THE ROOF FORUM

The Unbreakable Rule of Flat roofs.

2012-02-14T10:30:00.002-06:00

Thou shalt not roof over moisture. Any form of water, whether it be mere dampness or pools of mud, will blow apart the new roof.

Flat roofs are monolithic systems that need to flex, stretch, and stay adhered at the seams and flashings.
When they heat up, and boy do they, a contained drop of water will become excited and try to grow into a gallon of vapor, or something like that. The monolith is just that and there is no lap point for it to expand. Blisters form or an osmotic type action called migration occurs. Permeability is not a good thing for bathtubs.

H₂O is a mean son of a gun and will destroy everything you own if you don't respect it. Water gives life
but can also kill. If you are sure beyond a doubt that no water is in your flat roof system you should not
reroof it anyway because decompsing roofs emit gases.

Best bet is to remove all old roofing. otherwise you can look at some of the roof restoration systems
available for smooth surface roofs. Sometimes a restored roof is better than the original one,
especially those using butyl tape on the seams and a two coat reflective system.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Radiant Barrier Done Wrong

2012-02-07T09:19:00.001-06:00

Shouting from the rooftops I do declare that a lot of homeowners have been had, badly. The repeatedly made stupid mistakes never cease to amaze me. First and foremost is the failure to follow the 300 Rule of Balanced ventilation. Roof failure will be imminent and there is no warranty. Besides your sick kids (heat+humidity+organic material= spores, or equation #2, negative attic pressure can result in radon or other gases infiltrating through the foundation), high utility bills, peeling paint, premature deck failure, compressed insulation, and general chaos and mayhem.

But my stomach churns the most lately when I inspect an attic and see radiant barrier decking nailed directly to lathe. Here's the run down. 1) Wood shingles have a low density and reduce conductivity.
2) Solid decking transmits a lot more heat.
3) Energy efficient decking installed over lathe makes your attic even hotter.

The inventors of Techshield, formerly called KoolPly, warned that aluminum is a great conductor. Now the brochures leave out this quality and only mention that aluminum does not emit and reflects. But it doesn't when in contact with wood. Otherwise we would just put the aluminum side upwards.

The current manufacturers tell us to remove every other lathe and a 305 reduction of efficiency will occur 9 because there is more contact with wood than when placed onto rafters spaced every two feet. They forget to mention that both plywood and OSB are strong only in one direction so that if there is about a 15" gap on the 50% removal technique, the decking will warp just like when the eight foot side is the vertical rather than horizontal side. When you remove half the lathes the decking thinks that the lathe is the rafter.

So more contact means more heat. People pay extra for a hotter attic. They pay everyone. Build more dams, power plants, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island because that is what your attic will feel like:MELTDOWN! You are better off with normal decking or wood shingles under your roof that with misapplied radiant barrier decking.

Many times you can't remove the lathe because the rafters are not on two foot centers. Why? Because when you install lathe or plank decks, they don't have to be. What carpenter would take the time for a half inch difference if it made no difference. Larry Sample said rather wisely, "What's a half inch amongst friends?"
He also said that h his house had a perfectly good ventilation system until the previous owner put in turbines. I almost fell down while I inquired as how the hell did he know that. He's a mechanical HVAC guy and understands that roofing is rocket science: Venturi, Bernoulli, negative pressure, fluid dynamics (in a simple kind of way) and String Theory. Well not actually the last one but all the others apply.

Back at the inferno, the sun shines on the roof, the heat permeates the roofing, then the deck, and is now super conducted into the lathe by the highly conductive aluminum, which as turned on you like your tonsils. I love that old Bill Cosby record.

You want vent ridge? Sure we'll do it. and we'll put in some turbines and some power vents, and whatever you want... No education going on here. Just a whole lot of baking going on.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

The Weather and My Life

2011-12-30T06:41:00.000-06:00

The personal experiences of my life are recorded in my mind along with the weather. Yeah I'm a nut but so are most of us. That's beside the point so hush up.

I graduated from college in 1979 and the following year it was the hottest ever here:1980. My first son was born in a year with few storms, 1985. The next year hail tore up 75062. The big car wreck was in a year of very little work, so I know it happened in 1998. I had bought the inventory of Flintkote shingles from ABC Supply for a song and dance because the company was changing names to it's new parent, Genstar, and the wrappers would be obsolete.

The year I did nothing but work was 2011 and it is spilling over into 2012 too.

