If the roof suffers damage without wind, war or earthquake and large tears or holes exist, the roof detective needs to evaluate the forensics. We can tell when trees have been cut down by swooping marks on the roof so isn’t it logical to use other evidence to determine why a hole has been made. Fingerprints, claws marks and bite and gnaw marks are often left as hints at who your enemy is. On the other side, of the culprit that is, some droppings of the fecal type might give you clues.

Once you have enough experience looking at the dung/ roof damage combinations, without ever setting a foot on Texas A & M campus, you are soon able to tell the customer who, or what, damaged his, or her, roof. I’ve seen raccoon, peacock (read earlier blog of that interesting story), woodpecker (although they usually attack siding as the fowl did to my house before pulling insulation out and throwing it all over the yard before he vanished), squirrel, dog (the idiots let their dog get on the roof, human child (although no poop was left they tore up the roof…clothing held the evidence) possum, and cat. Yes cat. I waited until I saw the guy jump up there and pull wood shingles off. The client told me he saw the cat do it but I was skeptical until I saw it for myself. I love cats like that.

Knowing who pooped the roof can help in the elimination of the poop problem. This is no joke…No shit.

So after writing this I googled “roof poop” and found a whole universe of blogs and videos on this dark subject:

https://www.google.com/search?q=roof+poop&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Jon Alan Wright

Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, Windows and Solar
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com
jonwright@jonwrightindustries.com
www.jonwrightroofing.com

http://www.jonwrightroofing.com

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Jon Alan Wright

Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, Windows and Solar
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com
jonwright@jonwrightindustries.com
www.jonwrightroofing.com

http://www.jonwrightroofing.com

By the way, the name Jon Wright Industries might become more common as insurance companies are trying to deny us general contracting fees when we handle a lot of various trades. It’s not that we don’t do the work, it is semantics to avoid doing what they should do. We did. We did all the work. We managed a lot of trades, some intersecting. We walked like a duck, smelled like a duck but our name was not duck like. So we weren’t a duck? A rose by any other name is still a rose.

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
      Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
      What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
      Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
      Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
      What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
      By any other name would smell as sweet;
      So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
      Retain that dear perfection which he owes
      Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
      And for that name which is no part of thee
      Take all myself.

Take that Safeco.

Jon Alan Wright

Then came the Haag Gauge. It didn’t measure calories in ice cream or compare it to other flavors, but was more of a caliper like we use to measure metal thickness. But the effected ones would cram it into place, knocking off gravel and contorting the asphalt, all the while howling fraud. now mind you, this seems to effect only the newest adjusters as the more experienced ones have been vaccinated.

Phase three was calling the inept counter clerks at a big box and asking them if 40 year still existed. There is a skew in the computer, therefore they must exist. If an honest inside adjuster was willing to be put on hold for an hour plus she would find out that the temp worker was oblivious and had never lived in the roofing world.

Level four was to call roofing distributors. With incompetent order takers who had only been there a couple of years (temps too) who had never heard of “The Great Shingle Regrade of 2001,” using their ramblings as proof would be akin to using them as doctoral linguists on ‘The Defenestration of Prague” when trying to use that bizarre word in a sentence. Well, thee adjusters who did this need to experience defenestration themselves.

Cinco: Then the lying began. “I measured it. It’s a thirty year all day long!”

Six, pick up sticks:Later came the fake lab report. Intel backs up Farmers continually calling 40 years 30 year. repeatedly. So we changed the rules and found some honest experts. Our bones were not broken by sticks but the words still hurt. Like Robin Williams in “Moscow On the Hudson”: “When you speak English, does your mouth hurt?”  The unqualified engineer is another faux weapon of the insurers. While every tile roof in one neighborhood (same brand) along with every other roof, this cracked up tile roof sustained no hail damage? Flagrant foul!

7:We sent shingles to the factory that made them and to Haag engineering. Wallah! We did know what we were talking about. now they forget the skew for the better shingle in the insurance program they forced upon us and trying using the cheaper skew and modifying the material cost. Why? Because by breaking their own rules they save money.

