Roofing Company Shortcomings: St. Louis Roofing
If you had been up on as many roofs as I have, you would know what a job done by an inferior roofing company looks like. Sometimes I wish I could take St. Louis homeowners with me but most people are not that comfortable walking around on a roof.
Especially when a contractor hires out your roof to a subcontractor, that person and his crew may not be professional roofers. This is a common shortcoming of roofing contractors. If the crew does not consist of professionals they may not be trained in the right techniques that make a roof solid and sound, so it can last for many years – even a couple of decades, with the right maintenance and the right roofing material.
Storm Damage Is Easily Inflicted On Roofs With Uneven Shingles
I’m sure you’ve seen perfect asphalt shingle roofs. The shingles march across the roof in perfectly even rows, the shingles meet, end to end, leaving no gaps. It’s perfectly flat, there’s no buckles or ripples. When the crew is up there
Natural Enemy Of A Bad Roof
just trying to get that roofing material on as fast as they can and however they can, that’s not what your roof is going to look like.
The rows may wander, becoming thicker and thinner as they cross the roof. I’ve seen it where the row tapers down and disappears entirely, just because a person was trying to cope with earlier uneven rows.
If the shingles buckle and bow, it may be because they didn’t monitor the temperature of the materials or the environment properly. Sometimes shingles have to be allowed to warm up before nailing them onto a roof, and at some ambient temperatures, the job just should not be done.
The Worst Roofing Job I’ve Seen In St. Louis
I think the worst job I’ve ever seen not only included all the problems above but it also had another problem that fortunately, you don’t see very often. When you nail down a shingle, the nail should not only nail down the shingle in your hands at the moment, it should also catch the top edge of the layer underneath. This makes for a secure bond – every shingle is secured twice. This is the right way to protect against wind damage. In this particular case, when the roofer sent the nail through the top shingle, he missed the lower shingle every single time.
Not surprisingly, this roof had experienced severe wind damage and needed to be replaced far sooner than it should have been. In fact, when the shingles were removed from the roof so the new job could be done, they could all be pulled up in large sheets, by hand. That should never have been possible.
When you hire a roofing contractor, you need to verify that they are licensed for roofing, that they have a good rating with Angie’s List and the Better Business Bureau. As you may know, Storm Solutions Roofing has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau – the highest rating possible. You need to verify that they have been in business awhile and can give you the names and phone numbers of some customers you can check with. And ensure that the company that gives you the estimate is the same one that will do the job.
This might sound like a lot of work but I think the owner of that roof I was talking about earlier wished they had done their homework. Then you don’t have to pay twice for a roof that will just keep out the storm damage.