My point is that many of us would never remember what year we lost an ear unless we tied the incident to our jobs or school. I can't remember what year that dog I bit ripped off my ear because I wasn't in school. i didn't start crying until my mother freaked. Then I knew I was in trouble. They put my ear back on.

When I look back on my life I tag incidents to hailstorms, tornadoes, and droughts. Even this year a few things happened.

I'd like to take this moment to thank our customers and apologize to those we couldn't get to. We couldn't even answer the phone it rang so much. there will be very few new roofs to put on after the remaining roofs get replaced, unless the skies get angry again. That is why we also do siding, window replacement, and solar. This helps insulate us from the ravages of calm weather.

My best wishes to everyone. Have a safe and happy New Year. God bless.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Fake Roofing Companies

2011-12-26T13:18:00.000-06:00

google has a policy that the location or map page of a business must be a legitimate place of business. I assume, because I'm that way, that Yahoo, Bing and the others do to. years ago it was okay and I went to a seminar that showed us how to just put a comma in the address line with the city hall zip code of the city you wanted to optimize in. I thought it was okay but looking back it was deceptive.

The thought police that run these search engines have done a good job of writing rules that stop people from committing these practices. I learned my lesson. I paid dearly as did a computer geek friend, Half Price Geeks, did. He put white letters over a white background that the all seeing spiders could see but mere mortals could not. "So why did I land here in this cyberspace location?" manipulation.

The mantra today is transparency and honesty. But it ain't happen' baby. Follow this:

First go to yahoo and google, er I mean yahoo, the words "Irving Roofer."
The first address doesn't even exist. Some other locations use zip codes for Irving I didn't know existed. They are post office box zip codes.

Now go back to Google and try the same. do a little digging and put some of the address in the search bar with the word FedEx attached. Ah ha! A postal or mailbox center. No office there. At least three that come up in Google Maps are not there. Where are they? Their websites don't have physical addresses on them either.

Now go dig around their online comments. Notice anything strange? Rhythmic comments with the same writing styles, adjectives, and punctuation errors. maybe there were six comments in a week, twice, but not in between. Coincidence? How about the fact that the commenter has only made one comment in their online history. Dig back. Look.

These skills will help you find people who are willing to falsify comments that make them look good. Maybe you can find that nothing exists about them a year ago, including BBB recognition. That is why Angie's List is growing. Her success is so great that not only will there be copycats, there will be attempts to scam her site too. they do a pretty good job but if you build it, they will come. Every time.

So do your research. dig, snoop, and listen. Why not just call them and ask where their office is. That's pretty easy. That way before you sign away thousands of dollars in commitments, you can go see them. I would.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Insurance Companies Dumb Down Roofs and Cheat GAF

2011-12-26T08:35:00.000-06:00

By systematically paying for lower grade roofs than the homeowners have, insurance companies are saving millions and cheating homeowners and the manufacturers, primarily GAF.

I'm not sure of the statistics but I do know that since the 1980's forward, the middle grade of three architectural shingles, last know as a 40 year, was the mainstay of roofing materials. As hail hit roofs, people replaced their roofs with like kind and quality. when they put the new roof over another roof, especially wood shingles, they tended to install the 40 and 50 year versions of the product.

I'm using 2001 to 2010 language here.For the most part, before the 2011 warranty change, 25 year shingles weighed 250 lbs per sq., 30 year weighed 300, and 40 year weighed 340. Easy to remember 25=250, 30=300, and 40= more than 300. the point is, most homes with laminates that were built before 1985 or roofed after that, had 300 lb. shingles.

Until this year, the insurance companies were paying correctly, for the most part. That has ended. They now say all laminates are the light weight version, the 240 lb. In fact, we have to continually explain to them that the language changed in 2001 so that a 25 became a 30, a 30 became a 40, and a 40 became a 50. They've used lab reports and shingle gauges and other flimsy wiggledly wham methods, including stalling, to cheat the homeowners.

And the mushroom roofers who pop up after hail storms are more than willing to put on a 30 and bill for a 40. until recently we thought all 40 years were gone but State Farm, in an exhaustive project, found a material that was classified as a 40 but weighs only 165 lbs. We never even knew it existed.

So GAF, which was huge before it took over the massive Elcor, Elk shingles for those of you from the real world, Tamko, and Owens Corning, who all discontinued their 40 year version, are out of the game and State Farm, the biggie in the insurance biz, is sending it's clients down a path to lesser products.

The insurance companies always talked weight in the past but they keep squirming until they find a way to keep costs down. They say "it's always been that way" or "I've never heard that." Shut up and speak up once you know something other that dumbing down. It really turns my stomach how they don't care about their customer's homes but advertise they are friends and neighbors.

