roofing woes, the next chapter.
Jun. 2nd, 2005 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
haardvarkTo summarize the last 6 years:
- bought old house, knowing it had dodgy roof. Vendor made some half assed repairs and we (perhaps somewhat foolishly) went ahead with the purchase. The roof has two levels, a steep original "A-frame" portion in the front, and a VERY shallow (nearly flat) and long add-on dormer at the back, along a common centreline axis perpendicular to the street
- one year later, roof starts leaking in heavy rains, concentrated in one area of the living room. Creeping ugly damage to old hand-plaster coves results. Problems seem isolated to the old, steep roof in the neighboorhood of the fireplace chimney
- we arrange with Fly-by-Night Construction, with whom we had EXCELLENT experience in the past, to put on the new roof, including building a structure over the rear of the chimney to shed ice (note to Californians: this is a special sort of "hard water" that falls from the sky in more northerly climes)
- over the next 3 years or so, leakage comes back in various forms, and we undergo a series of increasingly desperate stopgap measures to halt the problem, including a very frustrating standoff with FBN Construction, who ultimately blows town and leaves no forwarding address.
- LAST year, we get a good reference for a young roofer with good technical skills. We finally convince him that we need a TOTAL solution to the problem, which it is up to him to propose, and if it really means ripping the roof off and starting again, well, so be it.
- one week after he quotes to remove one half of the steep roof and replace it, and for the first time in 6 years, the upper shallow roof starts leaking badly in multiple places. We have the repairs for this added to the quote
- when work commences on the steep roof replacement, it is discovered that there is a squarish hole in the decking underneath the shingles large enough to drive a Volkswagen Beetle through, and park it in the attic. Some of the exposed rafters show signs of rot.
- {some condensation of events} we ultimate re sheath and replace both sides of the steep roof, repair the chimney masonry and flash and caulk the living shit out of everything in sight. We are fairly satisfied that the original problems have been solved [and to date there are no subsequent problems on this front, almost a year later]
- HOWEVER, when the roofer starts investigating the upper, shallow roof, he sees a lot of sag in the rafters at right angles to the roof peak, and decides to verify that the rafter spacing is up to snuff: in support of this, he heads off to the City Building Permit office.
There is no permit. The city tells him that if he touches any of the wood structure of that portion of the house, he assumes full liability for it, even if all he does is replace the decking under the new roofing material. The only way for us to "reset the liability" is to have an engineering assessment done. We patch the obvious leak points on the upper roof with tar and fibermesh, and hope that it holds for the winter.
I get a recommendation from a work colleague for a local civil eng outfit to do our analysis. The office answers the initial call and says they'll have someone back to me immediately. Not a peep for three weeks, and this is with frequent reminder calls from me in the final week. Just as I am about to open the Y-pages and find someone else, their Principal calls and arranges to come the following evening.
To my slight surprise he shows up on time, knocks a couple of holes in the ceiling plaster, makes some sketches and says "I'll get back to you by Tuesday of next week at the latest".
That was seven weeks ago. No one at their office was picking up the phone, and I was reduced to leaving increasingly snarky messages on their voice machine -- every second day, every day, twice a day. I didn't feel that I could walk away, since we had a verbal contract for service and at minimum I'd already incurred a couple of hundred bucks worth of charges for the house visit.
This monday my message said that I assumed they did not want my business and if I did not hear back by the end of the day I would be pursuing other avenues. For me, this constitutes fairly Strong Language when dealing with home-trades related issues -- this is a small town, and word gets around. Strangely enough, I had a call back almost immediately and a copy of the written report in my inbox yesterday.
They are recommending that we rip off the roof surface and decking and "sister in" engineered trusses next to each of the existing rafter pairs. Not too different from what I was expecting, actually. The parts that scare me most are that the trusses would have to be custom made for our roof dimensions (buying standard ones is relatively cheap, but this only works for new home constr) and they are advocating 2x10 members for the trusses, which is going to be hella expensive. I don't think we're gonna get out from under this for less than $10-12k.
I think their solution is overly beefed up, and a very small part of me is wondering if they are trying to fuck us with an expensive recommendation since we pestered them so much... We're pretty much stuck with it, though, unless we want to find another roofing contractor who will replace the existing roof surface "off the books" and run the risk of leakage in another 4-5 years, OR pay another wad of cash for ANOTHER eng report which gives a more likeable answer. Also, of course, can we even find trades this year before the snow flies, can they really butt in new trusses without damaging the ceiling, &c, &c.
