I noticed some water dripping into my bathroom today after a heavy rain. I crawled up into the attic to investigate and I noticed that the vent pipes going through the attic and roof have a small gap between them.

What is the repair for this? I'm guessing I need to drop by Home Depot and get some rubber or some other type of flashing to seal the gap. Is this right or is there something else?

 

You probably need an entirely new vent pipe boot. If you can see light around the pipe, the rubber has probably split or disintegrated. You will want to know the outside diameter of the vent pipe... whether it is 2", 3", 4", etc.

Some silicone or urethane sealant around the perimeter would provide a temporary solution.

If you don't want to / or can't fix it right, and you really don't want to get into tearing off your shingles to replace your old vent pipe boot at this time, you "could" cut out the rubber piece out of a new vent pipe boot and slip it over the top of the old one like a cap, provided there is enough of the old rubber left to still make a decent seal. You'd obviously need to caulk the heck out of it, and again, this would only be a temporary solution, but would be better than caulking alone.

 

I know this probably won't help since the problem is long past, but there is a new retrofit product coming out this fall to fix and prevent these exact problems: Perma-Boot - Permanent Roof Vent Boot Repair - Home