Every week or two they come up with something and claim it has always been that way. I've been here for 32 years selling roofs and was an installer for years before that. They don't know jack. I left off the last half the word.

Do you think it is fair to put a shingle that weighs 71 to 88% less? You might even think it was good for the environment but these new roofs won't last a long.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Interesting Article on Corrrupt Roofers

2011-12-12T09:47:00.005-06:00

Here''s an interesting article written by Jim Strickland of WSBTV2. It came to me via email plagiarized by an insurance adjusting firm employee for a seemingly in house email. But it escaped into the public and didn't just stay with his staff. Roofing industry stalwarts have been circulating the story amongst themselves as if it were written by someone else.
The original link is directly below. The email is after that.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/officials-sting-shows-roofers-creating-storm-damag/nFjb2/

Home> News> LocalPosted: 3:17 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21, 2011Officials: Sting shows roofers creating storm damagecomment (10)SharefavoriteVote (0)View Largerroofer sting photoBy Jim StricklandATLANTA —State agents are working hard to enforce a new law passed following a Channel 2 Action News investigation into unscrupulous roofers, and recently invited Channel 2 cameras to take part in an elaborate sting.Roofers are no longer allowed to pay storm victim's insurance deductibles or file claims on their behalf following an investigation by Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland.Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens said he wanted to send a message and asked to use Channel 2 cameras to help. Undercover state agents targeted Ronnie Baker and several other roofers on orders by Hudgens. State officials say Baker advertised a promise that sent up immediate red flags, "Storm victims pay zero deductible.""We're trying to get the bad actors out," Hudgens told Strickland.To set up the sting, the state rented a house and first brought in a certified inspector. Channel 2 and the Fraud Squad with the Insurance Commissioner's office had separate hidden cameras."It's in good condition. There is no hail or storm related damages," certified inspector Frank Domonousky told Strickland after he looked at the house."Over here there is no damage, not a single mark," Domonousky said on top of the roof.When Baker arrived, cameras showed him doing more measuring than inspecting. He claimed the house needed a new roof and offered to a bargain. "Don't tell them I'm paying your deductible or they'll just deduct that from us. Legally I can't do that," Baker told the undercover agents.Baker returned later to photograph the supposed damage. Channel 2 was there and recorded the front and back of the house and watched as Baker dug his finger into the shingles. Baker did it over and over again, each time ending with a chalk mark for the insurance company. Baker even took a bolt from the TV antenna on top of the house and used that to twist into a shingle and manufacture damage.RELATED VIDEO: Whistle-blower helping state with roofer stingThe roof deemed hail free by an inspector suddenly appeared to be a peppered and pelted mess."You can see how big that area is and it is where the granules have been scraped away," said Billy Sullivan, lead agent of the undercover operation.Baker insisted the damage was there and he was only making it easier to see."I'm not a crook. I don't have to. I don't have to commit a crime to get paid," Baker told Strickland as he was being handcuffed by undercover agents. "I think it's outrageous." Baker said.Baker was not the only one."Man, I'm just glad you're covering this damn deductible for me," said an undercover agent to one of the roofers."Oh yeah, that is no problem, man," said Daniel Barry, another roofer who showed up for an inspection.Barry and Kenneth McKenzie work for American Roofing Co. Barry actually used a penny to scratch off the granules on the shingles."That's where the granules on the shingles actually took off the copper off the penny. It's manufacturing hail damage," an agent showed Strickland afterward.When agents moved in, McKenzie denied manufacturing storm damage."What's your reaction to your arrest?" Strickland asked McKenzie."I have no idea. It's quite a surprise to me," replied McKenzie.When asked what they were doing on the roof and why the used the penny, Barry replied, "I saw the damage there and I was trying to open it up to where it was more visible."Domonousky told Strickland it is more like vandalism."He actually rubbed right through the shingle to the fiber backing on the bottom half, and basically damaged this shingle for life," said Domonousky.Hudgens told Strickland felony fraud charges against all three roofers caught allegedly roughing up the roof will stand."When it's not prosecuted the message doesn't get out and it says it's perfectly OK to defraud an insurance company. Well it's not," Hudgens said.Three roofers whose inspection did not warrant arrest will get warnings for the promises to pay the deductible.In addition to the three arrested for felony insurance fraud, investigators are still gathering evidence against a fourth roofer.The insurance commissioner's office told Strickland that 12 to 18 percent of the money homeowners pay in premiums goes to cover the cost of fraud.

