# Flat Roof Penetrations

**URL:** <https://forum.nachi.org/t/flat-roof-penetrations/115420>\
**Category:** General Inspection Discussion\
**Created:** [April 14, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://forum.nachi.org/t/flat-roof-penetrations/115420 "2017-04-14T14:47:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dtowne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@dtowne](https://forum.nachi.org/u/dtowne)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://forum.nachi.org/t/flat-roof-penetrations/115420/1 "2017-04-14T14:47:29Z")

</div>

![2017_04_13_IMG_8775.JPG](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/internachi/original/3X/f/2/f29a91fded0c096a65336c8549a51f4c7d6335b7.jpeg)  
 ![2017_04_13_IMG_8769.JPG](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/internachi/original/3X/1/6/1643842fbbf80391f5ad15db8ac460587317b0a7.jpeg)  
 ![2017_04_13_IMG_8768.JPG](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/internachi/original/3X/1/e/1e0b6598f68fc44659ab586e5f647272101844c0.jpeg)

Hey everyone,

I live in Brooklyn and here in my home town there are more flat roofs that anything else, and roof penetrations as far as I have seen ALWAYS look like this. Now, I know this isn’t exactly proper, but I’m starting to get the feeling that this is just normal around here. So here is my maybe dumb question…

I should call these out even if the roof cement or tar is not currently failing (like it is in one of the pictures) since it will eventually fail, correct? I mean, you cant even be sure there is flashing under some of them, and I have never once seen counter flashing on the top of vent stacks around here either.

Just looking for some input. Maybe I’m missing it but it seems flat roof penetrations through roll roofing are not covered as thoroughly on this site, and I wish there was more on it. Maybe, it’s covered in the Roof course. It’s been a while so I’ll double check there.

Thanks in advance!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dtowne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@dtowne](https://forum.nachi.org/u/dtowne)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 2:53pm UTC](https://forum.nachi.org/t/flat-roof-penetrations/115420/2 "2017-04-14T14:53:36Z")

</div>

I double checked the roofing course. The penetration section is all shingles and not flat.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rcooke](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/internachi/user_avatar/forum.nachi.org/rcooke/32/57038_2.png) [@rcooke](https://forum.nachi.org/u/rcooke)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.nachi.org/t/flat-roof-penetrations/115420/3 "2017-04-14T14:56:28Z")

</div>

Flat roof penetration’s Got this from Google see if it helps … Roy

[https://www.google.ca/webhp#q=flat+roof+penetration+detail&spf=68](https://www.google.ca/webhp#q=flat+roof+penetration+detail&spf=68)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![asinger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/internachi/user_avatar/forum.nachi.org/asinger/32/100152_2.png) [@asinger](https://forum.nachi.org/u/asinger)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://forum.nachi.org/t/flat-roof-penetrations/115420/4 "2017-04-14T17:21:13Z")

</div>

All are wrong, call them out. They will fail and they will leak. Let the buyer know that they should be properly flashed into the roof material.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dtowne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@dtowne](https://forum.nachi.org/u/dtowne)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 6:14pm UTC](https://forum.nachi.org/t/flat-roof-penetrations/115420/5 "2017-04-14T18:14:40Z")

</div>

Thank you Roy. I’ve been googling also. I’ll check it out. Thx!