My roof leaks and I can't afford to reroof it at this point.

I have acquired two large pieces of 40x50' HD greenhouse plastic to cover it.

Yesterday I was passing a road project and they had a large mound of sand covered with sheet plastic, with half-filled sandbags acting as weights to hold the plastic down.

Do you think I could use this technique for my roof, rather than nailing down strips of wood as I had originally planned? I was thinking of putting a bag every four feet or so, and nailing 1x2s along the edges. This is a double-wide mobile home with fairly shallow pitch.

Any opinion would be very welcome.

Sue

I guess it cannot hurt to try.

Around here folks get one of a number of semi-liquid products that pour out, seep into any leaks, cover the roof, and harden in place to form a thick barrier.

I just got some roll-out asphalt roofing for my wood shed. $45 and it covers 200sqft. Maybe some of those you could re-roof cheap?

I`m not sure what your roof is made of currently... aluminum?

How is it leaking 1 spot or all over?

They have some awesome roof-goop to patch holes, add some aluminum or galvanized steel and you can patch holes 1ft or bigger.

I suppose you could, but why not just tack the plastic down with a staple gun or something?

I think if you could tell how bad the leaks were you'd get a much better answer. If it's just some wood drying and little cracks, I'd think even some silicone caulk in the rafters would do for now.

Ok, I'll hang my stupid out. What kind of roof are we talking about? Steel exterior over lumber construction?

Sue,

Go to an RV Store and get some roof patch cement if you can. Caulk the holes with that, and then go over with the plastic. Yes the sand bags will work. More wind = more sand bags..

I have done this on the same kind of structure you live in.

PM me if you have more questions

EDIT: Where is it leaking, and how many places?

If you have roofing shingles, sometimes the nails holding them to the roof can pop up, and create a small leak. If there are yellow spots on your ceiling, you can approx where the leak is on the roof. But sometimes the water can run down a joist or other item and wind up pretty far away from the actual leak. Have a friend, neighbor, relative, spouse go up and look, if poss. A popped nail is pretty easy to spot, just look for a small rise in the roofing material. Use the roofing "mud" that comes in a caulking tube at a temp. patch. In Ft. Lauderdale, we were able to go directly over the existing roofing material, but that could be done only once. Got the permit, and my brother in law, who used to have his own roofing company helped me. Did in in February, and it only cost me $400 for the material and food for the crew. Not bad.
Check with your local zoning office and ask. It's definitel;y worth it.
If you don't have roofing shingles....never mind.

They also make a thin roofing tar that can be rolled on with a paint roller, my uncle painted a metal roof on an old house with it.

I saw some folks in my area cover a mobile home with a whole new roof structure.
I guess that the original roof was beyond repair, so they framed out a new wood structure directly on top of the old roof [with no demo to the original roof], and finished it off with metal roofing.

I'm apologize for going off topic... as I know that solution is not a cheap or temporary fix.
I just thought that was a great idea; and I bet the home is now a lot cooler in the Summer too.
Maybe that could be a consideration when you're ready for a more permanenet fix.

It's a 30-yr-old mobile home with two layers of asphalt shingles on it. Other than a little moss, it LOOKS okay: no missing shingles, no raised nail heads, no curling shingles, no gaps around the vents. But I can feel weak places in the roof (plywood, I assume) when I walk on it. I can spot no particular places where water is going in, and there are leak spot on the ceiling of five rooms (scattered). The actual roof is 2,045 sqft.

The asphalt patching stuff, rolled on the whole roof = $1,792.

Snow Roof (needs 2 coats) $2,960. For asphalt shingles they also recommend using their primer, which is extra.

Metal roofing directly from a local producer as a 'kit', and doing it myself = $1,700.

None of this is possible. So, back to the original question: would the sandbags hold the plastic down as well as strips of wood in regards to wind?

(Stapling plastic directly without wood just doesn't work because it pulls loose in a breeze.)

Sue