Now here's how it was emailed to me:

Advanced Claims Concepts
November 23, 2011

Field Staff,

ATLANTA -

State agents are working hard to enforce a new law passed following a Channel 2 Action News investigation into unscrupulous roofers, and recently invited Channel 2 cameras to take part in an elaborate sting.

Roofers are no longer allowed to pay storm victim's insurance deductibles or file claims on their behalf following an investigation by Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland.

Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens said he wanted to send a message and asked to use Channel 2 cameras to help. Undercover state agents targeted Ronnie Baker and several other roofers on orders by Hudgens. State officials say Baker advertised a promise that sent up immediate red flags, "Storm victims pay zero deductible."

"We're trying to get the bad actors out," Hudgens told Strickland.

To set up the sting, the state rented a house and first brought in a certified inspector. Channel 2 and the Fraud Squad with the Insurance Commissioner's office had separate hidden cameras.

"It's in good condition. There is no hail or storm related damages," certified inspector Frank Domonousky told Strickland after he looked at the house.

"Over here there is no damage, not a single mark," Domonousky said on top of the roof.

When Baker arrived, cameras showed him doing more measuring than inspecting. He claimed the house needed a new roof and offered to a bargain. "Don't tell them I'm paying your deductible or they'll just deduct that from us. Legally I can't do that," Baker told the undercover agents.

Baker returned later to photograph the supposed damage. Channel 2 was there and recorded the front and back of the house and watched as Baker dug his finger into the shingles. Baker did it over and over again, each time ending with a chalk mark for the insurance company. Baker even took a bolt from the TV antenna on top of the house and used that to twist into a shingle and manufacture damage.

The roof deemed hail free by an inspector suddenly appeared to be a peppered and pelted mess.

"You can see how big that area is and it is where the granules have been scraped away," said Billy Sullivan, lead agent of the undercover operation.

Baker insisted the damage was there and he was only making it easier to see.

"I'm not a crook. I don't have to. I don't have to commit a crime to get paid," Baker told Strickland as he was being handcuffed by undercover agents. "I think it's outrageous." Baker said.

Baker was not the only one.

"Man, I'm just glad you're covering this damn deductible for me," said an undercover agent to one of the roofers.

"Oh yeah, that is no problem, man," said Daniel Barry, another roofer who showed up for an inspection.

Barry and Kenneth McKenzie work for American Roofing Co. Barry actually used a penny to scratch off the granules on the shingles.

"That's where the granules on the shingles actually took off the copper off the penny. It's manufacturing hail damage," an agent showed Strickland afterward.

When agents moved in, McKenzie denied manufacturing storm damage.

"What's your reaction to your arrest?" Strickland asked McKenzie.

"I have no idea. It's quite a surprise to me," replied McKenzie.

When asked what they were doing on the roof and why the used the penny, Barry replied, "I saw the damage there and I was trying to open it up to where it was more visible."

Domonousky told Strickland it is more like vandalism.

"He actually rubbed right through the shingle to the fiber backing on the bottom half, and basically damaged this shingle for life," said Domonousky.

Hudgens told Strickland felony fraud charges against all three roofers caught allegedly roughing up the roof will stand.

"When it's not prosecuted the message doesn't get out and it says it's perfectly OK to defraud an insurance company. Well it's not," Hudgens said.

Three roofers whose inspection did not warrant arrest will get warnings for the promises to pay the deductible.

In addition to the three arrested for felony insurance fraud, investigators are still gathering evidence against a fourth roofer.

The insurance commissioner's office told Strickland that 12 to 18 percent of the money homeowners pay in premiums goes to cover the cost of fraud.

Sincerely,

Cliff Goodson

Advanced Claims Concepts, Inc.

Cliff Goodson, CFO

Office: 888-251-7448 Ext. 701

Cell: 386-334-8467

Fax: 407-641-9777

Email: cliff@acc-claims.com

Website: www.acc-claims.com

"Large enough to do your claims work nationwide, but small

enough to care about it"

Cliff Goodson should be ashamed of himself. Plagiarism is theft and against the law.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Dallas Roofing History

2011-12-07T12:42:00.000-06:00

The first big roofer I remember was Gideon Roofing. He had a complex of stores over off Cayuga Drive in Dallas. Besides his roofing company he had a sheet metal shop, a fastener store, and a roofing distributorship. My first babysitter lived on that street too. Good old Mrs. Oneal is long gone now.

