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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Roof Systems and Savings

A roof is just a roof unless it is a roof system. To become a system it must have components that work together in order to enhance it's usefulness, longevity, and, possibly, energy efficiency.
Some of the first things put down on the deck are the felt and starter. Metal edge requirements may exceed those of normal supply distribution but I know of no roof manufacturers that also make metal edge. The special starter, as opposed to a 20 year three tab turned around backwards and upside down, helps with "blow off" and ladder damage to the first course. Special felts can also help with "blow off" as a flatter roof gives the wind less to grab.
Because a felt is thicker does not make it better. In fact 30lb. felt is worse in terms of wind resistance. It is prone to wrinkling, one of wind's best friends in the roofing destruction business. Hybrid no wrinkle felts are superior, thinner, but equal in cost to the clumsy 30lb. Besides organic felts not covered the same day they are applied are supposed to be replaced but synthetics can remain exposed upward of six months.
If the roofer adds more nails per shingle most manufacturers will enhance their wind warranty about 30 miles per hour at no cost, as long as the nails are applied properly. That means not too high on the shingle and flush, not over or under driven. These wind warranties are separate from warranty extension upgrades.
Intake and exhaust vents also add to the longevity of the roof as long as they are installed properly. Random holes do not do the trick. Ventilation is a science. In order to reach the highest of warranty upgrades with a leak guarantee included most manufacturers require a professional installation of vents meeting the 300 Rule but vents may be added to a lesser degree for a better warranty without leak protection.
Extra waterproofing around roof penetrations with leak barriers will help toward the extended warranty programs but in order to get the waterproof guarantee more leak barrier is required.
Distinctive ridge options, which add to beauty and wind resistance, can help in the conversion process from common roof to roof system.
Most roof manufacturers require some sort of certification for the contractor to offer the better warranty. The roof company is usually required to carry insurance, have a good local reputation, and have been a business a certain number of years. Behind the contractor's back the manufacturer usually checks to see whose products the roofer uses and whether or not the company pays their bills on time.
The better warranty usually takes the product installed on the roof from a nontransferable prorated material only warranty to a transferable material and labor warranty with a large non prorated time frame.This adds protection from premature product failure and assists in the selling of the home in tight market conditions. Often the new mortgage company wants a new client's roof that is less than ten or eleven years old so these warranties make help the seller from being forced to replace his roof before its time so the transfer of home ownership can take place. I'm currently asking roof manufacturers to look into this new phenomena. This year most insurance companies are giving discounts for new roofs on a prorate basis. We're not sure if the warranties will help with that or not but in all other aspects the savings can be great.
When these upgraded warranties are applied to lifetime roofing the enhancements are tremendous. For example, with most GAF products the warranty upgrade is non prorated for twenty years but fifty years on lifetime. Therefore if the new mortgage and insurance companies want a new roof on the home in question with a ten or fifteen year old lifetime roof, the seller can point out that there is 35 to 40 years left on the 100% material and labor product defect warranty. And it's transferable!
We'll wait for this fight to take place but with a reputable manufacturer with the Good Housekeeping reinsurance seal behind it, people selling their homes should be able to move on without additional roof costs deducted from their budget.
Besides, the added ventilation keeps the attic cooler, extends the life of the roof, keeps the decking and insulation intact, reduces wear and tear on the HVAC, and makes the home more comfortable.
For the small cost of the roof system warranty only the recklessly greedy will not consider it. For the frugalistas out there, the added investment can add up to tens of thousands of dollars in savings over a ten to fifteen year period. So be careful to pick a great roofing contractor from the thousands in Dallas and Fort Worth, many of whom do not comprehend "roof system."

