Roof Repair On "Crickets" In Miami-Dade

 This roof repair involved two "crickets" in western Miami-Dade County in the middle of a concrete tile roof. Crickets are water diverters commonly found behind chimneys or, as in this case, structures designed to transfer water from one roof area to another.

These areas were created as part of the design of the front of the house to create an aesthetic and detail. The upper cricket is a flat area where two opposing roof planes meet and is an acceptable design. They are flashed using conventional methods. Often architects will terminate a roof plane at a vertical wall, a "dead valley", as in the lower area where the cricket itself was never built. This is simply a bad design but something roofers must deal with. In this case we tore out all roof materials to the wood deck and installed a cricket with a slight pitch to the next sloped roof area. We installed 5”x 7” metal base flashings and stucco-stop, GAF  #75 base sheet and torched a layer of GAF Ruberoid Torch Granule. Ruberoid is an ideal material for addressing cricket areas.

We installed new metal flashings from the lower cricket, up-slope to the upper cricket and torched Ruberoid over that as well. Then we put the tile back and as an extra reinforcement applied two coats of GAF Topcoat Surface Seal to the lower cricket especially, in consideration of the volume of water it tolerates. 

by Michael Slattery

Tile Roof Repair on Chimney