DIY a stay at home dad can do-install a new roof

‘I didn’t know Mojo was a roofer’, some of you may be pondering.  Well, I’m not and roofing is a big time home repair that you will not attempt, unless you have a roofing company.  Instead this is a cautionary tale of what to look for in a roofing company and the story of a good roof gone bad. 

Prior to moving to our current house Mommy Mojo and I oversaw a total renovation to the house we were living in.      We had a general contractor do all of the work, including the roof.  The contractor was fully checked out via Angie’s List, insured, we saw pictures of their work and nothing showed us that we should be concerned about their work.

All of their work was good, except for the roof on the front porch.  The pitch on the front porch doesn’t have much of an angle, so they used roll roofing.  Imagine using a tortilla instead of bread for a sandwich and roll roofing is something like that.

The weekend after their work was done the roofing on the front corner of the porch had come up about five feet.  It was like the wind had just ‘dog eared’ the page of a book, except it was the roll roofing.  I called the company (who shall be named later) and told them about it.  I forget exactly what they said, but it went along the lines of “don’t worry about it, just go up and nail it down”.

Fast forward five years and the soffits have rotted through, the decking was trashed and the roll roofing was failing.  I’m no roofing expert, but I think that the company that did work the last time may have missed something.

We had a couple different roofing companies give us estimates, as well as, what went wrong.  They all said the same thing: the previous company did a bad job.*   I called the previous company, reintroduced myself from our relationship five years earlier and told them what was up with the roof they put on.

The work was done five years ago, I realize that.  But there were immediate problems a couple days after they finished and I had three different people tell me the same story about their lack of quality.  I made the mistake of calling them while I was taking care of Toddler Mojo.  He started yelling, the roof company said something about it not being their fault, these aren’t the droids I’m looking for and I said goodbye.

I had Mommy Mojo call them.  She’s a savvy business woman who won’t have a screaming toddler and can get results.  She asked who the manufacturer of the roll roofing was to see if they had any warranty information.  The company started yelling at her, saying it happened five years ago and that they wouldn’t be shaken down for free or discounted work.  It wasn’t even some lackey who was yelling, it was the owner of the company.

Bottom line

The original company, GreenHeart Enterprises, didn’t adhere the underlayment to the decking and it was stapled incorrectly.  Their failure and our ignorance ended up costing us another $2,100.

Roofers don’t need to be licensed.  We live in Atlanta and roofers don’t need a license here. In some places they do need to have a license.  If they don’t need a license, check out photos of their work and call the references that they provide.  Also, do a Google search on that company and see if any frustrated bloggers have had bad experiences with them.

Be certain to get their guarantee in writing.  Get the specifications on all of the materials that they will be using on the roof as that will also have any warranty information.    Had we gotten the warranty information from the roll roofing company it would’ve stated something along the lines of “if this is not put on properly….it will void the warranty”.  Such a statement would’ve put the onus back on GreenHeart Enterprises, which would’ve saved us lots of money.  Alas, hindsight is 20/20.

Roll roofing doesn’t last as long as shingles, but should certainly last more than five years.

Proceed with caution and do not be afraid to ask questions.  Have them write down the answers if needed and if they say they can’t write it down don’t trust them.

Do your homework.  You need a roof and there are lots of great, reliable companies that can cover your house for a fair price.  Social media can help you in the research aspects of finding a roofer that won’t leave you regretting your decision down the road.

 

*For the roof wonks in the crowd, here is specifically what one company said was wrong with the original work. 

The front porch roof is comprised of a low slope self adhered ruberoid single ply system.  The cap sheet ply is severely degraded and has failed and leaking in several locations.  The roof deck is approximately 30 feet wide and 8 feet long from the front eave to the head wall.

The roof system appears to be approximately 5 years old.  The existing materials were installed incorrectly and directly contributed to the failure of the roof system.  The underlayment used on this roof system was not the correct underlayment for the single ply cap sheet installed.  It was an asphalt impregnated 15# underlayment typically used for shingle installations.  A glass ply base sheet should have been used.  The 15# underlayment was not fastened to the wood deck below according to manufacturer’s guidelines.  It was fastened with staples in a random pattern and at a minimum plastic cap nails or preferably Simplex nails should have been used in accordance with manufacturer’s guidelines.  No asphalt primer was used on the underlayment to improve adherence of the single ply cap sheet.  The cap sheet was not torched down to the underlayment at all and there was no adherence of the material to the underlayment.  The cap sheet was back nailed properly under each lap.  Separation of the material at the laps was evident and caused water infiltration.  In addition the cap sheet was not adhered to the metal drip edge along the perimeter and this also contributed greatly to the water infiltration that ultimately rotted out the wood deck below and damaged the soffit areas along the eave.

The workmanship of the existing roof system was poor and the incorrect installation of the existing materials would have voided any manufacturer’s warranty for the materials.