Jon Wright
www.jonwrightroofing.com

Thursday, February 11, 2010

False Internet and Website Adverising by Roofers

My nostrils are flaring again. Is there no control to false Internet advertising. I typed "Irving Metal Roofer" into the search bar and Google found a new company that said it was a member of the BBB, NRCA, MRA and "The Race for the Cure." Wasn't a member of squat. I looked at the grouping of referrals and realized all was false. All four of their locations were postal only and I traced down the owner, a manager for Bradco Supply, one of many wholesalers where roofing contractors entrust potential job data for frozen price quotes. The roofer tells the wholesaler where, who, and how much the potential job is. The wholesaler gives a quote and if he is a contractor too he knows too much. He has the skinny on the job. Plus the manager is diverting business from his employer if he gets the job. He wouldn't dare buy from his boss. The boss would know what his employee had been doing with his time.
This roofer posted false reviews from mythical clients who said they used Vertical Roofing because they gave to the Race for the Cure but no money had been credited to the account at the charity. One said Vertical put a Gerard Roof on his home but they hadn't done one roof yet, much less a Gerard.
Vertical is rapidly joining those organizations they said they were members of. If the pseudo company doesn't take down its remaining false comments from mythical clients I will put my postings back up exposing the company.
Today I looked at "Dallas Roof" in Googleland and one guy popped up. His referrals were obviously bogus. You can click on each contributor and see it is impossible to live everywhere these people claim to live and buy all the services they claim to have bought. It is physically impossible. Here is their names: Randy, Flaca, Gustavo, Ramon, Norma, Jessica, Elaine, Pepper
Debbie, Ramon again, and Arron.

Randy has posted 37 reviews, Flaca 81, Norma 155, and Pepper 88. It seems they own homes all over the USA because they compliment so many landscaping and tree companies that it is unbelievable. Out of Debbie's 34 postings she covers eight states.
These persons posting compliments, because they are never negative, have names like showcaselis (Randy), showcaselisting01 (Norma), showcaselisting10 (jessica), showcaselisting08 (Elaine), debbieshowcaselisting (Pepper) and normatopranklisting (Flaca).
Pepper and Norma also had roofs done by Mav Roofing in Tucson, Arizona.
Judith, showcaselisting05 had roofs done by Lang Roofing in Huntington and San Diego, California, Mav Roofing in Anaheim California, and T Stevens Roofing in Covina California. She has 103 postings.
I pasted Show Case Listing in the search bar and found Complaints Board. Now I see the difference. Some roofers hire out for compliments, others pen their own, while legitimate companies do their best to be professional and earn referrals.
Here's a quote from Vertical Roofing website:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the roofing industry, there are good guys and bad guys. Vertical Roofing prides itself on being one of the few good roofing contractors out there by conducting business honestly and putting on a quality roof without cutting corners to save a penny. That’s why we believe in hiring only the best people with the biggest hearts.

Vertical Roofing has made fundraising and philanthropy part of our basic foundation. We are good honest people that truly enjoy giving back to the communities that we service. Vertical Roofing is pleased to donate a portion of the proceeds from each roof project that we complete to the Susan G. Komen Foundation® in an effort to eradicate breast cancer forever. To find out more and see what charity events Team Vertical will attend next, please visit our GO “PINK” page.

Between Vertical Roofing and our employees, we donate $25 per roof project that we complete to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"...attend next..." implicates there was a first. They have done nothing. At least they didn't pay someone to write referrals for them, I think.

Now that I got that off my chest I'll give a little advice to any consumer who wants it. Check for insurance and ask to be put on the policy as a rider if you contract with a roofer. Don't just ask for referrals but ask your particular salesman for referrals. Check them. Go by and look. If he is new and comes clean about it ask that someone in the company oversee him and the job. If he lies, throw out the proposal. Do not give a deposit until the materials have arrived and work has begun. If the materials are special order, which means they can't be returned, pay the deposit to the wholesaler. Accreditation from some manufacturer or roofing organization also carry weight.

This is your home we're talking about. Don't be a guinea pig. Be a professional buyer. Use professionals and not fast talking pushy salesmen with bogus propaganda.

