I have said it before and I’ll say it again. If your not careful in selecting the right roofing contractor you may end up with a roof that looks like the picture below.
This is what happens when you drag your foam hose through wet foam
This is what happens when a foam applicator drags the foam hose over wet foam. This kind of thing does happen from time to time but the real problem here is the fact that it was left like this. Normally you would take your grinder and grind it flat and then apply your coating, apparently this roofing contractor was to lazy to do it right. Kind of makes you wonder what else they didn’t do. Well take a look at the pictures below.
All around bad foam detail
This picture shows all around bad foam detail. First off they foamed in the A/C condensate line and the A/C electrical conduit. So if for some reason you needed to replace the electrical or condensate line in addition to hiring an A/C contractor you will also need to hire a roofer. The foam detail is all around bad.
Too much foam on the pipe and not enough around the base of the pipe
This is really a all to common mistake. 9 out of 10 foam roof leaks are due to a failed penetration or some other component and not the foam it’s self. If they would have put the foam they sprayed up the sides of the pipe around the base of the pipe this wouldn’t have happened. As you can see someone tried to fix this by brushing some elastomeric coating around the pipe and as you can see it didn’t work. The proper way to fix this would be to re-foam the pipe. If you didn’t have the money to hire a roofer to do it you could apply a thik bead of urethane caulking around it. It will be a semi permanent fix. By the way this type of failure is due to settlement and the lack of foam around the pipe.
In a nutshell this property owner paid some one to give them a new roof and then paid someone else to fix their mistakes. And believe me it’s not cheap, had they hired a roof consultant from the very beginning the job would have been done right the first time and would have cost them a lot less than it’s costing them now. Remember that cracked pipe how much damage did it cause inside the structure? How many pipes were failed like that…. About 9. So remember when you decide to have roofing work done it might be a good idea to at least call a roofing consultant to see what his fees are you might just be surprised. Or you can roll the dice.
I gave a tutorial on finding and fixing leaks on skylights. It also covered what to and what not to do to fix them . And it didn’t take long to find a failed skylight that I could take pictures of to further explain how Skylights work and once again explain what not to do.
In this first picture it shows a caulked skylight lens. This is not recommended. Over time the caulking fails and the skylight will leak again
Caulked Skylight Lens
In this picture it shows the reason why the sky light was leaking in the first place. If you look the “weep” (this is where the water comes out of the skylight). Has been caulked and foamed shut, blocking the waters exit. The water traped inside can only fill the trough and leak inside of the house.
This is the inside of the skylight
The operating function is as follows. Water runs in between the lens and the metal frame (see picture 1). Fills up in the trough. The water travels to the cornners and then out through the weep on the side. This skylight is ruined and needs to be replaced. At a price around $150-$200 or more depending on who does it!
This failed wall could have been prevented, Had they installed an appropriate wall flashing. This roof was installed by a licensed Arizona roofing contractor. These are cornner cutting methods that will cost you the consumer alot of money later on. This is not uncommon to see.
Incorrect wall detail fails
This next picture is about a 3 year old modified roof that has buckles and a failed membrane seam.
This is a preventable problem. This roof also installed by a licensed Arizona roofing contractor.
This is not to say all roofing contractors are bad it just shows the need for an independent roof inspection before and after the work is completed. In both cases this could have been prevented.
This is a failed membrane seam.
I have talked about the importance of roof inspections before. In this picture you will clearly see why. This roof was in failure before the solar panels were ever installed. The company who installed the solar panels may not or may have known this, but why risk losing the job because of a failing roof. Had this homeowner had a $150 roof insepection done prior to the solar panel installation they could have had the roof replaced and they would’nt have the problem they now have. They could have had this roof re-roofed for around $1000-$1250 depending upon the roofing system. But now they are looking at about $1700-$2200 if they can even find a roofing contractor to do it. Reason is the panels have to be removed and since roofers are not solar panel experts the risk damage to these very expensive panels. This picture is decieving believe me when I tell you you need to remove these panels before you can re-roof this.
This is a big roofing problem
Most home lenders require a home inspection of the property you want to buy before they will lend you the money. In most cases the home inspector will do a fairly good job. However there are the times when they make critical mistakes when doing the roof inspection. Once you sign the papers for your new home it’s yours and you soon find out about hidden faults that even the home inspector missed. You should always get a second opinion when it comes to your roof. I have seen times where roofs are in need of almost a complete re-sheet (that’s when the roofs plywood is in need of replacement). And that is a very expensive task and on top of that the roof will have to be replaced because you have to remove it to replace the plywood. What happens is the selling homeowner knows the roof needs to be replaced but doesn’t have the money to do it so he’ll get a roofing contractor to cover up the can of worms (the bad plywood) for little money and “A no warranty AS IS cash deal”. This doesn’t happen a lot to this degree but it happens more than it should. When it comes to your roof you should always take extra precautions it’s not just a part of your investment it protects your whole investment.
After all a house is nothing with out a roof!
The need for Roof maintenance Is an extremely important aspect of your roof health and life. You wouldn’t Let your car run out of oil or never change it. Just the same your roof needs maintenance. This is Especially important with flat roofs without regular maintenance you can potentially reduce your roofs life span by 50%.
Roof Maintenance programs can be reasonably inexspensive and may consist of the following things depending on what type of roof you have.
1. Powerwashing.
2. Re-sealing of pipes and flashings.
3. Cleaning of gutters and drains.
4. Spot patching of worn and degrading areas.
5. Replacing torn or missing shingles.
6. Replacing broken or missing tiles.
7. Checking to make sure edge metals are securly fasten.
The Case for roof maintenence
Roof drains that have debris blocking them like this leads to roof faliures
Keeping Trees cut back away from roofs Is something your landscapers can and should be doing. Tree litter is one of the biggest sources for roof deterioration.
Tree litter is one of the biggest sources of roof Deterioration
Comments (0) 
