# Patching A Roof with A Blue Tarp



## GatorDude (Apr 23, 2009)

In many hurricane scenarios, I've seen that people have patched their roofs with blue tarps. How is this done? Do you just place the tarp over the area where shingles have been ripped up and nail it in place? I can't really tell what they do from news footage.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

We did this to the roof of a small workshop we have early this summer. We used the tarp not after an emergency, but rather as a quick and dirty patch job until we get time to put on new shingles. Been there for months and it's still there. We laid out the tarp and put 2x2 boards along the edges and down the middle of the tarp and nailed them in place. It's been like that for months now. Looks like crap but it keps the building dry until we get a chance to do the roofing the right way.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

I have a huge "shipping" tarp - blue and heavy duty. The eyelets on the tarp are about 2" diameter. It made a great cover for a shed - I just flipped it over the top, drove some large stakes into the ground and tied it down. It survived some strong storms like that till I had the time (money) to fix my shed.

For a house, I would probably want to make sure that the roof-vents are not plugged / covered - maybe place some small saw-horses over the vent-zones and then just cover everything with an industrial sized (farm sized) heavy-duty tarp and still try to tie-down to the ground (large stakes again).


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## dukman (Mar 1, 2009)

Jason said:


> We did this to the roof of a small workshop we have early this summer. We used the tarp not after an emergency, but rather as a quick and dirty patch job until we get time to put on new shingles. Been there for months and it's still there. We laid out the tarp and put 2x2 boards along the edges and down the middle of the tarp and nailed them in place. It's been like that for months now. Looks like crap but it keps the building dry until we get a chance to do the roofing the right way.


I have heard of this method many times. One guy down the road just left milk jugs full of sand along the edges  True, he had a pretty flat roof, but still not my style


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Yeah it really does look bad. Time is always an issue here for getting stuff done, though, so it'll do until we're done with the farm work for the summer.


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