Greenwell Springs Project: New Shingles Woven In Around a Tar-Patched Roof Vent

A Cracked Tar Patch at a Roof Vent on a Greenwell Springs Home

The shingle field on this Greenwell Springs home was intact, but one spot was not. When Roof Rescue inspected the roof in December 2024, a box vent had been sealed with roofing tar that had dried out and cracked, and the shingles around it were broken. The repair visit followed in early January 2025.

What the repair covered

• A full roof inspection of the shingle field, the vents and the pipe boots, photographed on the first visit.
• The damaged area opened down to the underlayment.
• Cracked shingle pieces under the top course, found once the area was open.
• New shingles woven in around a box vent, with no surface tar doing the sealing.
• A check of the pipe boots and vents after the work, with photos.

Why tar is a stopgap, not a repair

Roofing tar around a vent is a common quick fix, and it can stop a drip for a while. In the Louisiana sun it dries, shrinks and cracks, and once it cracks it can hold water against the shingles instead of shedding it.

Shingles that lap correctly around a vent move water downhill on their own, with no sealant carrying the load. That is the difference between a patch and a repair.

Opened to the underlayment

On the repair visit the crew pulled the shingles back around the damaged area until the underlayment showed. With the top course lifted, the photos show cracked shingle pieces underneath, the kind of damage nobody can see from the ground.

New shingles around the vent

The finished photos show a box vent sitting in a patch of new shingles, woven into the existing courses with no surface tar around it. The new shingles read a shade lighter than the rest of the roof for now, which is normal for fresh granules next to shingles that have already seen a few summers.

Pipe boots checked before leaving

Before the crew came down, they photographed the pipe boots across the roof, including one where the shingles meet a metal-paneled wall. A repair visit is a good time to look at every penetration, since those are the spots where leaks commonly start.

One repair visit, no new roof

The inspection was in mid-December 2024 and the repair was finished in a single visit in early January 2025. There was no tear-off: the rest of the shingles stayed in service.

Thinking about your own roof in Greenwell Springs?

Roof Rescue handles roof repairs across Greenwell Springs, Central, Zachary, Baker and the wider Baton Rouge area. See our roofing services in Greenwell Springs, or schedule a free roof inspection and we will tell you plainly what your roof needs. When a roof is past patching, we also handle full roof replacements.