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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Anomalous Press, The Roofer by Christina Murphy, Contemporary Fiction

Thought you might enjoy this. Someone asked me once what I thought about Christian symbols on business cards. I told him that Jesus was the son of a carpenter and not a roofer. Besides it doesn't help you with the Jewish, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Bahian... what the heck. I'll list them below. Plus Atheists and Agnostics.
Click on it below.
Anomalous Press, The Roofer by Christina Murphy, Contemporary Fiction

Did you hear about the dyslexic atheist with insomnia? He laid awake all night wondering if there really was a dog.

Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
Follow jwrightroofing on Twitter

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Why Roof Attic Ventilation is Important In The Winter

Many blue moons ago I was told that if you covered your turbines in Houston you would lose your plywood deck in two years. I don't know if that is true but I do know that within five if a fireman goes on your roof he'll end up inside your home.

Reason one: Humidity is still high in the winter and if you don't have an attic that functions as a Venturi tube you'll have a fog in your attic.High humidity destroys plywood and other structural deck products like OSB. If you quit cooking, bathing, breathing, and sweating, as well as put a dehumidifier in the attic, you might make it to ten years. Besides, if covering your turbines makes your house warmer your problems are humongous. Once the heat has transferred past your insulation, it is not in your home anymore and is only contributing to global warming. (Does anyone know if it has become a proper noun yet and deserve capitalization; Global Warming.)

Reason two: If it is freezing outside and your roof is coated in ice or snow, and you don't ventilate properly, the attic temperature will rise from the heat that does get past the insulation or is caused by your ill advised placement of a dehumidifier in your attic. The frozen precipitation will begin to melt under the ice, flow down hill, and encounter the ice on the overhang. As it backs up behind the ice damn, the water will enter your home in Niagara Falls quantities. Your wife will then make you more miserable than you already are..

Reason three: Your roof warranty is void because you didn't follow the "Three Hundred Rule of Balance Ventilation," the minimum ventilation requirement.

Reason four: If you forget to remove the turbine covers or plugs, your attic will get hot and you'll have to forward more money to the electric ogre.

Reason five: Your roof and deck will fail and both will need to be replaced to insure, sell, or even live in your home. If, by chance, your roofing material is fine but the decking goes bad, it'll be the old "the teeth are fine but the gums gotta go" syndrome. You'll still need a roof replacement

Six: Pick up sticks.

Seven: Your kids get asthma. No explanation needed unless  you don't understand that microbes love humid environs.

Eight: You hate to paint your house.

Nine: I'm outta here.
Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
    Follow jwrightroofing on Twitter

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Roof Replacement and the New Insurance Scam

In the old days, about eight months ago, there were 30, 40, and 50 year laminate roof shingles available. GAF started an intergalactic battle by relabeling all it's products, except for the three tab, as lifetime, or 50 year if you read closely. This has lead to a new insurance scam that has left many homeowners in a position where the criminal roofer accepts insurance money for a 40 year and puts on what was a 30 year. But it's worse than that.

Because no 40 year grade exists, the insurance actually owes for the old 50 year super heavyweight or a class IV impact resistant roof that can save anywhere from $300.00 to $600.00 per year on your premiuns. 27% in Dallas County and 30% in Tarrant.

So by allowing the doorbell roof access to your roof claim, he has been paid for a 40 year, has put on a 30, and the homeowner loses $10,000.00 over the next decade. This is because the only savings are not just insurance premiums. The small storms that damage most roofs won't get a good class IV roof and your premiums are going to go up and so are your deductibles.

Plus any scam artist that knowingly takes your money, puts on a cheaper roof and keeps you from saving money will also ignore the 300 Rule of Balanced Ventilation and leave you with higher utility bills, a roof that fails sooner and is not covered under even the minimum warranty due to the caveats written into the material warranties, exterior paint that fails sooner, and respiratory aliments for the homes inhabitants. Even cancer if he creates negative pressure in your attic that pulls nasty stuff into your home through foundation cracks like radon gas can occur.

Other items the roofer will steal from your roof system are the heavy duty enhanced ridge the insurance might have paid for but he put on a 20 year instead (on your heavy duty roof). He might have billed for new metal edge, patio covers, pipe jacks or put on cheaper pipe jacks, valley metal.....the list goes on.

Ryan told me that when Bold did his neighbors roof they pulled out the metal valley and put none back. Salvage time.

Sometimes it takes a while to get the additional money and sometimes  the insurance company fights it hoping you'll go away but if you let us handle it we won't give up. No less than 20 people were upgraded by us this year and rightfully so. They are the ones who will win in the end. We don't make much more by getting the upgrade. Our percentage of profit or cost benefit to risk goes down but the total dollars of profit go up a little. for the many hours it can take it is not a money making effort we do. We do it to help our customers.

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
    Follow jwrightroofing on Twitter

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Buying a New Home With Roof Issues

If you're buying a new home you will be required, for your own good, to have it inspected. And that inspection includes the roof. But you can only see a fraction of the roof from on top because the roof is a system that starts at the soffits and ends at the ridge.

Only a soothsayer can tell you what the underbelly of the roof system looks like. So if your roofer is not a mystic or divine, he needs to get in the attic. If you see broken boards, you have a problem. If no daylight is coming in the soffit vents, the roof covering will fail sooner and there is no applicable warranty. Read the warranty dummy! 300 Rule of Balance Ventilation. Disconnected flue pipes equal dead inhabitants.

Home Inspectors, licensed by the state, almost always CYA, or should I say cover their arse, by writing on their report: have the roof checked by a professional roofer. Sometimes they write "have the roof checked by a licensed roofer." No such thing as far as Texas is concerned and municipal licenses are just fees.

So when you do have a roof replacement make sure your new roof has a transferable warranty because you might be there a long time. If it does fail early,you'll be protected.

Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
    Follow jwrightroofing on Twitter