The clients who called me had been in their house just under a year. It was time for their warranty to expire and they wisely called a home inspector for a one-year inspection. An obviously circumspect search engine suggested that they call me!
Just after moving in they had severe leaking into the family room beside the gas fireplace. The builder came out, found what they called "an issue with the roof," and stayed two days making repairs. It didn't leak thereafter ... until the heavy snows we had here in February. As things melted they experienced similar leaking.
From inside the house there is no window to see the area of the roof that the builder repaired. There is a very high window in the family room, but from there you can only see the sloped roof beyond the valley beside the window.
From the ground I saw what looked like incomplete siding and something sticking out over the edge of the roof. It was a rubber membrane.
When I got up onto the roof, this is what I found.
You can see how "finished" the job was. I think they broke for a long lunch, 10 months ago.
There is the rubber membrane I saw sticking out! And those are the family room windows, 20' high from the floor inside.
Apparently there was no membrane installed, certainly no flashing, and rain water was water falling down the sloped roof and crashing into the end wall. There is a slope to divert it into the gutter, but it is too much water flowing too fast for that previous edge to handle it. So it leaked.
The siding, James Hardy, and the shingles had to be removed to install a membrane. The subsequent, and unfinished, siding repair is very cute. The shingles were never replaced.
That membrane is not supposed to be exposed to sunlight for very long. It has been cleverly tucked under a piece of siding. The siding is improperly cut and installed, the caulking was done by a 7 year old and the flashing not secured.
That is an extremely unprofessional and Mickey Mouse repair.
No wonder it leaked again.
Below is what the caulking looked like around the windows!
In all fairness, I bet the builder did not check on this work. The previous roofing contractor was sent out to effect repairs and the builder's misplaced trust let go a follow-up visit on this job. Can I recommend a different roofer to get this done right?
My recommendation: Always recommend that an inspection be done prior to the one year walk through on a new house. In this case I was called to to a thermal image examination due to the leaking and to check on the insulation. These were smart buyers.
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