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By russell, November 27, 2010 2:04 am

1. If the homeowner thinks they have damage, they should first call their insurance company or agent and ask to file a claim.
2. The insurance company sends an adjuster to access the damage.
3. If the adjuster determines damage has occurred, he will issue a report listing the damage and the expected cost of recovery.
4. The adjuster will then cut a check for the damage minus the depreciation of the home.
5. The homeowner can choose 2 different ways to hire a contractor. He may bid the work to one or more contractors and accept a bid. If that bid is less than the insurance company estimate, the insurance company will pay only that amount, less deductible. If the bid is more than the insurance estimate, the homeowner can submit the higher bid to the insurance company and attempt to work out the difference.  The homeowner can also opt to hire a trusted contractor of their choice. The contractor can then work out their rates with the insurance company.
6. Under NO circumstances can a homeowner avoid paying their deductible. Any contractor that suggests otherwise to a homeowner is committing insurance fraud.
7. After the project has been completed, the contractor or homeowner sends an invoice and certificate of completion to the insurance company. Insurance then cuts a check to the homeowner for the depreciated portion of the loss (providing the homeowner has replacement cost insurance, which most do.)  In some instances, a mortgage company and/or contractor may be listed on the check as co-payees.

Don’t be in a hurry- you have a whole year!

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By russell, November 19, 2010 9:02 pm

HAIL DAMAGE! DON’T HIRE ANY CONTRACTOR UNTIL YOU HAVE READ

 THIS POST.

There are roofers from just about every state in Arizona right now taking advantage of the Hail Storm. Some of them are just trying to make a buck and have landed jobs with reputable contractors. And then there are those who are what we call “storm chasers” and they will do whatever it takes to get your insurance check. They come here and use local contractors licences to install new roofs they pay the local contractor a fee for the use of their licence. And then give you the homeowner a new roof. So whats the big deal you say.

#1 Your probably not getting the best value for your money.

#2 Some of them are cutting corners and will be long gone by the time you find out and you’ll be left with the bill.

#3  Some of them are not  paying any taxes that are used in your community, so most of that money is leaving Arizona.

#4 Some of them Are just plain out not roofers!

The list can go on and on. Don’t be a victim let the ArizonaRoofer recommend a trusted local licensed roofing contractor please contact us  .The ArizonaRoofer is the homeowners information source we are always on the homeowners side. We don’t play favorites, we play who can best serve you for your roofing needs.  

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By russell,

Due to the big Hail storm we had in Arizona there are tens of thousands of destroyed roofs All roof types were affected except tile roofs. The picture below is what a hail damaged foam roof will look like. There will be thousands of divits and impacts on the roof.

Hail damaged foam Roof

It is recommended to tear the roof off and install a new roof.  There are alot of contractors out there just recoating them this is not recommended.

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By russell, November 13, 2010 3:01 pm

Hello all I would like to inform you all of what hail damage to your roof may look like. But first off we had a really big hail storm in Arizona that has created so much damage that it has brought people from all over the country here and you need to be aware of some of these people. Alot of them are nothing more than con men trying to get your insurance money. Things you should be asking

1. Are you licenced in Arizona?

2. How Long?

3. Are you in good standing with the BBB and the Registar of Contractors?

Follow up yourself with this. E-mail me via our contact form if you need help with this.

I have already seen these guys cutting corrners that will cost you  alot more in the future.   

To help if you live in these zip codes you may have hail damage. Not everybody in these zip codes are affected but alot of people are.

85051,85301,85303,85302,85017,85015,85033

85035,85009,85006,85021,85029,85304,85306

85053,85023.

The main area is  from north to south McDowell rd. to the loop 101 and east to west from I-17 to around 67th ave.

Your damaged shingle roof will look something like this

I have’nt seen any damage to any concrete tile roofs. But if you have a patio roof  that is not tile you can still have damage to that roof as well.

As far as foam roofs go they NEED TO BE REPLACED don’t let anyone just coat it it will fail later.

If you are unsure If you have hail damage and need an inspection but cannot get a roofer out to inspect contact me via the contact form and I will inspect it for you and give you good recommendations.

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By russell, June 12, 2010 12:47 pm

Polyester fabric is not a roof membrane

I came across this roof.. if you can call it a roof system. This roof system consists of polyester fabric embed in elastomeric coating directly over the top of plywood, The overall thickness is around 20 mils thick. The coating should have been at least 30 mils thick and the membrane should have been 60 mils. This is a prime example of buyer beware. The home owner paid $2300 for this. I replaced this roof with a 1 inch foam roof with 3 coats of elastomeric coating @ 1.25 gallons per 100 sqft. for the same price. I’ve talked about polyester fabric before and it’s use for repairing foam splits and for the use on top of stucco parapet walls to stop cracks. But this is NOT a roofing system and anytime someones says their going to put polyester fabric on your roof ask these questions.

1. are you putting over the exsisting roof system? (this is ok for a band-aid)
2. are you going to tear off the exsisting roof and put this in place of it? (this is not ok)

I’ve seen this used as a roof system before (and I’m not to fond of it) But it’s applied totally different then this roof. When this is used as a roof system the polyester fabric is layered in asphalt emulssion and the final coat is a 4 gallon per 100 sqft elastomeric coating achieving an overall mil. thickness of around 140 mils thick.

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By russell, October 5, 2009 3:30 pm

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.

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By russell, July 15, 2009 7:20 pm

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!

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By russell, July 6, 2009 8:10 pm

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 is a failed membrane seam.

 

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By russell, July 1, 2009 5:27 pm

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

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By russell, June 29, 2009 6:20 pm

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!