Concerns about the quality of the roofing job on my home

I’m located in San Diego, CA and recently had my 1945 home re-roofed by a well known and reputable roofing company in the area that is licensed/bonded/insured/OC Preferred contractor etc. The work was just completed and i’ve yet to pay, but I have a few concerns about the workmanship and am wondering if it’s just all in my head.

During the tear off the old plank style wood was exposed and appeared to be in decent condition with few gaps over 1/4" inch and no rotting found. They assured me that a new decking of OSB or plywood was unnecessary despite what i’d read elsewhere. Now that it is completed, I can see the synthetic underlayment through the small gaps in the attic as well as knot holes that weren’t covered over with anything other than the underlayment and shingles.

Additionally, the valleys were fashion in a California Cut style according to the roofer. When I look at them they appear to run directly center with the valley and aren’t particularly well secured to the roof structure. I can lift the top layer up easily exposing the shingles underneath. The bottom layer is secure however. To my mind, water would run underneath the unsecured section penetrating the underside of the shingles. Shouldn’t they have roofing cement or something on them to keep secure?

Finally, there are a few areas where the “SureNail” strip of the Owens Corning TruDefinition Duration shingles are readily visible on the roof as well as a couple exposed nailheads that I can see as well. These are primarily isolated to one small area. I am typically pretty critical of work and am wondering if this is normal workmanship or all in my head. Any advice from the pros around here as to if this is typical or if not, what I should do about it?

Link to pictures: Roofing Concerns - Album on Imgur

We do mainly older houses 1/4" + gaps in the planks are not in issue, as long as when they were nailing They took there time and did not nail where there was no wood.

The valley could have been cut a little straighter. As far as lifting the shingles you do not want any nails in the center of the valley that will leak. Those shingles will be fine as long as you don’t keep pulling them up.

The exposed nails and viable sure strip however are not acceptable. They need to come back and add some shingles under the hips.

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The nails are too close to the seams.
The nails are in the seams.
They had no idea where to install the nails
Except the “sure nail strip”
One nail is shot totally sideways and exposed.
They didnt do anything to correct it.
Imagine the thousands of nails that are not exposed.

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Thank you for the reply,

It’s funny you mention the indiscriminate nailing because I did notice that many of the nails particularly on the ridge were nailed above or below the nailing strip. I wish I had taken pictures prior to them installing the deco-ridge shingles.

It sounds like mistakes were made but i’m not sure what recourse I have at this point. The saving grace may be that I haven’t paid yet. Should I contact Owens Corning for a roof inspection and go nuclear with this? I assume they would void the warranty on the roof based on what I’m seeing.

I doubt they will offer to reroof at this point, if that is even necessary. I’m hoping this won’t have to involve lawyers!

The gaps in the boards is not a problem, but when you said knot holes if they are no bigger then a fifty cent piece I think you will be ok anything larger should have been covered with sheet metal or replacement of the lumber. Valleys are ok if they I call it dog earing. that’s cutting the very top of the shingle if it comes to a point in the valley. I fixed a few leakes not on jobs I done , that were due to this. This usually happens at bottom of valley and about half way up the valley. Water will travel sideways when it catches that point. Especially if the valley is cut in the middle of it.

The worst thing I see is the hips and the crocked valley. The valley could easily have a new line chalked and cut. On the hips they will need to add a small piece where the shingle rows are too close. Other than those two things your roof looks pretty average. Most roofers do average work (not exceptional). A complete reroof is unnecessary. From what I can see in your pics I’d ask for those two issues to be addressed and move on. I don’t think “going nuclear” is gonna help things.

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