Lastly, use Google or Yahoo. Google your potential roofers name, your salesman's name, and add words the second time around like "complaint." Scroll through the pages. Look hard. Crumbs remain from previous sins. We're all sinners just some regret it. Lastly, Christians don't tell you they are Christians and don't trade on the Cross. You can sense whether or not they use religion as a sales tool. Besides, Jesus was the son of a carpenter, not a roofer, and He was a Jew. He endorses no roofer.

Update on Vertical roofing misrepresentations:

I have a Feb. 9, 2010 cache of their website as provided by Google. It has since been updated and is gone. But I have it. It claims membership with the BBB with an A rating. The BBB had not even heard of them in Austin until February 2010 and as of Feb. @@, 2010, they still are not members and have no rating. In Fort Worth they opened a listing with the BBB on February 9 but claimed they opened in 2004. A man named Kyle called me from Austin claiming he was the owner so his co-conspirator would not be fired from Bradco Roofing supply in Irving. Kyle told Gerard in the summer of 2009 that they wold be opening a business soon. So how did 2004 become a start date. More of the same BS. Their lies never quit.

In fact, a cursory look around at Dallas Fort Worth roofing companies shows that about 1/4th cheap on their Google referral comments. In the Metroplex I know of about 25 legitimate roofers, so they're out there. I sure there's more than that. The Dallas Fort Worth area is heavily populated so there's a lot of roofers out there.


Jon Wright

www.jonwrightroofing.com





Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Does Radiant Barrier Decking Make Roofing Hotter?

No! Well a little, come to find out after after a little foray into Google-land.
My father taught me that heat goes where heat isn't and him being an electrical engineer gave him much more credibility than me, the political philosopher. You see as a warm area transfers the excitement of its atoms to the cold area's atoms an equilibrium is achieved. That frozen meat you submerge in the sink begins to thaw quickly but the water gets colder too. As the two zones approach each other in atomic excitement the transfer slows. The urgency is gone but the last remaining part of the job needs to be completed. The process continues until the two are the same in temperature.
The same with the hot Texas highway. As the road gets firecracker hot you begin to see water where there is none. That is a mirage caused by heat distorting the light. This is heat bouncing back from the asphalt because it has reached a saturation point. It is not getting hotter. The only way for it to get hotter is for the sun to emit more heating rays or for the surrounding air mass to heat up, which it has if there is a mirage.
Here's the process: The sun starts to heat up the roofing. The heat transfers into the attic or is mostly reflected by radiant barrier or insulation beneath the deck. The roof gets hot either way and refuses to accept more heat as it is as hot as the sun can get it.
The radiant barrier caused the roof to heat up a lot faster but only a little bit hotter ,3 to 5 degrees, as I now know. The heat just can't enter the roof anymore because the roofing is burning hot. But if the attic is properly vented nearly the same process happens to the attic. The attic will get pretty hot but not as hot and not as quickly. Proper ventilation works because it transfers cooler ambient air from the soffits and out the roof exhaust almost as fast as the attic heats until it does it as fast as the attic heats. It is saturated to the level that the ventilation allows.
Radiant barrier applied under the deck slows heat transference so much that ventilation is able to do a better job of reducing attic temperatures because the lower loading of heat is easily handled by the ventilation. Wallah. Your attic is near the temperature of the outside ambient air. Yet you don't ventilate foamed attics.
The biggest foreseeable problem with foamed attics is what do you do when the decking eventually fails. Repeated replacement of roofs over time due to age, hail, defective materials or bad workmanship makes this daunting task inevitable. The decking will be nearly impossible to remove. The rafters might be damaged in the removal of the deck and foam. Now that foam debris is everywhere you have to go back with a similar system because the HVAC and ceiling construction is for a closed attic system. Now reblow the foam and wait for "Disaster II" to greet you in old age.
Bathing, boiling, burning gas and breathing, the four "B's" of internally generated humidity, must be contained. The by-product of burning natural gas is heat and water. Thus all homes with closed attics should be all electric. Better yet if the inhabitants don't cook, bath, or breathe.
Almost all roofing manufacturers accept radiant barrier as outlined in this technical bulletin and only concern themselves with ventilation, something the closed attic system does not allow. My advice, after being a contractor for over 30 years, is don't be a guinea pig. Wait and see. Your marriage may be at stake. Worse, your kid's health is at risk. How would you like to find out when you're 80 that you have to raise your grandchildren because you killed your kids with COPD causing fumes.
But what do I know. I'm lust a roofer.

