You have invested a lot of money, time, and effort into hiring an experienced roofing contractor to take care of your roof replacement or installation job, only for them to do a bad roofing job! A bad roof installation can be a headache for any Austin, Texas homeowner!
With so many roofing contractors in the city, chances are if you are not careful you may wind up with a poorly installed roof on your hands.
You probably have a lot on your plate already without having to worry about the minute details of installing asphalt shingles. That is why it is better to invest in a roofing contractor that can deliver a leak-proof roofing system the first time asking.
At Austin Roofing & Water Damage | WDR, we pride ourselves in our ability to deliver a properly installed roof to all our clients for each roofing project we are entrusted with.
Read more: Choose the Best Roofing Contractor
Identifying a Bad Roofing Job
When your newly installed roof has been completed, one of the first things you need to do is a roofing inspection to check for signs of a bad roofing job.
Some signs are easy to identify, whereas others will require that you hire professional roofing contractors to do it for you. There are two ways to go about inspecting your new roof, which are:
Visual Inspection
You can take a look at your roof from the ground and see if you can identify some obvious signs of a bad roofing job, damaged shingles, or mismatched coloring. Any problems that are big enough to be easily noticeable from the ground need to be addressed.
Structural Integrity Problems
Some signs of a bad roofing job are not as easy to spot, though. These include structural issues, such as a missing drip edge
, overdriven nails, or problems with the roof decking.
In such cases, it is important to hire a roofing contractor who can conduct a proper roofing inspection of your entire roofing system.
Visual Signs of a Bad Roofing Job
The following are some of the visual signs that you can easily identify on your own:
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Non-Uniform Appearance
A bad roofing job is immediately noticeable by the eye-catching lack of uniformity in any of its visible features. These include:
Different colored shingles
This problem is quite common with old roof replacements because it is hard for an inexperienced roofing contractor to match new shingles with old, weather-beaten ones.
Another cause could be a contractor running out of the required tiles or shingles and then using others that do not quite match the color of the rest of the roof.
Sagging rooflines
Sagging rooflines are one of the most visually depressing signs of a bad roofing job. They are enough to make your expensive, brand-new roof look old and dated. A sagging roofline could also point to a more serious problem with the roof decking that poses a safety hazard in terms of structural integrity.
Mismatched shingles Material
When your roofing contractors try to cut corners by buying cheaper shingles to make up for their shortfall, the result will be mismatched shingles, made from the wrong materials, popping up all over your roof. That beautiful curb appeal you were aiming for will be impossible in such cases.
Damaged or Missing Shingles
If you are going to invest money in a new roof, you will expect the shingles to be new and without any deformities. Damaged shingles (or worse missing shingles) are a sign that the roofing contractor tried to cut costs by either buying poor quality shingles or not buying the required amount for the roofing job.
Reused Flashing
Flashing is a thin material that is essential for preventing water from leaking through the roof. Dishonest roofing contractors are prone to reusing flashing because they claim it’s not a problem if the roof was not leaking before.
However, the new roof will not always sit exactly where the old one did, meaning if you do not replace the flashing there roof will leak. There is no worse indicator of a bad roofing job than a leaking roof!
Roofing Materials Poorly Attached
In the mad rush to meet deadlines, some roofing contractors are guilty of doing a bad roofing job by not properly attaching the roofing material. If you do not pay attention to this during your visual inspection, the next strong gust of wind will have your roof flying halfway across the yard.
Uniformity
Uniformity is essential to ensuring that your roof will maintain its curb appeal by aging at the same rate in all aspects. That means everything, from your shingles to your rain gutters must look as it belongs, not stick out like a sore thumb because it is not uniform with the rest of the roof.
Roof Stains
Dark stains on your roof are usually a sign that the new roof is not as waterproof as your roofing contractor would have you believe.
If the leaks are isolated and small, a simple repair project will be enough to fix it without resorting to a complete roof replacement.
Structural Problems of a Bad Roofing Job
Just because all seems well to the naked eye does not mean your contractor did a good roofing job. It’s time for you to consider the structural issues, such as:
Mistakes by Roofing Contractors
A bad roofing contractor will often make mistakes and then try to hide them. If you hire a third party to do the inspection they may pick up the following:
Not replacing old vents
Vents are essential for proper ventilation; therefore they are a vital component of your safety. A roofing company that cuts corners will often ignore vent replacement, which is wrong.
Not checking the roof decking
Just because the issue you had was a leaking roof doesn’t mean all other aspects of the roof are in perfect condition. Forgetting to check the roof deck is a major sign of a bad roofing job and must be avoided at all costs.
Missing Underlayment
Roof leaks and premature aging of the entire roof structure are some of the signs of missing underlayment. It has even been suggested that roofing systems that lack underlayment tend to look at least five years older than they are, which should be enough to motivate you to check for this vital feature.
Missing Drip Edges
Drip edges ensure that water flows in the proper direction towards your gutters, where it will be funneled away from the house. A galvanized steel drip edge is installed under the shingles at the edge of your roof to keep rainwater from moving up and under your roof.
The following are some of the results of a missing drip edge:
- Soil erosion around your house
- Mold or rot inside your home or in your roof decking
- Staining
- A flooded basement in cases of heavy rain
Hardware Mistakes
Some of the common hardware a roofing company needs for a good roofing job include:
- Roof decking
- Underlayment
- Drip edges
- Nails
- Vents
- New flashing
A good roofing contractor will know which types to use and how to match them with the right nails. Hardware mistakes are common when the wrong contractor is hired for the job.
Wrong Nails/Improper Nailing Techniques
The sheer number of different nail types needed for a roofing job would probably surprise anyone who doesn’t work for a roofing company. However, not knowing the right nails or the proper nailing techniques to use are both common signs of a bad roofing job.
Things such as an under-driven nail make roofs unsafe and are the signs of a poor job that you should be most concerned with.
How To Avoid a Bad Roofing Installation
Your roof protects your family and assets from extreme weather such as storms, high winds, and hail damage that occur in Austin, Texas. As such you have to choose the best roofing contractor by looking at the following:
Consider Experience Levels
Your choice of contractor needs to be experienced enough to know simple things such as why using old flashing is a bad idea. They need to have worked on several roofing projects as well.
Ask for References
A good roofing company will not hesitate to present immediately some authentic references of any work that they have conducted in and around Austin, Texas. Talking to former clients is the best way to get honest feedback about the roofing contractor.
Check Licensing, Insurance, and Registration
One thing you want to avoid is entrusting your roof installation project to unregistered and unlicensed roofing contractors that do not have any insurance in case anything goes wrong. Always ask for these documents before going further.
Roof Replacement Project Gone Wrong? Seek Recourse
Try as you might to carefully choose a good contractor, things can and do go wrong from time to time. When that happens take the following steps:
- Refer to the terms of the warranty the roofing contractor furnished you with when you signed the contract. This will allow you to be covered for any poor materials that the contractor may have used
- File a complaint with the state licensing board to have the untrustworthy contractor’s license stripped away
- Report to the Better Business Bureau about your experience. The Better Business Bureau is responsible for rating businesses according to customers’ experience. If the company in question takes online business seriously, it will care about its Better Business Bureau rating.
- When all else fails, hire a good lawyer for assistance with litigation
Get It Right the First Time With Austin Roofing & Water Damage | WDR
Are you looking for an honest, reliable, and trustworthy roofing contractor in Austin, Texas? Austin Roofing & Water Damage | WDR is here to guarantee the highest quality of roofing services in the city. Call us now and schedule a free inspection.