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Update: December 1, 2009

Another roofing pro took a look at my roof and found there are 2 missing screws in the kitchen skylight that water and snow can leak through.

Both bathroom vent pipes are too short and do not meet building code, they should be 18 inches tall and mine are about 6 inches tall. Also vent pipes not installed correctly causing leaks.

Some of the nails are visible on the shingles, nails should not be visible at all. I’ll take more pics to post.

Update: September 10, 2009. I just found out the roofer cancelled his insurance policy on January 1, 2009 and he signed the contract with me on January 2, 2009. What does that tell you?

On January 2, 2009 I hired a roofing contractor from Sanford Maine to replace the roof on my house and two skylights, one in my kitchen and one in my diningroom. The contractor recommended architectural shingles and a full layer of waterproofing rubber covering the whole roof to be installed under the shingles so that’s what we contracted to have done. The contract my husband and I signed said he would provide “experienced and skilled workers” which goes without saying I would think.

The total cost of the work was to be $6,300.00. All of which $200.00 has been paid.

The contractor has not repaired the hole in my ceiling caused by his employee’s 16 year old son falling through my roof.
There is a 30 year warranty on the roofing and a 12 year warranty on the workmanship.

Here is my story:

The first week of January 2009 the contractor and his employee showed up with two very young looking boys who were cleanup crew I assumed. The workers began pulling off my old metal roof and stripped the roof down to the bare wood. A few minutes later one of the workers crashed through my vaulted living room ceiling and his legs were dangling over my table until somebody pulled him back to the roof. I immediately went outside to talk to the contractor who assured me all was ok and the boy only put his foot through the roof. No, he did not just put his foot through the roof, his upper body was dangling over my living room. Later I learned the two boys were the employee’s twin 16 year old sons who were there to help shingle my new roof.

Today, August 3, 2009, The hole is still in my ceiling because the roofer had one excuse after another why he couldn’t fix it, so my husband covered the hole with a piece of cardboard.

The roof was completed the day after the old roof was stripped down, and the employee walked us around the house showing off the work that he and his two 16 year old boys did and he told us if we shovel 2 feet of snow off the edge of the roof that we will never have a leak. This was in mid-January 2009.

One week after the roof was completed it snowed a foot of snow and my husband shoveled about 2 feet off the edge of the roof and later on that night we discovered the roof leaked in a few places along the edges. A call to the contractor that night brought his employee and one of his sons out the next morning, he was visibly angry, and informed me the roof leaks because of an ice dam and he said we should have shoveled 3 feet off the edge of the roof and not just the two feet we did shovel. How can water get through the water and ice shield I asked him; “through a nail hole he replied.” This did not sound right to me. “When the weather warms up it won’t leak because the hot weather will adhere the rubber underneath the shingles to the roof” he told me.

Next snow storm my husband shoveled about 4 feet off the edge of the roof and it still leaked, then he went back to the roof and shoveled all but two feet from the ridge pole and the roof still leaked. A call to the roofer took a few weeks to get through because he “was sick for a week.” When I reached the contractor I asked him how much snow we have to shovel off the roof to keep it from leaking and he told me we don’t have to shovel any snow off the roof and it won’t leak because of the water and ice shield. I told him his employee said we have to shovel two feel then later he said we have to shovel three feet. Well if we don’t have to shovel any snow off the roof why is it leaking I asked him. Maybe through the vents he said. There are no vents on the side of the house where the largest leak is so it can’t be a vent problem. He doesn’t know he said, he will send his employee out to look at it.

In mid April we had rain and freezing rain and the water poured in my house over the furnace and I had to put a bucket there to catch the water. I was able to reach the contractor late that night to tell him what was going on and he had his employee call me right away and he said he’s come out the next morning to have a look. He did arrive next morning and he said the water is coming in through a broken seal in the furnace pipe and the flashing is old around the furnace pipe. I told him the contract states the flashing would be replaced around the chimney and he said that is not a chimney that a chimney is brick. So he re-shingled my roof and left the “old” chimney flashing on. Why not tell me the flashing needs to be replaced and I have to pay extra for it??? The flashing may be old, but that chimney has never leaked in the 21 years we’ve lived in this house which we bought new in 1998.

Contractor told me he does 400 roofs a year and my roof is the only roof that has ever leaked. That is not true, there is negative feedback on the servicemagic.com website about him doing roofing jobs that leak and the BBB has complaints on file against this company, two if which have been resolved.

In April we had some very hot days which by employee’s statement the water and ice shield should have “adhered” to the roof and all leaks stopped. That didn’t happen – torrential rains came in June and the roof continued to leak. We had to put a tarp on the roof to stop the water from coming in the house.

Its now August 1, 2009 and I have had roof leaks since mid- January and I have a hole in my ceiling patched up with a piece of cardboard. I have been trying since mid April 2009 to reach the contractor and his employee and neither are replying to any of my voice mail so its off to court next. Before the new roof my roof only leaked in the snow and my husband had to shovel it off to prevent leaks and it never leaked in the rain. Now with the new roof I have leaks in the snow and in the rain. My home was better off before the new roofing job.

The contractor’s contract states if we plan to take legal action against him we have to first notify him which we did two weeks ago by certified mail which somebody at his office signed for. The Maine Attorney General sent us a form to fill out for our complaint. I’ve been advised to send a copy of the complaint to the contractor’s insurance company, to OSHA regarding the 16 year old who fell through my roof, to Dunn and Bradstreet where he’s listed, to the BBB, the Chamber of Commerce in Sanford, to ServiceMagic.com where I found the contractor, to the media, and to post about him in craiglist and make a youtube.com video about his company.

Here is a summary of my roof problems as of August 1, 2009.

My roof leaks along the edges when it snows and when it rains

My two new skylights leak. I don’t know if they were installed properly because the contractor used skylights that are one inch larger than the roof openings because he could not find the correct size skylight. He said if he builds up the frame on the roof the one inch will not matter. He assured me he’s done this before and never had leaks. Well now both skylights leak so something was not done properly.

The interior wood frame of my kitchen skylight is bucking inward and the frame appears to be coming apart and the white painting was never done that employee said he would do “next week.”

I have a 4 foot x 18 inch hole in my ceiling from employee’s son falling through the roof that employee never came to replace albeit he kept saying he will be out “next week.” The verbal agreement was he would replace my living room ceiling with beadboard. Next week never came. My husband tacked up a piece of cardboard to cover the hole.

The stink pipe in the bathroom is defective by employee’s own admission and should be replaced because that’s why I have a bathroom ceiling leak employee told me.

Some of the shingles are bucking upward enough so that I can get my finger under them.

The contract we signed said we would get skilled and experienced workers; two 16 year old boys and their father are not skilled and experienced workers.

What do I want? I want a total refund of the money I paid this incompetent so I can hire somebody “experienced and skilled” to completely strip my roof down to the bare wood and install the roof correctly. I want my skylights replaced also. I do not trust this contractor nor his employees to do the job properly. If he’s forced to replace my roof he will do it quickly and shoddily to get it over with.

Here are some pictures, click on picture to enlarge.