Jon Wright
www.jonwrightroofing.com

Monday, February 8, 2010

Vertical

I'm mad as heck. Contractors lying and, thus stealing. Here is an example:

"In the roofing industry, there are good guys and bad guys. Vertical Roofing prides itself on being one of the few good roofing contractors out there by conducting business honestly and putting on a quality roof without cutting corners to save a penny. That’s why we believe in hiring only the best people with the biggest hearts.

Vertical Roofing has made fundraising and philanthropy part of our basic foundation. We are good honest people that truly enjoy giving back to the communities that we service. Vertical Roofing is pleased to donate a portion of the proceeds from each roof project that we complete to the Susan G. Komen Foundation® in an effort to eradicate breast cancer forever. To find out more and see what charity events Team Vertical will attend next, please visit our GO “PINK” page."
What a liar! I checked their link to "Race for the Cure" and no money contributed even though they had referrals on Google Maps Comment section claiming that one of the reasons they used this company is they donated for breast cancer research.
This is from their Houston City Voter ad:Vertical Roofing is a Texas based company with over 20 years of experience in the roofing industry servicing Dallas / Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston as well as their surrounding areas. It is through this experience that we have earned a reputation for roofing excellence. We are a team of experienced professionals who work hard to maintain excellent relationships with customers, manufacturers, suppliers, insurance companies, and adjusting firms throughout the nation. Vertical Roofing is a company that believes in giving back to the communities we service. We believe in supporting local charities and taking part in many different activity based charitable events. That is why Vertical Roofing donates $25 per roof project that we complete to the Susan G. Komen Foundation in an effort to help eradicate breast cancer forever.
This comment was posted in the Houston publication:
Vertical Roofing Northwest Hills, Austin
Pat K. says: ""Very professional roofer. They actually roofed our house in 1 day which was very nice with the noise associated with roofing. Gerard Roof. ""
Posted 20 days ago


"We hired Vertical Roofing after taking several bids on our roof. We agreed to let them deal directly with our insurance company to get as much money from them as possible so we would not have to pay any out of pocket expense. We were doing a wood roof replacement and we were interested in metal roofing so we had them quote us both the Decra and Gerard, stone coated steel roofing products, as well as a standing seam metal roof and we decided to go with the Gerard in the end. We could not be more happy with our roof and they were right about the energy savings a metal roof provides. Great company with great service and we like the fact they donate to breast cancer research as well." PatKarbonsky posted on Kudzu.
There were a lot of postings on Google and Yahoo from people that said Vertical did a great job on their roof. No money in the "Race for the Cure" queue.
They claim to have an A+ rating as a BBB member but a national, state, URL, and address search came up empty at the BBB.
They claim to be members of the NRCA, National Roofing Contractors Association, which has been around since 1886. No Vertical Roofing there either.
Metal Roofing Alliance, MRA, is listed as one of their credentials. Not there either.
I called Gerard, a premium metal roofing manufacturer that sells direct to roofing contractors. Did not hear of them.
These are the sort of lies that people give out when they want to set you up to steal. They have already stolen from anyone whose done business with them by all the lies they tell.
EAGLE POSTAL CENTERS owns their Dallas location.
Mail Box Plus owns their Fort Worth location.
Nassau Portal Postal Center shows up on Google Maps as this location for the Houston address.
Postnet is where their Austin address is. I wonder what Postnet does? Roofing?
Now I've looked up all their offices and found postal boxes, not a roofing company but I did come across one other location for Vertical Roofing, by accident, in Cedar Hill, but it is not on the website. It's owned by Colby Conklin.
Update from your not on the spot reporter.
Wrong! I was all wrong. Conklin is a great guy but two other guys at Bradco were working there when the scandal was broke by moi. Conklin was just helping. They all were fired and now that it has been several months Vertical still has not paid a penny to the "Race for the Cure" even though they trade on the foundations good will. If I ran the Susan B Korman organization I'd send a cease and desist letter.
May %th, 2010, and the Better Business Bureau report for Vertical Roofing in Fort Worth says they've been in business since 2004, I believe.

