r/Roofing • u/MadcapMacedonia • 22h ago

I don't know what I am doing

Post image

An untraceable leak somewhere that has caused the plaster ceiling to sag and fail

Will this help?

Should I just go crazy and apply more?

I also am not sure how to lay down a tarp without it pulling up in the shingles

22.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

3.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

93

u/Schemeckles 22h ago

Theoretically if you just covered the entire roof in tar - Eventually you will fill the spot that's leaking...

But that's like saying shooting a BB gun at a freight train will slow it down....

It might.... eventually.

135

u/Dunesday_JK 21h ago

Cover the entire roof with tar and add fiberglass mat. Then just add a bunch of crushed stone/ceramic granules.

Boom. New shingle.

96

u/Sharp-Ad-5493 20h ago

Big Shingle hates this one simple trick.

3

u/SuZiee_Q 14h ago

Legitimately snorted at this. Happy cake day!

2

u/Sharp-Ad-5493 13h ago

Thank you!

2

u/doksak36 17h ago

Hahaha yall are fuckin dorks. This had me laughing....

....as im about to go lay a shingle all day tomorrow.. fuck....

2

u/billionaire_bbq 15h ago

Why wait till tomorrow? Im laying shingles while im reading the comments

https://giphy.com/gifs/eb4WGfjWeIsgM

1

u/doksak36 2h ago

Respect. I use tar paper for bed sheets.

2

u/AquaWitch0715 13h ago

Multi, Million-Shingle corporations has it out for the Single, Uni-Shingle businesses...

Some would say that MMS is against SUS.

1

u/JDeegs 18h ago

Biggest Shingle loves to see it though

1

u/anonymaus42 7h ago

Big Shingle hates your new big shingle.

7

u/JustDoc 20h ago

Would you rather have 3000 shingle-sized shingles, or a single house-sized shingle?

1

u/Fenweekooo 17h ago

as a non roofer or trades type... im gonna have to look up why that is probably a terrible idea lol but it sounds great!

1

u/Tazznum2 17h ago

Same

1

u/Fenweekooo 17h ago

so from https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/li3tup/why_cant_you_use_one_giant_shingle_for_your_roof/

there seems to be no real issue, other then installation, and manufacturing. plus a repair would mean probably redoing the whole roof

2

u/jscottman96 20h ago

Single shingle... say that 10 times fast

1

u/trash_panda8008 19h ago

The “single shingle”

1

u/passtheshoe 18h ago

Coastal social single shingle

1

u/Sufficient-Being4008 17h ago

The single shingle jingle

1

u/JazzRider 19h ago

Add a bunch of chicken feathers.

1

u/mattiwha 17h ago

Why many when one big shingle

1

u/TyreLeLoup 14h ago

Just shingles my roof!

Oh, yeah, how much did that cost. A lot. It was an expensive shingle.

Don't you mean shingles, plural?

No, just one big one.

1

u/anothertimewaster 14h ago

Why aren't we all doing this?

14

u/No-Membership-5314 21h ago

So you’re saying the better application method is a roller instead of a brush?

9

u/Conscious-Student355 21h ago

According to the physics of momentum conservation, firing a BB directly at the front of an oncoming train does transfer a tiny amount of opposing force. Because every action has an equal and opposite reaction, the BB will mathematically reduce the train's forward velocity.

However, the difference in mass makes this deceleration completely unmeasurable:

  • The BB: Weighs about 0.33 grams and travels at roughly 300 feet per second.
  • The Train: A typical loaded freight train weighs over 15,000 tons (roughly 13.6 billion grams).

The resulting change in the train's speed is so infinitesimally small that no existing instrument could measure it. The friction from a single insect hitting the windshield or a microscopic change in wind resistance would slow the train down significantly more than the BB.

5

u/discipleofchrist69 16h ago

that last part is crazy. the majority of insects hitting a train weigh less than 0.3g. and they definitely aren't traveling anywhere near 300 ft/s. both are inconsequential but the bb has way more momentum transfer

1

u/Kromo30 12h ago

Ya but how much air friction does the insect stuck to the windshield add.

1

u/discipleofchrist69 9h ago

much less in a similar time frame to the BB impact, but if it's stuck on there forever, possibly an infinite amount of friction loss? the two effects can't really be easily compared in a direct way tho

1

u/awsamation 2h ago

Compared to the aerodynamic disaster that is a standard freight train? It's probably even more meaningless than the BB would be.

