be about $3,000.

She just bought the house and finances are stretched tight. Haven't heard back.

that looks like money to me!

I recognize the M.O. on this to be Russian roofers. Actually they're from Bosnia and they take great offence when you refer to them as Russian. But anyways, these Russian roofers-actually I shouldn't limit them to calling them roofers, they also did the framing, siding, masonry and painting, etc. They will even change a quarter panel on your car at lunchbreak.

In this same neighborhood, I have redone three of these sheet lead pans that buckled and cracked done by these guys. This wasn't even the problem I was called to address on this house. I was supposed to just leave a bid under the mat for the lady, but the problems on the other side were so extensive that I couldn't include all of them on my bid form. I'm not gonna write a book on the problems just for a bid. I'll need a conference to go over them all.