"I'm not sure where it is now, Mr. Holmes, but I'm sure it was there when the house was built."
Not that type of pipe of course, but the type of pipe that exits your home via the rooftop: a plumbing vent. When I first saw this "little" concern on a steep, six year old, Cape Cod style home's roof, I just had to find out was going on. Surely, there couldn't just be a hole in the roof. There were no signs of moisture damage anywhere inside. Additionally, there was no access to the knee wall attic on this Cape Cod style home, so no such luck there. And to make matters worse, the pitch was way to steep and the vent hole was just too far away for me, and would jeopardize my safety. A mystery indeed & I had to know what exactly this was about. I figured a vent may have been moved, and they plugged the hole or worse, the plumbing vent had fallen into the attic.
Let me explain for those of you who might not understand. That is a picture of a plumbing vent flashing. That black rubber/neoprene fits tightly around the roof penetration, in this case the plumbing vent, to protect the interior structure from moisture, and would look like this on a rooftop:
When my client showed up toward the end I showed him. After some deliberation, I said I was going to try to get up there if he'd hold/secure the ladder. I was able to stretch my 6'3" frame, with arm extended, and reach down in and even snap a picture. My suspicions were confirmed when I looked at the picture and saw the plumbing vent lying on type of some wet insulation. It didn't look like extensive moisture damage yet, but it may have gone unnoticed until the damage was far worse.
Turns out a little detective work uncovered the missing clue and the obvious turned out to be indeed the obvious. "It's elementary, my dear Watson."
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