Using non experts, fake lab reports, misusing the adjusters shingle gauge, sneaking around and failing to meet us on site, and just winning by out waiting the homeowners patience, they insurance companies have saved themselves millions by putting on cheaper roofs than the homeowner deserves.

Admittedly many roofers lie and some adjusters respond alike. Yet the carpetbagger type of mushroom roofer that pops up after a storm won’t argue this point. It takes time. He goes door to door saving deductibles, turning innocent people into felons, all the while making his money on volume. He does crappy work void of new parts and pieces and nail guns on cheap shingles using strangers. He doesn’t care because he squeezes the job until a small profit shows up for little time investment.

Jon Alan Wright

So I looked up his home and was startled to see a roof that used to be prevalent: asbestos tiles. These diamond shaped tiles laid flat, were nailed at the top and had an upside down brass hook in the face to keep them from blowing off. The asbestos was encapsulated in Portland cement, making it a transite asbestos containing roofing material, ACRM or just ACM. This makes the asbestos fibers tightly packed, which is hard to make friable. If you rough it up, cut it or crush it, the asbestos fibers become airborne. This is when the attorneys and doctors step in. 

Left alone and free of algae the asbestos shingle would last a very long time.

When the asbestos was mixed with cement and a few other products it could be made into about any shape you wanted. See the ridge in the picture?

when I was in college I was tearing off one of these roofs after a hailstorm. I filled up a wheel barrow, turned it to go uphill, stepped back into a few of these plates lying on top of one another. boy was I glad there was a tree at the eave that i was crushed against by the runaway wheel barrow.
There is some beautiful workmanship in the clapboard siding ornamental railing and posts but the wood shingle stagger pattern is just great.

 Mastic Siding makes some vinyl products that look a lot like these and will last a very long time. But none of these products will last as long as MLK’s ideas and dreams. 
I was going to see if my neighbors set out their trash and a number of them did, including the black folks across the street. I guessed the city might gather trash today but out of respect I didn’t set it out. I admit that IU was late in getting on the bandwagon for this great man but once on I am here forever. Without him I might lose some very good friends and employees.

Jon Alan Wright

To be great in the roofing business a roofer also needs to know about any other part of the structure that the roof integrates with. Those building materials that are beneath, above, beside, and that pass through it effect the roof.

First, from below there is the decking, the framing, attic and foundation. Think I’m being extreme? What would you think if i counseled my client to go ahead and replace his roof right before he had his foundation repaired? anyone that did, I would say, either knows no better or is criminally immoral. The movement in a foundation is like a see saw, a teeter totter, because and inch under the house can fulcrum several on the roof. The decking either shoves together or separates. The framing comes loose. All havoc has reigned down on the home and it shows up worse on a roof.

Also the roofer needs to know the load bearing capabilities of the framing before he puts on a roof that is too heavy. More destruction to the framing, even the walls blowing out. Other times roofers need just to brace or level the roof

The attic, well if you’ve read three of my posts, you know what improper ventilation can do.

Once a customer wanted to tear off five layers of composition roofing off his home. I told him he needed to replace the deck, partially because it was riddled with nails, but in this case, to put on a heavier one with a heavier shingle. The house had settled comfortably under the geological layers of roofing and the doors and windows had probably been adjusted. More weighty decking and shingle would lighten the load still but without as much gravitational shock.

He didn’t listen. He went cheap. He paid big time. The doors, windows and garage doors were dysfunctional and had to be rehung. The plaster cracked. The house was happier but the homeowner not.

Beside the roof are walls sometimes. If there is vinyl siding and the roofer flashes only behind this and not the wood underneath the vinyl or aluminum siding, the roof (wall) will leak. If the wall is decomposed repairs need to be performed for a water tight nexus. The roofer needs to work with either siding, masonry or wood. If the wall has windows above the roof the window might leak, but it will look like a roof leak. Bricks and stones need to be counterflashed sometimes into the mortar or stone itself.

