Up until December, I was managing a storm remediation company and oversaw a lot of roof replacements, so my friend and neighbor asked me to check in on his roof replacement since he would be gone at work all day. He was using the highest rated company in Atlanta so I assumed there would be nothing to worry about. I was VERY wrong.
The first thing I realized is that they delivered 1/2 plywood but he was paying for 5/8. The job had started but the boss was nowhere to be found so it was a real pain having to call the main number and convince them that they needed to get the right decking delivered. I eventually got the point across and they delivered the right materials just in time to do the complete redecking my friend had requested.
Now the boss finally showed up and I introduced myself and started asking all the relevant questions to make sure there weren’t any glaring issues with his plan for the roof. I asked how many feet of ridge vent he was putting on and he said 70 and I immediately knew he hadn’t done any ventilation calculations, so I showed him how to use the OC ventilation calculator so he could see the the roof only needed 42 lf of that particular vent. 70 lf would have been sucking the A/C out of his house for the next 20 years.
Then we talked about the ice and water. He says he’s going to be applying it to the rake. So I said “okay, and the eaves…?” and this guy looks at me like I’m an idiot and tells me the ice and water only goes on the rake. So now my alarm bells are ringing. I tell my friend I have to go to my doctor’s appointment but that the supervisor has no idea what he’s doing and he should call the company to complain.
While I’m gone it starts to rain. 3 hours of very heavy rain. When we get back to his house, the supervisor keeps asking about if he’s doing a total renovation on the house. Like he was suggesting that if there were water leaks inside that it wouldn’t matter. And my friend says its just the exterior, I’m not renovating, I live here. I was getting abad feeling so I said we better go look around inside.
Immediately, we could hear water dripping. There were huge areas of water damage in EVERY room of the house! This crew did not tarp during the rain. There were several parts of the ceiling that were already collapsing in. It was an absolute nightmare scenario. We called the company and immediately they would not take us seriously. They told us they would send their sheetrock guy out in a few hours to look at it. So I called up the best water remediation company I know and told them to go ahead and stabilize the house and that the roofing company would eventually understand the severity of the situation and thank me for getting the drying process started immediately.
I’ve advised him to file a claim with his property insurance and let them subrogate the roofers insurance. But the craziest part is they sent the same crew AND job supervisor back today to finish the roof job. This is a huge company, they could have sent anyone else to finish the job. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my time in construction. If you were the owner of the roofing company would you still charge him for the roof?
Update (December): They did not end up charging him for the roof. He and his tenant are still displaced while the house is being put back together. Its been a huge disruption in their lives and I think the company ultimately decided that an insurance claim doesn’t really account for all the ways their mistake effected them. I believe it was the right call, especially as it was a very large company with a good reputation at stake.