He went down leaving room for Latham to take over numero uno. As his company went down the Lon Smith, Needham, and Hollingsworth dynasties began.

Today there are lots of roofing companies in Dallas, as there always has been but a dominate company no longer exists. Some guys do a lot of business but no one company overshadows the region.

The big suppliers of yesteryear like Burris and Dallas Wholesale have been replaced by at least 20 stores. ABC, Southern, Shelter, Bradco, Home Depot, and Gulf Eagle all have multiple locations.

But there are some behemoths in the industry: the manufacturers. GAF, Certainteed, Tamko, Gerard, Owens Corning, IKO, and the evil ones: Atlas and Malarkey, have gobbled up all the mom and pop shingle factories. Gone are Elk, Celotex, Fry (showing my age), GS, Genstar, Flintkote, Georgia Pacific, Allied, Masonite, Johns Manville roofing shingles, and Dura-Loc while Bird has been pushed into the northeast.

Many of their product names still exist like the presidential, once a Celotex product and now by Certainteed, or Flintlastic modified, from Flintkote to Genstar to GS to Certainteed.

Boy did we love to yell "get the Bird pookie" and watch the homeowners freak

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

The initiation of Jon as a Roofer.

2011-12-05T09:21:00.000-06:00

Children believe that history began with their own consciousness. Even though we grow to know better when we have our own little rug snatchers, we feel like they were always with us. Maybe it has something to do with String Theory and multiple dimensions and possibilities. Naw. It is just the arrogance of man. Anyway I'm going to narrate the history of roofing through my eyes.
Chapter 1:
Just kidding.

One morning my father got me out of bed. There was this big huge giant pile of stuff in the driveway and my father told me that my job was to get it on the roof. Come on! This was going to be worse than the summer I had to break up a patio cover with a sledgehammer and wheelbarrow it to a trailer in front of the house. How I longed to just sit and separate the screws, washers, nuts and bolts of hundreds of kinds that was another task when daddy brought home several footlockers full of them. He has enough for generations.

So I go outside and I can't even budge the package. My father has me start with a fraction of a package. Soon the little stones are sliding down my back and into my underwear and socks. Thank the Unmoved Mover that this was pre-fiberglass times.

Due to the youth of an 8th grader, I didn't get sore the next day. I piled more destruction on my body and when the soreness came on the third day, the sea parted from the land. Dad didn't let me off and wasn't going to on the 7th either. This is the role model that Newt is talking about. Pharaoh!

When my ancient uncle showed up, and I never saw him before or afterwards, the real toil began. I tell you, a plank one by twelve deck really holds a nail. And there where three layers!!! Cccount themmm.

Once this epic task was completed we were ready for the forty days and nights. And so was another uncle that I knew well. I never knew he was such beast. He had procured me by right of blood to toil in his quarry, his parking lot, and his roofs. He was a man of many hats but had no sons. So, thus having completed the first job so well, I was sent off to never be heard from again.

Yeah, I did come back but soon discovered that people actually got paid for doing this work. food and shelter no longer sufficed.

When i went to college I looked for jobs and could only find work in bars and sweaty sheet metal shops. Then it happened. I met a roofer with the need for help. Imagine in the 1970's being 19 years old and making $150.00 a day. Thought about dropping out as we all know 19 year olds are immortal and time does not pass.

I watched my new boss measure roofs in his peculiar way while he asked me to spell "tear off" and "valley." So I changed from a science major taking Spanish to Political Philosophy and Italian, speculating that the upcoming wave of Italian immigrants would take over the roofing labor force.

Once I graduated from the University of Dallas, I couldn't find a job as a philosopher making my required $150.00 per day, so roofing was it. Besides I got to hire a lot of those students and teach them the value of an education.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Roofers and Website Plagiarism

2011-11-25T10:22:00.002-06:00

This preface was written within an hour of the initial posting. After googleing the words "Notify your mortgage and insurance companies the day your roofing job begins. This will expedite the inspection and payment processes" I discovered many roofers with the same page with exactly the same wordage or some slight changes. There was one named "John White Roofing" but he changed his name a little. Ha! After reading below come back and click the link above but not until then. Now to my original jump the gun conclusion:

"What a joke. These guys use other roofers stuff verbatim without shame. They must not have had that course in school. you know: plagiarism. Just glimpse over the first two examples. Too much time to read all.
Example one from a roofer in Kansas:
Free Estimate
The first step in the Garrison Roofing process is handling your estimate request. Whether you call in and speak to us or submit an online estimate request form, we will be able to provide you with a free estimate handled by one of our roofing professionals.
The Contract
Once a roofing professional has come out, you will receive a proposal for the work that we are able to perform. After your approve the proposal, call our office for help with your color choice.
Scheduling Your Job
The third step in the Garrison Roofing Process is to prepare for the work to begin. We will select the best crew for your project and a time for the work to begin (weather permitting). You will be notified with a date for work to begin.

