Roofing issues can be downright scary. Roofs are a necessity for your home’s structure. They are made to keep you, your family, and your home dry and safe. Repairs can be expensive, but new roofs are a significant investment you’ll be living with for decades. In this post, we will be sharing some roofing horror stories we’ve seen over the years. It may keep you from having a roofing horror story of your own!
Pay close attention to the mistakes made in these stories when carefully inspecting your roof or when you hire a roofing contractor.
1| Bought a Bad Roof
A familiar roofing horror story we hear is purchasing a home with an already damaged roof. While this is often picked up during inspection, some homeowners brush off the information and don’t take it too seriously.
When your home needs a new roof, it’s not something that can be done at a later time until you’re in a better financial state. Many homeowners are often surprised to learn that an issue they thought was no big deal is an expensive project.
Make sure you grasp the condition of any home’s roof you’re considering buying before closing.
2| Roofing Horror Stories Featuring a 30-Foot Blister
A property manager was frantic when the predecessor had installed a new roof on the building six months earlier. Now, this brand-new roof was already leaking badly, and the manager was beside herself about what to do. An inspection of the roof revealed huge blisters, one extended over 30 feet. Unfortunately, further investigation revealed that the new roof had been installed over an existing membrane. Still, the current, poorly installed pitch pans had been left in place.
Water had gotten into the old pitch pans and spread out from there. Wrinkles in the membrane left long thin tubes between the plies to funnel water into the roofing. After only six months in use, a moisture survey discovered that nearly 80 percent of the roof was completely saturated.
The property manager looked at the contractor to resolve the problem since he was the one who had installed the roof. To her surprise, she found that the previous property manager had failed to get a signed contract from the roofing contractor. The last manager had spent $60,000 to replace the roof without signing an agreement.
The manager was left with the prospect of explaining to the owner about why the roof was to be replaced twice in one year and why there was little recourse against the roofer. She had to find emergency money to replace the roof and remove all the existing roofing down to the deck. Proper completion of the new roof costs about $110,000.
3| The Unfixed Leaky Roof
Hearing the sound of water dripping into your home can be a terrifying sound. Although it may be something you don’t want to take care of, please don’t let it go. Unfortunately, the problem will not go away. Leaking roofs that go unfixed can result in devastating problems for your home.
Problems that may arise:
- Personal items destroyed: When water makes its way into your home, other things in your house will become affected, including the roof. Furniture, TV, and appliances are the most common items we see involved. Still, we’ve witnessed a list of other high-value items become unusable due to a leak.
- Loss of insulation: Fundamentally, if there is a hole, it will allow the atmosphere to escape. This means the warm, temperature-controlled air in your home will leak outside. This makes your home drafty and less comfortable and costs an arm and a leg to keep at the desired temperature.
- Mold and wood-decay fungi: When water enters your home unabated, bad things happen. Moisture enters your living space, walls, and attic and creates mold that could take a severe renovation to eliminate. Your home could be severely impacted due to wood-decay fungi, which grow under similar conditions and eats away at wood until your home’s structure is destroyed.
4| Roofing Horror Stories and the Disappearing Roof
Imagine preparing for a severe storm without a roof. This family found themselves staring down a windstorm without a roof because of an address mistake. After receiving a call from her daughter asking why she didn’t mention roof work was happening that day, Jen rushed home to find their home in total shreds.
The roofing company they hired accidentally removed their roof instead of the roof that they were supposed to work on down the road. The roofing company said they would give Jen a deal to replace the roof. After several phone calls with their insurance company and police, the family found a roofing company that they could trust to do the replacement.
So, word to the wise – always let family members know when work is taking place, and make sure everyone knows to never let anyone up on the roof without documentation. Emergency roof repair
5| Beware of Engineer
A leaky structural standing seam metal roof was only ten years old. It was not too old for a metal roof, but it had leaked off and on since it was installed.
Because removing the structural standing seam metal roof was not feasible. And leaving the building wide open to the weather was not an option. The owner hired a roof consultant to provide plans and specifications for re-roofing the building. Three separate plans were designed to get the best price for the new roof; all were lightweight to avoid overloading the pre-engineered structure.
The owner also wanted to eliminate the internal gutter system, which had become a source of much of the leakage. The drainage was redesigned to take advantage of the existing overflows, making them the primary drainage. The construction documents detailed three new overflows at each drain to be added to the precast concrete parapets to assure that water on the roof would be quickly removed. The new deck was to be supported by steel angles attached to the concrete walls.
The roof was bid without the consultant’s involvement, and a contractor out of Miami installed it. A year later, it collapsed after a few nights of heavy rain. The original company was called back to discuss what had happened. One glance at the building from the outside told the whole story. The overflows and steel angles intended to support the new deck had been eliminated by “value engineering.” The owner and this unnamed subpar contractor were unfamiliar with the design. They did not understand why the roof was done the way it was.
Because the overflows were not installed, the estimated 9 inches of rain from the previous night could not exit through the main drainage fast enough. The weight of the water accumulated at the drain, where it overstressed the deck and the structure, and the building came down at the cost of about $2 million.
Contact Best Roofing for Your Halloween Roofing Horror Stories
Best Roofing services in Kingsport, TN, and sounding areas. We specialize in roof replacement, specialty roofing, roof repair, emergency roof repair, and gutter systems. Our company is also licensed in Virginia and Tennessee.
Contact our experienced team for the best roofing solutions is the area.
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