When it rains...

at my house I had gotten in the habit of looking up.

Our house came with a "new" roof 26 months ago when we bought it. The roof had been installed about 10 days prior to purchase. Since that time we have learned what it is like to have a leaking roof. So accustom to it that we kind of resigned ourselves to it after a while, getting to know the roof repairman on first name basis. Not what we wanted or expected, but life never is.

The drama of it all kind of faded after a while. In the first six months of life in Toney we had lots of drama that was house related. The roof stuff was drips in the corner of the master bedroom, marks and later drips in the upstairs bedroom and discovery of sideways laid shingles. Then the worst morning was discovering water dripping from the wires in the fuse box, lots of water. That was also taken care of and life went on, later more leaks, more repairs. And hearing our repair guy tell of caulking over 100 nailheads that should have been caulked over a year ago. We lived with it all, not happy but resigned and a bit frustrated by it all.

A few weeks ago that changed. We were past the 2 year labor warranty when the men working on the house installing siding pulled off gutters to reveal the shingles were short on the perimeter of the house. We kind of resigned ourselves to repairs, even purchasing several squares of shingles. Then the rain came and with it an indoor shower. Leak location #6. The wonderful siding guys went to work looking for the leak, we were thinking that they had put a nail through the flashing causing the leak, not so lucky. After siding and trim were taken off the house that had just been installed and several trips to the attic to find the leak without sucess they cut a hole in the ceiling of the porch roof and finally located the leak.

With the repair came the realization that not only was it a lousy roofing job but it was so lousy that our warranty on the shingles would be voided if it was ever examined. Nails were through the shingle - not through the tar in the shingle, thus water can seep under the shingle and into the house via the nail. This was found in several places. The siding guys, who are also experienced roofers also pointed out where there were already nails popping out because of incorrect install.

Needless to say we have since had several conversations with the roofing company. We are delighted to report that next week we are anticipating the installation of a new roof. They wanted to "lay over" the old roof, but we declined such a quick fix. My dear husband made an impressive powerpoint presentation of all the faults we have found with their "quality driven with every nail" roof- i guess they were impressed as they have tried to make this whole situation quickly go away and quietly.

for us it is a blessing to think of rain storms ahead, years ahead when we wont have to think of looking to the ceiling and wondering if yet another leak will form.

the original roofing crew has since gone on to other jobs. our faithful repairman who has shook his head repeatedly and done all he could to patch this roof to dryness will be installing the new one. Friends had their roof completed by him, through another contractor and report no problems. His character and throughness has been seen in our conversation and I believe we will be well pleased.

We thank God for this provision and the ease in which it has all transpired. I dreaded the thought of a court visit, but once an objective knowledgeable party expressed the truth of the roof's condition we realized that to not pursue corrective measures would be foolish upon our part.