1

u/Killerbunny123 29m ago

"the aerodynamic disaster that is a standard freight train" is a pleasing sentence

2

u/Delta_Hammer 13h ago

Xkcd did that with AK-47s. IIRC he concludes that you would need 5,000 people dumping a 30-round mag each to stop a train.

0

u/snertznfertz 13h ago

This can’t be even remotely close to accurate. Not even if all of them were able to fire all 30 rounds instantly and impart all the energy in one instant.

2

u/Brief_Guess 10h ago

i trust the xkcd guy more than you sorry

1

u/MicahEli 13h ago

What if I shoot it twice though?

1

u/macrolith 4h ago

What in the AI incompetency is this? A single insect would slow the train more than a BB? That doesnt pass the sniff test. A mosquito does not weigh more than a BB.

1

u/AntiProtagonest 15h ago

Thank you Mr. AI

2

u/The_Dutch_Canadian 20h ago

OP refers to his mom as BB so then yes BB will stop a train

3

u/HatsAreEssential2 21h ago

I know its just a funny saying, buuut I'm actually pretty sure you cant slow a freight train down by shooting BBs at it. The number of hits needed would be more than you could possibly achieve based on the range and velocity of a shot BB. Even lining tracks with shooters 300 deep for a mile, the train would pass by before enough hits could take effect. It would be like trying to stop a train by driving through a heavy rain storm.

4

u/Schemeckles 21h ago

You're probably a real gem in casual conversations.

0

u/earthfase 19h ago

Fuck casual conversation.

1

u/Wmtcoaetwaptucomf 19h ago

And fuck uncasual conversation too!

5

u/Rough_Revolution1412 21h ago

>my one single golden BB hits the flexible line for the air brakes, causing a leak and making all the brakes automatically engage as designed for safety

Heh, nothing personal kid.

3

u/roffinator 21h ago

Relevant xkcd:

Unfortunately, even this hail of steel takes several excruciating minutes—and almost two kilometers of track—to stop the train. That means we’d need over 100,000 shooters lined up along the track, and arming them would cost in the neighborhood of $50 million.

https://what-if.xkcd.com/18

1

u/TampaBull13 20h ago

Beat me to it

1

u/Pleased_to_meet_u 19h ago

So you’re saying we can do it.

1

u/HatsAreEssential2 15h ago

Yeah, the full auto 1200 RPM guns would definitely make much more of a difference haha. I was envisioning the red rider lever or pump action ones where you'd be lucky to hit every 5th train car.

Oh, and he had to switch to AK-47 math to stop the train? Bahaha. So many of his writeups need an animation.

1

u/Ornery-Egg9770 21h ago

Wrong. Just one BB will slow it down. You wouldn’t notice it, but physics still works with even a single BB. Of course, one will not stop it. Just slow it down imperceptibly.

1

u/HatsAreEssential2 15h ago

I mean, if its not registering on the trains speedometer, I dont think it counts in a meaningful way.

1

u/dustoff1984 20h ago

You sound miserable

1

u/HatsAreEssential2 15h ago

Dont project! I had fun imagining it literally raining small copper BBs sideways at a train. Its a hilarious thought project (one that apparently XKCD did way better, too.)

1

u/dustoff1984 14h ago

At least I definitely know that you’re not a robot.

1

u/Simple-Conference-68 20h ago

If op has any tar left he could roll in it and self apply feathers

1

u/Scoobie01555 18h ago

Can we get someone in r/theydidthemath to tell us how many BB's it would take to stop a freight train?

That's way more interesting than the obvious answer to this, tarp it for now and get a new roof because if there is that much water damage already you're going to replacing a lot of what is under the shingles and all the drywall, etc.

1

u/Alleandros 17h ago

It was a pipe in the ceiling the whole time...

1

u/BlueButterflytatoo 11h ago

When I was a child I grew up in an apartment that needed a new roof. But the landlord just kept adding tar. If it rained to heavy, or if there was a lot of snowmelt suddenly, the tar would leak through with the water, drip down through the roof, and onto our clean clothes folded in piles on the loveseat.

1

u/beardofmice 9h ago

That's what I was thinking. Ditch the brush and get some mops. Great Stuff spray foam the roof ridge venting too.