Gah.
- bought old house, knowing it had dodgy roof. Vendor made some half assed repairs and we (perhaps somewhat foolishly) went ahead with the purchase. The roof has two levels, a steep original "A-frame" portion in the front, and a VERY shallow (nearly flat) and long add-on dormer at the back, along a common centreline axis perpendicular to the street
- one year later, roof starts leaking in heavy rains, concentrated in one area of the living room. Creeping ugly damage to old hand-plaster coves results. Problems seem isolated to the old, steep roof in the neighboorhood of the fireplace chimney
- we arrange with Fly-by-Night Construction, with whom we had EXCELLENT experience in the past, to put on the new roof, including building a structure over the rear of the chimney to shed ice (note to Californians: this is a special sort of "hard water" that falls from the sky in more northerly climes)
- over the next 3 years or so, leakage comes back in various forms, and we undergo a series of increasingly desperate stopgap measures to halt the problem, including a very frustrating standoff with FBN Construction, who ultimately blows town and leaves no forwarding address.
- LAST year, we get a good reference for a young roofer with good technical skills. We finally convince him that we need a TOTAL solution to the problem, which it is up to him to propose, and if it really means ripping the roof off and starting again, well, so be it.
- one week after he quotes to remove one half of the steep roof and replace it, and for the first time in 6 years, the upper shallow roof starts leaking badly in multiple places. We have the repairs for this added to the quote
- when work commences on the steep roof replacement, it is discovered that there is a squarish hole in the decking underneath the shingles large enough to drive a Volkswagen Beetle through, and park it in the attic. Some of the exposed rafters show signs of rot.
- {some condensation of events} we ultimate re sheath and replace both sides of the steep roof, repair the chimney masonry and flash and caulk the living shit out of everything in sight. We are fairly satisfied that the original problems have been solved [and to date there are no subsequent problems on this front, almost a year later]
- HOWEVER, when the roofer starts investigating the upper, shallow roof, he sees a lot of sag in the rafters at right angles to the roof peak, and decides to verify that the rafter spacing is up to snuff: in support of this, he heads off to the City Building Permit office.
There is no permit. The city tells him that if he touches any of the wood structure of that portion of the house, he assumes full liability for it, even if all he does is replace the decking under the new roofing material. The only way for us to "reset the liability" is to have an engineering assessment done. We patch the obvious leak points on the upper roof with tar and fibermesh, and hope that it holds for the winter.
I get a recommendation from a work colleague for a local civil eng outfit to do our analysis. The office answers the initial call and says they'll have someone back to me immediately. Not a peep for three weeks, and this is with frequent reminder calls from me in the final week. Just as I am about to open the Y-pages and find someone else, their Principal calls and arranges to come the following evening.
To my slight surprise he shows up on time, knocks a couple of holes in the ceiling plaster, makes some sketches and says "I'll get back to you by Tuesday of next week at the latest".
That was seven weeks ago. No one at their office was picking up the phone, and I was reduced to leaving increasingly snarky messages on their voice machine -- every second day, every day, twice a day. I didn't feel that I could walk away, since we had a verbal contract for service and at minimum I'd already incurred a couple of hundred bucks worth of charges for the house visit.
This monday my message said that I assumed they did not want my business and if I did not hear back by the end of the day I would be pursuing other avenues. For me, this constitutes fairly Strong Language when dealing with home-trades related issues -- this is a small town, and word gets around. Strangely enough, I had a call back almost immediately and a copy of the written report in my inbox yesterday.
They are recommending that we rip off the roof surface and decking and "sister in" engineered trusses next to each of the existing rafter pairs. Not too different from what I was expecting, actually. The parts that scare me most are that the trusses would have to be custom made for our roof dimensions (buying standard ones is relatively cheap, but this only works for new home constr) and they are advocating 2x10 members for the trusses, which is going to be hella expensive. I don't think we're gonna get out from under this for less than $10-12k.
I think their solution is overly beefed up, and a very small part of me is wondering if they are trying to fuck us with an expensive recommendation since we pestered them so much... We're pretty much stuck with it, though, unless we want to find another roofing contractor who will replace the existing roof surface "off the books" and run the risk of leakage in another 4-5 years, OR pay another wad of cash for ANOTHER eng report which gives a more likeable answer. Also, of course, can we even find trades this year before the snow flies, can they really butt in new trusses without damaging the ceiling, &c, &c.
Gah.
