The owner's lawyer advised that she call us, which she did, and so we went to have a look.

Main problem is inadequate ventilation. 80% of the opening for the ridge vent was cut only on one side of the roof apex so this ridge vent is functioning at less than 50% of potential. Ridge shingle nails too short. Valley and rake edge details wrong. Underside of plywood in attic water stained, nail tips rusty, large black spots around nails, all indications of water vapor in the attic. Plywood buckling due to to moisture absorbtion. Owner says at recent meeting with roofer he became loud, profane, and insulting. Not a nice way to behave - especially when you are in the wrong. Owner's lawyer will have a field day with this one.

The owner wanted an independent assessment of this new Malarkey ‘Vista’ roof.  Some aspects of the install very nice. Proper fastening is crucial. Manufacturers are very clear how their shingles must be nailed. I understand that with many thousands of nails on a roof there will be some bad ones. After all we are not building a piano here. We lifted shingles at 4 3'X6' areas and 90% of nails were over and or angle driven. This roof was mis applied.

Stay tuned . . . . . . . . . . . . .         
 

The buyer of this home wanted an independent assessment of this Adams-Powell tile roof. 

There were four tiles slipping out of place, a minor issue. The main issue was that the valley metal is only 6" wide. Valley metal must be at least 24" wide and have a certain profile. These valleys have been leaking a long time. The bottom 12" of felt paper was mostly gone and plywood at the bottom was saturated with water. Instead of paying $15,000+ to redo the valleys, the buyer will opt for a new composition shingle roof.                       

The owners had valid concerns – and leaks – regarding this new roof, so we drove to Vernonia.  There are four attic vents, but only one had the hole cut. The wood perimeter 'nailer' was a composite material, not real lumber. The edge flashings were not 'sandwiched' between plies of TPO. Basic layout incorrect. Chimney leaking. The sun tunnel looked like my pet bunny rabbit Missy did it, with apologies to Missy. Other than that, it's a great install !!   

This is one where we don’t know where to start. This 'roofer' was on his seventh license which expired right after he did this monstrosity. He had eight CCB complaints and five suspensions for lack of proof of valid insurance. The 'contract' had five short sentences. CCB requires detailed contracts. This one didn't even say what type of materials would be used. Contract said 'All new flashing metal'. To this writer "all" means all. There was no new drip edge or rake/gable flashing anywhere. There was new chimney flashing - in 3 different colors. They put laminated shingles over laminated shingles which is allowed but it makes for a very bumpy lumpy roof. Problem was they used 1-1/4" nails which are too short and do not meet minimum code or any shingle manufacturer deck penetration requirement, which is 3/4". These nails penetrate the deck 1/8" to 1/4". They even used 1-1/4" nails for the ridge!

Olalla is twelve minutes NE of Gig Harbor in Puget Sound. One thing about doing this work is you never know where the next job will be.

This roof is four years old. There are 2"-3"-4'-5" depressions in the deck. The plywood is black. Plywood should be brown, not black. Plywood should be flat, not wavy. The two bathrooms and their vents are at the front half of the house. These vents are mostly venting into the attic. Contract called for two 'flapper' or stem vents. These are the vents that utility vents are attached to. Problem is that there are no new flapper vents on this building. Breach of contract and a serious error. Plus, there are not enough attic vents and the ones that are there are too far down from the ridge line. Typically all attic vents are on the side where they would not be visible; in this case that would be the back side. Ventilation issues abound here. Of course, the roofer from Tacoma says they did nothing wrong and now refuses to speak to the owners. Kitsap County requires a permit however a permit wasn't pulled. Bottom line is that you should always do what the contract, that YOU write, says you will do. This roof must now be torn off, replace nearly all plywood, and put a roof on correctly with proper ventilation - like they should have done the first time. Oooooops!    

This one is a disaster. Chimney flashing looks like my pet bunny rabbit did it. Valley metal is 18" wide. Code and all shingle manufacturers require minimum 24" wide. 90% of nails way above the embossed nailing lines on the shingles. Attorney has been hired. Stay tuned . . . . . . .

Update : Owner prevailed legally. New new roof has been installed, correctly. Well, there's another marginalized roofer that won't be sending us a Christmas card.

Snoqualmie is about 32 miles SE of Seattle – Population 12,000. The Northwest Railroad Museum is here. Very impressive! Plus we found a yummy Mexican restaurant in town. They even had a salsa bar! Friendly little town beautifully nestled up in the mountains.

