Bought a cheap tarp versus a heavy duty one for my garage roof leak

I had a drip forming over my workbench after the last big rain. Picked up a $5 blue tarp from the hardware store and it ripped in under a week. Swapped to one of those woven silver tarps for $15 and it's held up through three storms now. The cheap tarp might work for a camping trip but not for a leak that sits day after day. Anyone else find a better fix for garage roof leaks that doesn't involve a full reroof?

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bettyh845mo ago

Yeah totally @robertb30 nailed it with that spray on rubber stuff. I tried the cheap tarp route too and it shredded like tissue paper after one bad storm. Swapped to a heavy woven tarp and it's been holding for months now but I'm worried about the long haul. That roofing cement trick worked for me for a little while but it got brittle and cracked just like you said. I'm leaning hard towards trying the rubber coating next time because I'm tired of looking at tarp flaps in my garage. Ugly but dry is my new motto.

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robertb305mo ago

I had a drip over my bench too and tried patching with roofing cement first, that worked for a few months before it cracked again. Ended up slapping a 10x12 tarp over the whole roof section and weighed it down with bricks, ugly as sin but bone dry inside now. My neighbor used that spray on rubber coating stuff and says it's held for two years, might try that next time the tarp gives out.

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