Next Steps for Damage Caused by Roofing Crew

A 1800’s house huh. That means that this is a special case house. So its understandable that OP wants it done by the best.

However, this seems like it was poorly planned from the start. Since that roof isn’t conventional, the replacement parts arn’t conventional, which is my guess why they took so long to do something after the tear off.

Im sorry OP. But this is partly your fault for not planning thoroughly with the contractors in advanced how everything is going to be done, again because the parts for this house is not conventional.

I would demand money for the damage done by rain, but I would only demand half or only partly.

Now, if all the parts needed were ordered ahead of time and arrived, then I would demand full reimbursement for the damage. As any competent roofer knows that a tear off must be boarded up immediately at the very least, with a layout of felt.

Pics of the house would be nice.

There is a saying stating when you point your finger at someone else, you have three pointing back at you. Owning your mistake is one thing but going ballistic and legal isn’t much better in most cases. Recovering damages is a heap of headaches in of itself, making the proof of guilt the easiest part of the process. Try to get some sort of mediated resolution as it’s possible the contractor, even though at fault, is possibly feeling cornered and might be eager to participate in a more amicable resolution rather than having their business reputation destroyed. We all make mistakes and I have a few projects that I’m embarrassed to relive. Insurance is there to make you whole and the tangibles can be remedied but the anger of legal battles linger and we seldom enjoy the “perfect” outcome we had hoped for.

2 Likes

We aren’t trying to go the legal route at this point. We’re talking to the roofers to try to get them to pay for the contractor that’s going to have to come in to fix the damage. We also discovered that you can see daylight around the chimney from our attic, so we’ll have to bring in someone for that as well. The roofers didn’t seal well around that.

All the materials were here ahead of time for the roof job, so it seemed like it was planned out. That makes the breaks they took really confusing.

So I get what you’re saying, but I really don’t feel that this is my fault. Replacing insulation, replastering and repainting aren’t things that I would be doing if this didn’t happen. We wanted the roofers to wait until spring and they just showed up.

Since most of the water damage occured the two nice days after the storm from snow melting through the holey tarps when they could have been putting up plywood and tarpaper (both of which were sitting outside at our house, so they had it), I feel that they should pay for the contractor. They knew about the roof, they had all the details and they had the materials there. I’m not going to go ballistic legal, but I really think they should pay for all the contractor work.

First point, stating you wanted them to wait till spring and they just showed up? Why didn’t you simply send them away? That was your responsibility and the beginning of the whole fiasco. You need to own that lapse of control.

Second point, if you feel they need to pay for bad practices resulting in damage, that’s understandable. A clear project scope and remedies for non-performance should be detailed on the contract for all parties to review and approve prior to project commencement … period.

If monies are owed, set those aside as a bargaining chip. Make sure to detail why you are doing so in a letter and how those funds will be disbursed on satisfactory resolution. If the cost of repairs ends up being less than the amount withheld, offer to pay that to the offending contractor as a sign of good faith. If you feel you want compensation for your hardship, get over it and accept there is a cost for allowing yourself to be placed in that situation in the first place.

Look at it this way, an education costs money. If you can offset your educational costs by breaking even and exit the situation where everyone assumes a proportionate amount of hardship, as well as the financial consequence that comes with it, you’ll be better off.

Unfortunately we were both gone at work when they showed up, so tear-off had already begun by the time we got home and found out about it. Otherwise yes, we would have done that. :slight_smile:

I do like that idea. We do still owe them the second half of the roof payment, so I think we’ll do that. We’ll have the contractor quote us(a very safe quote, like what’s the most it could cost), withhold that and then if it costs less, give the roofers that too. We don’t want compensation for ourselves, and we’re not trying to ruin their lives, but we would like to break even and not have this cost more than we were already paying for the roof. We had to save up for the roof as it is, so we don’t have the extra money right now to just go hire a contractor.

I agree with Ivoman, this is typically how you would want to resolve the issue if everyone is being reasonable.

As Ivomam mentioned we have all been here. You sound like a reasonable person and so long as the contractor is like minded this will work out.

This happened because they showed up unannounced when no one was home. You didn’t have the opportunity to stop them, once they tore off you pretty much have to let them continue. The contractor accepted responsibility once he stepped on to the job. In my book its 100% on them.

If that is the case, where all the parts were on site up front, then the damage is entirely the fault of the contractor.

When I did nails(beauty salon) and was working on a client, I couldn’t just get up and leave and did something else for another client(I did a couple of times though lol). It was highly unprofessional and could actually hurt the clients nails and skin.

A competent roofer will know that you must board up a roof immediately, and at best, they at least know the weather ahead of time.

Hold them accountable and don’t go easy on them. They need to make this right. You are paying a lot of money for this project and you went with them because they gave off a good level of competency.

You have to wait until they finish before getting solid repair bids on the damages. Material and labor prices do nothing but increase. Don’t get stuck wit a worthless ballpark quote.

Whatever you do please don’t go into detail about what you did for that “other client”. That is a topic for another forum.

1 Like

Your funny.

Your only here to stir up trouble, you should be banned.

1 Like

It’s a “theoretical” roofer. It only gets online when Mom isn’t home…

3 Likes

Get back in the basement

1 Like

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update on how everything turned out. The roofing company was pretty reasonable.

We didn’t pay the second half of the roof payment until we had the contractor here to fix the attic/insulation. We then sent then a copy of the bill and the roofing company took it off of what we owed. They tried to argue a little, but it was pretty halfhearted. They took the full amount off.

Thank you all for your help!

3 Likes