As always we look at the website of any roofer whose work we scrutinize. This roofer's website is huge and fabulous. Very impressive. Judging them by this job they are more style than substance. Nails too short. Don't meet minimum penetration requirements. Supposed to be 2 layers of starter, there is one. Skylights incorrectly set and were allowing air and dirt and wind driven snow to enter. Roofer had skylight flashings above the curbs and didn't bother to trim the flashings even with the top of the curbs. All skylights were elevated above and not securely set on the curbs. 5 of the seven skylights had no weatherstripping! That's Roofing 101 stuff. Contract says all protrusions would have ice & water shield installed. 2 skylights had partial ice & water and the other 5 had NONE. Pipe flashings and stem vents lifted and checked - none had ice & water shield! Neither did the 2 chimneys. Amazing. Roofer covered all skylights with tarp plastic and secured plastic to roof - directly with screws and nails. Yes, directly in to the new 50 year premium shingles! My pet rabbit Missy wouldn't do a stupid thing like that. Another roofer came and re installed all 7 skylights - properly. Now there are dozens and dozens of holes around the skylights - in the brand new 50 year shingles! They've been caulked but the caulk will fail long before these premium 50 year shingles do. Now all these shingles will need replacing. They should have secured the tarps with rope around the base of all curbs. This roofer has a quality control guy. I guess he was on vacation during this job. It's always a good idea to do what your contract says you'll do and do the job to code ( shingle manufacturer instructions ).
 

Cloverdale is a small place – 552 acres, population 224, and is four miles south of Pacific City, sixteen miles north of Lincoln City. The owner had concerns that turned out to be well founded. Plywood was supposed to be installed - it wasn't. Fasteners must be staiinless steel - they aren't. Ventilation not close to code minimum. Bad detail work. Pipe boot wrong. Scratches, dents, divots, gouges everywhere. Off color screws used. Siding damage. Oh, get this one - the 'roofers' tarped the roof but the edge of the tarp ended up 3 feet from the gutter! And this house has no overhangs! So, all that water would have funneled right into the wall and perimeter of the inside ceiling. Lucky (for them) it didn't rain. Other than that it's a great job!

ORC has inspected new coastal / beach roofs from Port Orford Oregon to Ocean Park Washington and everywhere in between and we have yet to see a good roof install. . . . . . . . . Same thing for Central Oregon . . . . . . . . . . Same thing for the Metro area ( with a few exceptions ). The roofing industry has a looooooooooooong way to go.

After the job we went for a long beach walk then visited Fogarty Creek Beach then Depoe Bay then back up to Lincoln City for fresh fish to take home from Barnacle Bills and fish-n-chips at Blackfish Cafe.                          
 

ORC spent a lot of time on this 800 square foot flat roof. We helped the owner find the right roofer and monitored a lot of repairs. These 'repairs' were done by a different roofer who fell out of favor, one reason being doing shoddy work like this. Here they overlaid roof sections that had 1-2-3-4" wrinkles. Can't do that. The owner got a full refund and the roofer admitted what they did was wrong. Best part is a lawyer wasn't necessary which was a good thing because the lawyers always seem to end up with most if not all the money. Funny how that works.

Not only was this roof done without a signed contract, the roofer did it without the permission, blessing or knowledge of the owner, who lives in Seattle! The owner found out the roof was done via receiving a right-to-lien notice by the supplier in the mail. Plus, the roof is not to code. The roofer used the wrong fasteners and the gaps between the shakes were 1/8”-1/4”, not the required 3/8”-5/8”. Add to that, many hundreds of shakes were laid tightly together. Gapping shakes properly is one of the first things you learn at Shake Roof Installation Class. Plus, sub standard non code compliant shakes were used. Get this, the 'roofer' is fighting the claim by the homeowner and his lawyer! Doesn't have a chance in hell but he's fighting it. Simply astounding.

There are a lot of unskilled, inexperieced roofers (at best), and a lot of corrupt scammers (at worst). To the untrained eye, looking at this roof from the ground, it all looks fine. This is why you need the eye of an experienced and objective consultant to protect you.

Three Rivers is 19 miles south of Bend on Hwy 97 and just south of Sunriver. This is a job from a 'professional roofer' who has over 70 complaints with the Better Business Bureau and nearly 20 complaints and/or civil penalties with the Construction Contractors Board - in 3 years. Most impressive ! As soon as I heard who did this I knew what I'd find. Sure nuff! Code violations. Shingle manufacturer instructions not followed.Industry standards?!? Then do the opposite. Hire subs and underpay them, then charge some of the highest prices in the residential roofing  industry.

A permit was required so of course no permit was pulled. The old metal roof was removed. This house has no attic it has vaulted ceilings so a 'cold roof' was the proper method. Cold roof means install plywood and vapor barrier on top of rigid insulation board, then install vertical stripping using 1X2's or better yet 1X3's or 1X4's, install CDX plywood on verticals which creates a pocket which allows air flow/ventilation, install underlayment on plywood then install shingles. Instead, the 'professional roofer' put 2X4's between the rigid insulation then plywood on that. So now heat is escaping via the 2X4's as 2X4's have no insulating value. When there is snow on this roof you can plainly see the 2X4 outlines. Also, this homeowner is now paying to heat her roof! Add to that, the insulation R-value is not close to minimum standard. Add to this, shingle fastening not remotely close to the shingle manufacturers requirements and edge flashing not close to correct size as is required for the enhanced warranty that this owner paid for. The lawyer retained will have a field day with this one! I always feel badly for homeowners who are victimized by these longtime fraudulent thieves and con artists. It's the same, exact story EVERY TIME. This the 16th roof I have seen done by them.

