Right Roof – Wrong Roofer
After A Snow-Heavy Winter, This $250K Roof Was In Shambles Thanks To The Sloppy Work Of A Competing Roofing Firm
When Bill called us here at RoofSmart, we knew we were in for an adventure. The beautiful, standing seam metal roof on his North Bend home was in bad shape, and he needed help. NOW.
Bill had done a great job selecting the material for his roof. He went top-of-the-line straight across the board…almost.
When it came to choosing a contractor, he focused on cost over quality. At first, it seemed like he’d won that gamble. The roof looked great, and why wouldn’t it? Metal roofing is gorgeous!
And had Bill’s home not been up in the mountains, his story may have finished there.
Unfortunately, he did live in a mountain-side home, which came with wonderful views and harsh winter weather.
So, when last winter’s huge snowfalls came along, Bill’s roof wasn’t ready.
Looks Can Be Deceiving
The roof in the above image looks pretty nice to the untrained eye. Heck, you can’t even see the snow blockers.
Well, there’s a reason for that – they aren’t there anymore.
The previous contractor had used an inferior method for connecting the snow rails to the standing seams on the roof.
As a result, when the heavy snows of the past winter hit, every single snow guard eventually gave way, tearing themselves from the roof and causing extensive damage.
Sadly, this wasn’t the only damage to Bill’s roof. It wasn’t even the worst of it.
Without the snow blockers in place, the snow and ice on the roof were free to move at will.
Ice And Snow Are Relentless
In the above image, you should see a nice, fancy gutter system. But, you can’t see it – it’s on the ground.
You see, it wasn’t just a bad roofer plaguing Bill’s roof system.
The architect who designed the home liked the look of steeply angled fascia around the roofline. Those orangish wedges you can see beneath the wrecked flashing were used to attach the gutters to the valence, which weren’t enough to keep the gutters attached in a snow-heavy winter.
Eventually, the weight of the snow ripped the gutters free, destroying everything around them.
Chain Reaction
Once the snow guards failed, taking out the gutter system, nothing was left to keep all that weight from moving. The resulting damage was total.
Flashing at several points was destroyed as the immense avalanche of weight bore down on every seam of the roof system.
To say the damage was catastrophic is nearly an understatement. This roof was in as bad a shape as possible without the panels being torn away. You just needed to get close enough to see the destruction.
One of the vent pipes for the home’s plumbing system was also damaged.
The relentless push as the snow slid toward the edge snapped the actual pipe and nearly stripped away the vent cover.
Everywhere we looked, we found damage. Each element that let go caused another to suffer the same fate.
Taking Action On All Fronts
Our friend Bill was not happy to learn how badly his roof was damaged, especially for a roof that was supposed to outlast the rest of the house.
Once we assessed the job – a complete rebuild – he was even less happy. His six-figure roof was toast, and he was facing a quarter-million in new costs.
But they don’t call us the Eggheads of Roofing for nothing. Our owner, Jim, asked Bill if he’d contacted his home insurance company. Bill hadn’t even considered that the damage might be covered.
Following Jim’s advice, they accepted his claim and covered nearly the entire cost of the rebuild.
Now THAT’S what we call turning that frown upside down! Bill was thrilled, and we got to work.
Same Product – Superior Installation
As we said, Bill nailed it when he chose his roofing material, so we used the same thing. After all, we weren’t there to give Bill’s home a new look… we were there to make the roof system work properly and ensure it stayed that way for decades to come.
So, we replaced every roofing panel, replaced every broken feature, and installed all new gutters, complete with premium gutter guards.
To get the gutters to hang properly, we first spent a full two weeks just reframing the steeply angled fascia with new, perfectly straight fascia and painting it to match the home.
The roof was finished except for the snow blockers and gutters, and winter came back for another try at Bill’s roofing system.
We kept right on working, knowing that we had to get the snow guards up if we didn’t want to go through all this again.
Our intrepid installers simply gathered their cold-weather gear and got to work.
Four months later, once all the snow melted, we returned to do all the little touchup work that nature had so rudely interrupted.
While a massive undertaking, this was one roofing project we’re glad came to our door. We were able to diagnose what went wrong and offer a solution that made sense.
Helping Bill get it covered through his insurance was icing on the cake. It’s roofing projects like this that make this business so rewarding. We took a major failure and huge expense and turned them into a huge success and minimal expense.
Win.
Win.
If you need help with your Seattle area roof and want to be rescued by the best in the business, call us at RoofSmart for a free estimate.
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