New Roof, Painter damaged shingles

[Joe Hiller]

Last year our roof was replaced with GAF Timberline architectural shingles. One of the reasons we had the roof replaced was old aluminum pans had been installed years ago to prevent ice damming, and the pans were just nailed on from the top, so water leaked in through the nailholes. Thank goodness we wouldn't have to worry about that anymore.

This year we had our house painted by whom we thought was a reputable painting firm. As part of the painting, several small pieces of wood needed to be replaced at the house corners, due to rot concerns. The painting company said that they do this type of minor carpentry work, which also included getting under the drip edges to access the wood, remove, and replace.

After the conclusion of the painting job, I happened to notice that they had actually put nails *through* my new shingles in several places. In some areas the nails were under the preceding shingle (but still nowhere near the GAF nail line) but in others the nail was just put right through the shingle from the top, and there are even a few small holes that are quite larger than a nail diameter.

Yikes! Needless to say I am not happy and unfortunately the final payment has been made. Nevertheless, I intend to ask the painter to pay for the repairs. Coincidentally, we've noticed that a roof gas vent leaks a tiny amount in very hard rain, so I will need to get the roofing company (a GAF "Master Elite" company) to ensure that this solved. I intend to ask them to fix the painter's screw-ups too, and then I'll just forward that bill to the painter. If they balk, my lawyer is ready to help me and complaints will be made to the BBB and my state as well. I was mildly annoyed at the painter for being sloppy in some other aspects, but that was resolved and pales in comparison to holes in my brand new beautiful roof. :-(

Is this a good approach? Where there are holes in the shingle near the bottom of the roof near the edge, what is the proper way to repair it without making it worse? Help!

Thanks for any advice.

[Oren]

I won't cross-post this, so read it here.

Ask for a meeting with the roofer and painter in a neutral location, say lunch.

Maybe you can have a meeting of the minds.

Oren

[m Ransley]

You need to give him a chance to respond to the repair, it was his mistake. Why should he pay a roofers higher Non bid repair wage. If someone sent me a bill like that I would not pay, Your next mistake is thinking of paying an atty when this would be a small claims issue, finally the BBB is a joke. Call him to see if he will fix it, it might of been a careless employee of his and he does all he can and makes you happy, after all that is what you payed for, a good job.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I'm sure you realize that YOU must pay the roofer and collect from the painter. The roofer has no dog in the race and must be paid for his work, no matter who or what the cause.

[Joe Hiller]

Because of my relationship with my attorney, the fee for this would be extremely minimal.

Agreed.

Oh I do plan to let him know, however it is obvious that his crew of two does not know anything about shingles, roof repairs, proper techniques for roofing, etc. Since my roof is brand new I am not interested in a hack repair, I believe the damaged shingles should be properly replaced by somebody who knows what they are doing. Am I wrong?

[Joe Hiller]

Roger that, I would of of course first pay the roofer for the proper repairs. I do however believe that the painter should reimburse me for the damage caused by putting holes in the top of the shingles! I honestly don't know what they were thinking. It is like hiring somebody to fix your car door and finding out they put holes through the top of the car.

[Norminn]

I'm very puzzled - why would the painter put nails through the shingles. Do you mean that some nails are under the tabs of the shingle above but not in the nail line? Are you CERTAIN the nails were not placed by the roofer? I would be, before I contact the painter about damage. A painter is a poor choice to do carpentry - fascia and drip cap would be more appropriate for the roofer or (carpenter). I would not talk lawyer without contacting the contractor nicely, by letter, to make corrections. How many nails are we talking about? I have a hunch the roofer will dab cement on them to plug potential leaks, or mess up a good deal of your roof taking off the shingles and replacing them.

[Joe Hiller]

Yes, I am. I can look out my window at a section of the roof and I am certain there was no nail there before . That's what led me to inspect the other locations.

Painter's carpenter lifted up drip edge along the rake edges of the roof in four corners of the house to replace some fascia boards (actually these boards were the last foot or several feet of the wood on the rake edge of the house, so they are perpindicular to the fascia boards behind the gutter.

Total nails looks to be about a dozen. There are also a few holes that looks like were placed there by very rough handling of the shingles and/or putting a nail in a spot, letting it to all the way through to the gutter or whereever and removing it.

That's what I'm worried about, both scenarios. At any rate, I plan to ask the roofer about the area first before I do anything else, if I can get the roofing company here. I've been trying to get them to come out for months but they have been busy, plus the weather hasn't been too great for roofing this year (rain, rain, rain) in New England.

[Joe Hiller]

I should add that the nails-through-the-shingles are only located where the painting crew did its work, the rest of the roof appears to be fine.

[m Ransley]

No atty charges a minimal fee, they don`t know how to, it may be minimal to them but never you.

[Jeff Wisnia]

It could be if the attorney's his brother...

Jeff

[trader4]

This is a good example of why before starting many projects it can be a good idea to take a bunch of pictures to establish what the condition was before the work started. In this case, it's pretty clear. However, in other cases some pics would be a great help.

I just had a similar experience with a Honda VFR750 motorcycle. It was in excellent condition, only 8K miles on it. But unfortunately, the carbs got fouled up from very limited riding over the last few years. I did put fresh gas and fuel stabilizer in it last Oct, but in May, it would only run on full choke.

So, I take it to a local Honda dealer. While there, they keep me waiting for 3 weeks, claiming they need an air filter that is on back order and a "trim piece." Finally, I had enough and started really questioning them, especially about the mysterious "trim" piece. Turns out the trim piece was the whole right rear fairing, which they broke! Then they lied to me, claiming that wasn't the piece they were waiting for on backorder for 2 weeks, that they just broke it 3 days ago. But, they had told me they were waiting for it over 2 weeks ago. Finally, the owner came up with the truth on that too. Turns out they ordered the left one by mistake first, then ordered the correct one 3 days ago, etc.

Well, upon inspection of the bike, now I see that the rear fairing piece over the license plate has one large crack down the middle and small cracks in the corner. It also moves around when you touch it, like maybe the little interlocking finger tabs on the back are broken off. I know it wasn't like that when I brought it there. However, they say they don;t believe their guy, who they fired, did it. They say he broke it near the front section while trying to fasten it on. I don't believe it, as I had taken this off and put it back on just prior to taking it in. It goes on very easily, no need to use force. Also, my buddy is buying the bike and he was there when we took it off/on. He had looked the bike over as buyer and did not see any damage to that rear piece of fairing. I think what most likely happened was they took off the whole rear section, consisting of the right, rear and left pieces that come off the bike as one. Then they had it sitting somewhere where something fell on it or a bike was run into it etc,

Finally, I did get them to agree to replace that piece at their cost too. So, they are out $350 for the right fairing, plus ?? for the rear piece. But this got me to thinking. It would always be a good idea to take some quick pics of a bike or car being taken in for service. That way you would have proof of the condition and it would be a lot easier to prove who did what.

BTW, I still don't have the bike back. They even called me last Sat, telling me it was ready. When I got there, they said, "Oh, we tried to call you again. It failed QA test, it's not runnning right." Unbelievable! Given that the moneky that broke the fairing is the guy that took apart and cleaned the carbs, God only knows what else I'm in for!

[Travis Jordan]

Time for a letter to American Honda corporate management.