Help Diagnosing a Porch Roof Leak

I live in an older home that has an attached porch that I believe the previous owner installed himself. Someone suggested to me that may be a pre-fabricated porch in some sense, but I can’t be sure. The roof is made of metal and on top of the metal there is wood fencing. I have never seen fencing on a roof, but I imagine that the previous owner put it up there to decrease the noise and so that it would not get too hot. Even though I’ve never seen fencing on a porch roof, I’m really fine with it. Despite the fact that it is wood, the fencing on top of the roof does not appear to be rotting. Someone suggested to me that there could be debris between the wood and the metal that is causing a dam effect, but I have looked at there is no debris.

The metal roof seems to be made up of 21 panels about 5.5” by about 10 feet that are interlocked or overlapped. I know nothing about roofing, so I may be using the wrong terms. The 21 panels are attached to 6 metal cross supports. Those cross supports are, in turn, attached to 2 beams that run the length of the porch. I’m attaching photos.

During heavy rainstorms, at the bottom of the porch, there are bad leaks. The main leaks occur between the two pieces of blue tape, right where two of the panels overlap. The areas where there is green tape is gets wet to the touch, but I can’t tell where the water is coming from in those places.

These are my questions: from the pictures, could someone explain to me what I have, meaning, in metal roofing terms, what that kind of roof is called, or how it would be described? Is it called interlocking panels or what?

My funds are extremely limited so I really am not looking to replace the roof. I am assuming that the wood above the leak must be removed to address the issue (and I would seek to put the wood back in place afterwards). Short of replacing the metal roof, is there something that can be done to stop the leaks? Someone mentioned Dow Corning 795 Silicone Building Sealant to me. Could that be used? Is there some other sealant that could (or should) be used?

I appreciate any guidance that anyone can give. By the way, the uploading function is giving me problems so I may have to upload th images one by one.

Picture from the outside please. Some that indicates pitch too please.

Can you go further back? I am wondering what the flashing detail and roof side look like.

I'm trying to upload what I have, but I'm having trouble. Unclear to me why. By the way, I don't know what flashing is.

@[email protected] said:
Can you go further back? I am wondering what the flashing detail and roof side look like.

I keep trying to respond and post more pics, but I can't see anything past this question that you ask (meaning, none of my responses or pics are appearing, and if you have responded to me again, I can't see it).

Ivan,

Each reply needs to be approved by Eric or another admin before it is published to the website. I have gone ahead and published your posts, but the images appear to broken in the subsequent messages.

Please try re-uploading in a new comment.

Andy Locke, Web Admin

Ok, thank you very much Andy. I'll try uploading again. I can't figure out why some upload just fine and others don't.

Ivan,

Try updating the file names to include only one "."

For example: "filename.jpeg" instead of "file.name.jpeg"

That additional "." may be causing an issue.

Andy

@[email protected] said:
Ivan,

Try updating the file names to include only one "."

For example: "filename.jpeg" instead of "file.name.jpeg"

That additional "." may be causing an issue.

Andy

Hi Andy, I actually had tried that. The image I tried to attach to my reply to you was called "Porch.jpeg." I just renamed it to "Side.jpeg" and tried to send it. The one I called "Close-up.jpeg" seemed to go through.

Ivan,

Are you posting via the website or are you replying to the email? (trying to troubleshoot the image issue)

Andy

I'm posting via the website (I don't get any emails from here). I can't figure out why some go through and others don't.