Example two from North Carolina:

FREE ESTIMATE
The first step in the Graham Roofing Process is handling your estimate request. Whether you call in and speak to one of our team members or submit an online estimate request form, we will be able to provide you with a free estimate handled by one of our roofing professionals.

THE CONTRACT
Once a roofing professional has performed an estimate, you will receive a proposal for the work that we are able to perform. After you accept of offer, your job goes directly into the scheduling department to be setup for completion.

SCHEDULING YOUR JOB
The third step in the Graham Roofing Process is to prepare for the work to begin. We will select the best crew for your project, and a time for the work to begin (weather permitting). Once we are ready to begin the job we will order any material that is needed, and have it delivered, or brought to the job site by the roofers themselves.

Now for the dilly whopper. Here's something I noticed on an Irving Roofer's page:

10. For each day it rains, work on your roof will be delayed. Trident Roofing roofers are instructed not to tear off more shingles than they can replace in one day so that your roof is not exposed to inclement weather.

The problem is that this is not from Trident Roofing's website. The plaigerist forgot to remove the name of the company he lifted the piece from. In fact, the whole page is a copy of Trident's page. Here's some more:

Notify your mortgage and insurance companies the day your roofing job begins. This will expedite the inspection and payment processes.
Be prepared for the noise! There will be constant hammering for one or more days, depending on the size of your roof. You may want to plan a day away from the house while the job is in progress.
When shingles are delivered to your home, please check the color. Notify Evans & Horton Roofing immediately if the color is not what you ordered.
Remove all loose items from wall shelves and walls: pictures, plates, figurines. Hammering may create vibrations that shake these items off of shelves and walls.
Do not loan your tools or equipment to the roofers.
Remove all items from around the house where roofing debris or bundles of shingles might fall: patio and pool furniture, potted plants, gardening equipment, and grills. Leaves or blooms may be knocked off plants near your home during the job. We try to protect the plants but many times the layout of the landscape prevents us from doing so.
Precautions are taken to prevent gutter damage. However, there are instances when damage to gutters is unavoidable, especially on very steep roofs or ones that are completely surrounded by gutters or homes with rusted gutters. Your homeowners insurance should cover any damage.

Now here is Tridents:

Preparing your Residence for a Quality Roofing Job

Notify your mortgage and insurance companies the day your roofing job begins. This will expedite the inspection and payment processes.
Be prepared for the noise! There will be constant hammering for one or more days, depending on the size of your roof. You may want to plan a day away from the house while the job is in progress.
When shingles are delivered to your home, please check the color. Notify Trident Roofing immediately if the color is not what you ordered.
Remove all loose items from wall shelves and walls: pictures, plates, figurines. Hammering may create vibrations that shake these items off of shelves and walls.
Do not loan your tools or equipment to the roofers.
Remove all items from around the house where roofing debris or bundles of shingles might fall: patio and pool furniture, potted plants, gardening equipment, and grills. Leaves or blooms may be knocked off plants near your home during the job. We try to protect the plants but many times the layout of the landscape prevents us from doing so.
Check heater vents upon completion of your roof to make sure that they haven’t become loose in the attic. Also check hot water heater and stove vents. The roofer will do this for you if allowed access to your attic.
Occasionally, we will use power tools to cut decking or shingles. When we do so, please check your power breakers and outside electrical outlets to make sure they are operating correctly.
For each day it rains, work on your roof will be delayed. Trident Roofing roofers are instructed not to tear off more shingles than they can replace in one day so that your roof is not exposed to inclement weather.
We will need access to your driveway to load shingles and clean up. Please park your cars, motorcycles, bicycles, boats, etc, out of the driveway/garage.
Keep small children and pets away from the work area.
Nails that fall from the roof during the job will be picked up with a magnetic nail roller. We will make every effort to pick up all nails. Please be advised; however, that a few nails, hidden in the grass or shrubbery, may remain.
Make all payments to Trident Roofing. Please do not pay in cash and do not make checks payable to salesmen.

If this was purchased content, then the second guy got ripped off. I think the second guy just left some evidence in #10 and I noticed it.