On the way home we stopped at Bend Burger Company on NE 3rd Street for an outstanding bacon cheeseburger with fresh cut fries to enjoy on the way home. Like our area, Bend is presently a ghost town, too. Thank you China and up yours!                       

The roof was completed two days before we arrived. The owner had concerns which turned out to be warranted. This new $43K roof needs :

1) Ridge vent removed and cut opening to proper size
2) 3 bathroom fans are venting in to the attic. They MUST vent outdoors
3) Ridge nails over ridge vent too short and do not even reach plywood
4) Pipe flashings are the 15 year variety - on a 50 year roof
5) At one sidewall there are 2 rows of shingles per step flashing. Can't do that. Each shingle row must have its own step flashing.

Now roofer has to come back and do all this rework. Hey! Do it right the first time! What a concept!

The homeowners had mold issues in this 3 year old home, so they wanted a thorough roof inspection. Let's call this one 'The Case Of The Ripoff Builder'.

See that pipe coming out of the wall? It is venting a tank free water heater. That pipe happens to be venting into an overhang bay with 3 air intake holes in the bird block. In the attic there is an area right by this vent pipe of black mold about 20' X 12'. I wonder if the placement of that vent pipe had anything to do with it? Add to that the ridge vent had no opening on one side and a whopping 1/4" opening on the other side. Roofer apparently incompetent and in a BIG hurry as they were most likely getting paid 'piecework' which encourages speed which compromises quality. Builder apparently never heard of quality control or integrity. Professionalism ?!? . . . . . Nahhhhhhh. The owner pulled out ALL of the insulation and did mold remediation. In the garage is new insulation that will be installed - at some point.

Metal roof valleys MUST be minimum of 24" wide. These are 18". It will be nearly impossible to re-do these valleys as the factory sealant used nowadays is much more sticky / aggressive than in the past.

The OSB roof panels are tight together. There are no expansion joints. Stamped on each sheet in big bold lettering is 'sized for spacing'. For absolution and verification I called Weyerhauser Canada who made the sheets as well as the APA ( Engineered Wood Association ). I also called the Klickitat County Building Department as well as Pabco Roofing Manufacturer HQ in Tacoma Washington. I printed various sheets from these folks' websites and attached them with my summary report.

The owners will be demanding a new roof - among other things.                      
 

Issaquah is about 30 miles ESE of Seattle. 3 1/2 hours from home. We travel a lot. All plywood was replaced however it was laid tight with no expansion joint. Can't do that. Also at the open overhangs the industry standard is to use sheets with one finish side such as AC or CCPTS. Here CDX was used which is good plywood but has no finish side. Too long of shingle nails were used so hundreds of nails are blowing through this plywood. Looks bad. Contract says nails will be "hot dipped galvanized nails". Nails are 'electro galvanized' which have no true galvanization. In this writer's view it is always best to abide by the contract that you write.

Update: When presented with our findings the roofer was very professional and contrite. Most of these guys yell and scream and call me names. Not this guy. He apologized and was willing to do what the owners wanted even if that meant a new new roof. After discussions the owners opted for a significant discount / refund.

The owner of this house lives in Oman, which is next to Saudi Arabia. She is selling this house and wanted an independent assessment of the roof. Of course 3 roofers told her she needed a new roof. I told her otherwise. I am not selling anything so I can afford to be honest. One chump even put a huge tarp on the roof and created more repairs by nailing long 2X6 boards with large nails to hold the tarp down. Said 'roofer' in my opinion was trying to scare her in to buying a new roof or trying to make her feel obligated to award a new roof job because of their heroic and gallant efforts.As you can see by the close up photos these shingles are not 'shot'. All that needs to be done is rework the shingles around all protrusions. Some of these bastards will do and say anything to get a roofing job. Not this time so go rip off someone else.

This roof can't get any worse. It's a new roof that will have to be done over. The shingles were fastened with staples which were disallowed by code in 2003. Even if staples were allowed these are too short to meet minimum penetration requirements. Staples are also mis applied meaning the staple crowns must be parallel to the butt edge of the shingles. These are mostly at an extreme angle or perpendicular. Many are also overdriven. This fastening job looks like my pet rabbit did it - with sincere apologies to The Bunster.              

This mess courtesy of a repeat offender who doesn’t give a damn. This the 12th roof done by them and every one has had multiple legitimate negatives. Prior to and during the sale they treat you like a long lost dear relative but if you register a complaint you become an annoying enemy. On this one they used narrow crown plywood staplesto fasten the hip shingles. Fasteners MUST be roofing nails. 90+% of the nails used for the field shingles are badly misplaced with many over driven and at one large area no nails at all. Wiyh the report I attached a document with diagram from the shingle manufacturer that says nails MUST be on our embossed nailing line which is the strongest part of the shingles. Nails were way above this line. You know, placing a nail isn't that hard.