Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Roof +UNC Addendum

For about a year now some of the shingle tabs on my roof have begun to fold forming small little tent looking things. Only on the rear of the house over the living room and main bed room.

I’ve been wondering what in the world was causing them to happen.

One of my more off beat theories was that the squirrels (which I feed) who run around like crazy on the back deck and roof were kicking up the tabs with their little claws during their daily rampages on the roof. The non-fed squirrels in the front yard don’t do that as they shy away from the house.

Then, about 2 weeks ago we had a night of really strong winds. The next day, several complete shingles had become dislodged and were on the deck and in the yard. Again, only in the back.

Right before my trip I spoke with William A, the guy who built the garage and porch additions for me. He’s a super guy, very conscientious, and honest almost to a fault. He thought that maybe there wasn’t enough ventilation in the small space between the roof and the ceilings of the living room and bed room (which have vaulted ceilings), thus causing the shingles to overheat (the back of the house faces directly south) and possibly expand and pull away from their nailing.

He said he’d have a look at the situation while I was gone and he’d replace the missing shingles and try and fix the problem.

Well, when I drove into the driveway from my vacation I saw a pallet full of shingle bundles and multiple rolls of roofing paper on one side yard and a trailer on the other side yard filled with shingle and construction debris.

Uh Oh

Turns out, the original roof shingles were not nailed in the proper nailing strips, without enough nails, and using the wrong nails without the proper sized larger nail heads. Getting more heat from the southern facing sun exposure, the shingle nail holes were gradually stretching, tearing and finally the shingles were being dislodged.

The little “tents” were forming when some of the shingles gradually slid down an inch or so on one side and thus “buckling” the shingle at the tabs.

The same thing will happen in the front as well. Only it will take a little longer.

That’s just farking great. These are the more expensive architectural shingles and the heavier duty 40 year life shingles. I spent more on them when I built the original house 10 years ago just so I wouldn’t have to worry about the roof for a long time.

Now, most of the original roofing is going to have to be replaced due to faulty installation.

This is going to cost me serious money I don’t have.

I don’t know if it’s worth pursuing with the original builder as the house is now 10 years old.

I’m probably just screwed.

UNC Game

Carolina soundly beat State last night. We hung in there through the first half. But in the second half, UNC's deeper bench and our getting into foul trouble was too much for the Wolfpack. Still, a great effort by our guys.

1 comment:

Ward said...

Bill, I sympathize on the roof problems. We had somethig similar in California. We bought a cement/fiber "Fire-Safe" roof which was supposed to last 50 years. After about 5 years found out that the manufacturer was being sued because the roof material leaked. Most of suits were in Washington State where rain is heavy...but still.

The manufacturer went bankrupt. Not a nice thing to reveal when selling a home.