I hope no one is offended because I saw something that I was taught was wrong. Reworking a good piece of writing is great but lifting it verbatim is downright plagiarism. Here's what Webster's says:

pla·gia·rize

verb \ˈplā-jə-ˌrīz also -jē-ə-\

pla·gia·rizedpla·gia·riz·ing

Definition of PLAGIARIZE

transitive verb

: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb

: to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

— pla·gia·riz·er noun

See plagiarize defined for English-language learners »

See plagiarize defined for kids »

Examples of PLAGIARIZE

He plagiarized a classmate's report.
She plagiarized from an article she read on the Inte

Enough enough. Believe it or not this goes on everywhere, just like false Google Reviews, see Eclat in Dallas and dive back on the people's reviews and see how many places they review all over the country, or John Wade Roofing's attempt to put a low rating on 103 or so roofers in one day. Brad Carver at BC Roofing was really mad as was Ark Roofing, Heartland Construction, Joe Hall Roofing, and the few who saw it before it was taken down. I got pics though.

Hopefully Google, our benevolent leader will police these actions soon and keep honesty as much a part of the net as it can be. Until then keep your eyes open.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Ventilation or Radiant Barrier?

2011-11-23T08:14:00.000-06:00

This post is like eating watermelon in January. it is out of season. But as winter here last about two weeks and summer can last up to ten years, I wanted to beat the heat to the punch, because if you're buying a roof now, don't forget about Ra, Huitzilopochtli, Mithra or Apollo. They won't forget about you when your inadequate attic becomes the blast furnace that eats you alive.

The raging debate amongst the illiterati is whether to vent or to reduce heat with all the newfangled products like Cool Series and Energy Cap by GAF, Solaris by Certainteed, Energy Star colors by Gerard Roofing Technologies, or the new underlayments like Polarium and Energy Q. Below that is the best of the best, Techshield and the imitators like Solar Board. The radiant barrier foil backed decking is, hands down, the best. Painted on reflective coatings and staple on foil don't work near as well.

As heat goes where heat isn't and aluminum has very low emissivity, having the foil on the decking is the best place to have it. Putting it on the attic floor is a giant mistake because convected head lives there and the foil gets loaded with dust. Then all sorts of bad stuff happens. Like your ceilings fall in from humidity!

The answer is in the balance of the two, just like when Plato, using Socrates as his mouthpiece in "The Republic" asks if it is better to use the old country doctor who knows what works or the recent graduate of medical school who knows why something works. Even though this book was written over 2300 years ago, the debate rages.The answer is neither. You want both, the experienced doctor who keeps up his education on leeches, blood letting and spells. (you know Hippocrates called vinegar the first medicine and raw unpasteurized vinegar with mother mixed with local honey cured me of arthritis, acid reflux, and allergies.)

Back in the attic the sun's photons are doing their job and making the temperature rise to millions of degrees kelvin and the pot roast went from frozen to done in minutes. So what's a homeowner to do? Both!

Here's the math: reduce the load in factor of heat with any of these Energy Star products and keep the Venturi Effect racing from the soffits to your favorite exhaust point and the attic won't fill up with excited molecules that keep running into each other because they are hot. Less heat gain and more heat removal equals an attic closer to ambient temperature.

If you use foil faced decking, make sure it is not applied directly to the lathe of the old wood roof because the near 50% coverage results in a lot of conduction. This is why aluminum was used for wiring for years. it conducts. This will super heat your attic.

But ventilation also works in the winter by keeping down humidity and preventing ice dams. If covering your turbines makes your house warmer, you have major problems. you need that old fashioned energy saver called insulation. Once the heat passes your sheetrock, it is gone. Warm attics help no one. You always want your attic to approximate outside ambient temperature. Don't cover your turbines! Never, unless they are leaking. That's leaking water or lava into your attic, not heat outside, contributing to global warming, a plot by the Greenlandic scientists to increase tourism.

Less in, more out. That's the ticket.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

George Harrison's Roof. Ten Years Gone: 29 November 2001

2011-11-19T20:49:00.000-06:00

25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001. Those were the years George Harrison was on this rock and did he roll. the song 'While My guitar Gently Weeps" makes me do just that even those his doesn't anymore except on you tube and some of those fancy devices ya'll have that will be obsolete by next week.

now here is his roof, if you wondered what was going on:

Now why would he do this to the poor roofers. Look at it. high enough to be a widowmaker and complicated enough to be a head buster (Spanish for puzzle:rompe cabeza).