Jon Wright

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Friday, February 5, 2010

Why Hand Nail Roofing

Because it's better, faster, and less expensive. Mostly because it's better. There are so many things about hand nailing roofing versus air nailing that this will take a bit of listing.

Pneumatic hails are struck by a driver blade that is the same size as the nail head. If the wood under the roofing is harder because a rafter or lathe is under the deck, the nail might not set flush and the roofer won't know it until the homeowner looks up and sees the fish mouth in the roof. The hand nailing roofer feels what happens through his connectedness with his tool. He feels and hears if the hatched hit solid wood.

More likely the nail of a gun will be over driven whereas the hand driven nail can only be set flush because the hatchet is larger than the nail. Over driven nails hold onto nothing.

The operator of a nail gun often crosses the gun across him so the nail goes in at an angle. If the hand nailer does this you'll hear Spanish profanity.

The air nailing dude has to protect and maintenance his heavy and expensive compressor, guns, and hoses. Every morning he must load up his truck or risk theft, unload at the job site, string out the equipment, find electricity, and repair the tools as he goes along during the day. The hand nailer gets his hatchet out of the truck. There is no air hose dragging across the new but not sun sealed roofing.

The air guy has to load up his stuff if it didn't get stolen during lunch and then unload it at the house. The hand man throws his hatchet in the truck bed.

What if a breaker is thrown while the air man is using your electricity? Do you have to come home from work? Will the roofer quit and go home because he's not proficient with a hatchet or doesn't have one?

The gun roofers might start the day fine but as the sun heats up the roofing it changes consistency. Freshly opened bundles are stiffer than the buttery ones that have been open for a while. Cold shingles shatter under the thump of a gun. Think of a karate punch. The strength comes from speed times weight giving the punch its force but the black belt also makes his fist smaller by using two strong knuckles instead of spreading out his power on four. The nail gun compresses the force in an area no bigger than the nail allowing for countersinking. .

With traveling to the job, tearing off, cleaning up, paper installing, loading the heavy roofing, flashing, painting, trimming edges, going to the dump, and more cleaning up, what percentage of the job is actually nailing? Isn't it the one most important factor in a roof? How the roofing is attached is without a doubt the numero uno item on a good roof job. All other things pale in comparison. Do you have a roof or did it slide off?

Now imagine a group of men about to roof your house. If they pull out their hatchets and get after it like banshees on steroids then you know. you got your roofers. The rookies need the air tools to make up for their rookieness.

Lastly, hand nailing is green. Less electricity, manufacturing, transportation, and a better job. The government ought to give a tax credit for it.

Those are most of the reasons Jon Wright Roofing hand nails it's composition roofs. That's all an expert would use. Some of the better roofing companies in Dallas and Fort Worth get it but at a recent seminar there were a lot of snickers coming from the newbys when I gave an enlightening discourse on hand nailing. A few of these guys made comments much later about how I was still selling hand nailing.

As long as these guys are out there, there will be a lot of roof repairs to be performed in Dallas and Fort Worth.

A kid would eat ivy too, wouldn't you? They eat old shingles.

Jon Wright


www.jonwrightroofing.com