The penetrations for the gas flues, the plumbing stacks, the chimney, bathroom fart fans and anything else that goes from below to above the roof can required that the roofer can do minor hot water heater and furnace adjustments. Improperly done and the house might burn down or make the occupants suffocate. Sometimes, depending on the new roof system, the sewer pipes need to be extended or moved. Even electrical and freon lines can be effected by careless roofing practices. Power fans and electric skylights can pose issues for the roofer.

If the siding or cornish work on the house have lead paint on them then the roofer needs to know painting and lead remediation.

The roofer needs to be aware of framing, structural loads, plumbing, HVAC, painting, electrical, carpentry, masonry, geometry, and, finally roofing. He needs to know how to build a house.

Now add OSHA, ventilation, and lead, he needs to be an EPA expert and a paramedic of sorts.

Some of these things he needs to work in association with other tradesmen on but if he doesn’t have the basics down he won’t know what he needs to do. He may not be able to fix the foundation but he needs to tell you when you need it done and when it needs to be done. Before he gets there. Then everything else might be even more messed up.

Jon Alan Wright

Roofers lift up counterflashing and it cannot be returned to its original position due to the memory of the metal. You’d have to push the metal counterflashing back past the wall, which you can’t, to get it to lay flush.

Besides you put on copper roofing or slate and the roofer never heard of the Nobility of Metals. so your galvanized counterflashing has started a battery on the roof with the exchange of material on a subatomic level that only young children can see.

Someone forgets to water the yard or the roots of that long gone Elm tree rot away and the foundation moves. Brick and mortar is not nearly as flexible as members of Congress, so the wall cracks and rain and bugs enter.

Blame it on the roofer. He could have told you about it but it happened later or he didn’t get on the roof.

As part of any home maintenance program, property owners should walk around their home and survey the exterior. Hard to do when phydeaux had pooped everywhere and your teenage son hasn’t done his job. But do look up. Look around. Gutters full? Draining? Shrubs holding up the gutters? The wall cracked? Bricks falling of the top of the chimney? Little pieces of brick all over the roof?

If you handle it early you can save tens of thousands. If you wait, we’ll make some money.

Jon Alan Wright

Jon Alan Wright

Usually we determine the ventilation requirements by the size of your attic using the 300, or in some case the 150, Rule of Balanced Ventilation. If a lot of mammals like in your home then you might need to increase the ventilation, or open a window or two, because they might be breathing, bathing, cooking or who knows what (I do want to keep my PG-13 rating). Even washing and drying clothes releases a lot of water vapor into the climate controlled sealed air system you call home. If all those warm blooded beasts wear clothes them they’ll need to be washed. I really can’t figure out why my 14 year old some never has dirty clothes though.

In the attic there is a confluence of these various sources of moisture and the ambient air from outside. By the way, that premise is based on balanced ventilation from your builder, roofer or hole cutting designee.

I just want the rug rats to know that their asthma might be a result of using a roofer with 1970 technology: venting to remove heat. The spores from your Spelunker’s Cave sitting on top of your child’s bedroom, a place you call the attic, have been breeding, permeating your framing, siding, mildewing your soffits, and causing general mayhem.

The heat removal is just a plus, and a mighty one at that, but do you think lowering your attic from 160 F to 130 F is wonderful. It is unless you are in it, and you’ll still cook, albeit just a little slower.

By the way, if you read the small print on your roof warranty, the warranty is void if you don’t follow the rules. Duh? And I promise you your roof will fail in less than 15 years. The blistering, granular loss, cracking, curling or clawing might happen in as little as six or seven.

Tired of repainting your house, wondering why your insulation is packed, the kids are sick, the house smells like old people and puppies, your electric bills are higher that your neighbor’s, and only you got ice dams in the last ice event? I bet you wished you paid your deductible now rather than listening to a liar.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope Santa doesn’t mess up your roof.

Jon Alan Wright