Hip Problem

First of all, that roof is old and/or defective. And if it has leaked since it was installed, it never was installed to at least minimum standards. My guess is that it was installed with little care taken when trimming the field shingles at the hip and they cut through the underlayment and left big gaps if they even used underlayment. Some decking is probably rotted.

The remedy is to install a new roof WITH CARE and trim the field shingles at the hips tight without cutting the underlayment. And use a premium ridge so it looks better. No need to use plastic cement except at the top intersecting points of a hip which this roof does not appear to have.

Most installers use such little care when they trim field shingles that I have seen gaps as wide as 5 and 6" at the hips and the felt cut.

Thanks guys for the responses.Rally appreciate the help. I would like to run the shingles straight over the hip as tinner666 suggested, but I was thinking once I bent the 6" section over the hip it may throw my alignment off. No??. If I do have to run caps I will probably strip hips with Grace I&W and also tar the underside of caps.

So far the seal method using regular old roofing tar/bull is the only method I've used for this situation.

It has worked like a charm every single time without fail.

All of them were repairs to hips that were already leaking from the way other roofers chose to do them.

Another way would be to slip the top of each cap under the relevant course of shingle. Would only work with single layer caps though.

I have ran into several leaky hips just like that over the years.

The way i stopped the leaking was to pop chalk lines on both sides of the ridge, put a strip of roof tar down both sides staying an inch inside the lines and set the ridge caps in the tar.

Just don't use too much tar.

Another way would be cut Ice and water shield into 11 inch wide strips and install it over the hips before you cap it out. I never tried this method but it stands to reason.

Don't run caps on the hips then. Run dimensionals over the hip 6", come back over the hip 6" when you do the other side, same as you would a geodesic dome.

http://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/show_album_photo.asp?userid=30&AlbumID=108&file=764&s=0