Sometimes people are sold more than they need. As a roofing contractor in the Lincoln, Nebrasks area, we do many inspections for homeowners with “problem roofs.” We have found that many contractors will over-sell a roof to their customer. Here is one of my favorite examples:
There was an older gentleman who wanted the best for his home. He installed a new roof, a new ridge vent and then he had his attic re-insulated.
Soon afterwards he began to see water stains in the center of his home. He called the contractor back to see what the problem was.
The contractor told him the ridge vent was the problem. He proposed removing the ridge vent and install pan vents. Of course, he would charge the homeowner for installing the new, poorer quality, vents as well.
Time went by and the roof still leaked and more stains appeared on the ceiling. The new vents made the problem even worse.
The homeowner called another contractor who explained turbine vents were better than pan vents. He should have new turbine vents vent installed.
So the man tried the new turbine vents but the ceiling still leaked.
Maybe he would get another opinion . . . he called another contractor. This contractor convinced the homeowner that the roof was bad and proposed a whole new roof installed on the house.
This elderly fellow then called A Better Way Roofing/ May Contracting. He wanted us to give him a price to install a new roof because his leaked. The roof looked fine to me.
We gave him the strangest answer yet.
Upon checking the attic we found the insulation was full up to the rafters. About 5 feet deep! The soffit vent was completely covered. There were no attic shoots to the soffit vents, not enough soffit vents and no air flow. The attic was very hot and humid. We saw a lot of moisture stains on the lower side of the decking.
We told the nice man that 3 feet of the new insulation needed to be removed from the attic and attic shoots and soffit vents needed to be added. We also recommended the pan vents be sheeted over and a new ridge vent be reinstalled.
He looked at us like we were crazy. “But the roof leaks!” he said.
After explaining A Better Way Roofing and May Contracting are roofing contractors that Air Vent Certified and we have taken many classes on venting. We guaranteed the roof would stop leaking or he would not owe us a dime.
After all that had gone on with this poor guy's roof, it was understandable that he was worried. I think he was really surprised when our job was completed and he found the roof had stopped leaking. As an added bonus, the home was cooler in the summer and no more ice dams in the winter.
We practice proper venting and it works!