Now here's a more friendly roof that George built:

Now let's take a look at the first monstrosity from above:

Notice that the roof looks so tall but this is just a mirage. The steep slopes hide the flat roof above keeping costs down in many ways. Less material and labor is needed to build the home. Less time is needed because there is less work making those bankers mad, or happy, or who knows what these days. Also those real expensive materials you can see, like imported Italian tile, which aren't any better than those made in Chicago, are not in is great a demand.
So when you get your first hit album you too can build a mansion that looks more expensive than it really is.

George has been dead for ten years now and very few of us ever call him our favorite Beatle. just listen to one of my favorites and reminiscence;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ITrQXES8kU

on 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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

50,000th Visit

2011-11-15T08:38:00.000-06:00

Since June of 2009,when Google started tracking visits, this blog has received over 50,000 hits. Thank you. I hope you have learned about ventilation, enhanced warranties from the manufacturer, manufacturer certification, ice dams, hand nailing, solar energy, metal roofs, radiant barrier deck, windows, siding, energy Star products, the component parts of shingles, asphalt, tile, slate, and some lousy jokes.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Solar Certification

2011-11-05T16:30:00.001-05:00

Jon Wright Roofing is the first company in north Texas to be certified as a solar installer for Certainteed's solar systems. We first started this journey when GAF said they were going into solar with GE several years ago but then dropped the program.

This weekend several of us went through intense training for our NABCEP training. It was two grueling days. We have more to go.
We have completed Certainteed's training but we want to offer a full line, although what Certainteed has is very nice.

The Apollo system is integrated right into the roof. That saves money and time. Plus the solar will be covered by Certainteed's extended warranty program.

More to come. Very tired right now.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

How To Spot A Liar

2011-11-05T16:18:00.000-05:00

When searching for a contractor, look at his home page, not his web page. check the people who made comments by clicking on their name. Go backwards and see if the person has done any of these things:
Left only one comment anywhere on the web.
Has left comments for companies all over the country.
Made bad comments or star ratings for lots of competitors.
Comment sounds like a commercial.
All the commenter use similar adjectives and grammar.
The comments on the page are left in date clusters. These guys are dumb.
The address of the business, when posted into the search bar brings up a postal location and not an office.

In short: look at the dates, the verbage, the number of comments made by each, and the address.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Anomalous Press, The Roofer by Christina Murphy, Contemporary Fiction

2011-10-27T07:53:00.000-05:00

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Why Roof Attic Ventilation is Important In The Winter

2011-10-20T08:57:00.001-05:00

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Roof Replacement and the New Insurance Scam

2011-10-13T08:33:00.000-05:00

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Buying a New Home With Roof Issues

2011-10-12T12:19:00.000-05:00

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Dew on the Roof

2011-08-21T11:24:00.000-05:00

The morning dew appeared very eerie in the moonlight. The moisture wrinkled the roofing felt which cast a set of shadows in the long moonbeams. Passing clouds sometimes deprived all light except for the occasionally passing police car. The roof was naked but only for her loose fitting wet black pajamas.

Soon the roofers would show up to hurriedly put down the shingles hoping to beat the scorching sun. Until then the calm was upon the roof. Running and dripping, the dew collected behind the wrinkles in the home's temporary covering, eventually reaching the edge and mostly falling to the ground.

The black felt had absorbed much of the moisture, weakening and distorting it until it was a menace. But the roofers, in their trucks, drinking their stimulator and hydrating themselves in order to steel their bodies to the coming torturous day, were thinking only of shaving seconds from their race.

The dawn went crack and the hatchets went pound. The sound of fast footsteps and falling bundles destroyed the silence like a war. Yes, a war against the clock and sun. A battle fought daily by hard men hoping to suffer less than yesterday when the tools and material burned their hand through callouses so thick you might wonder how they can feel anything. Raise the sail and pull the anchor because the enemy approaches soon.

Sadly, despite all the efforts of these brave warriors, the roof will fail sooner than it should because the trapped moisture will blister the roofing and the wrinkles in the paper will give the wind a handle to rip off the face of the roof. They could have sliced the felt to make it flat but then it is useless the next time wind or hail smashes the roof.

The roofer is but a machine doing whatever he can get away with. The devil sits on his shoulder all day saying "put in three nails instead of four. You'll go faster." He is a patient. He would whisper in my ear at moments of weakness, when the sun beat down on me like I was in Hell itself. If not for a moral code and a boss who would have drawn and quartered me, this once a teenage roofer would have committed the sin of three nails.

I saw a roofer three nail a mansard. My dog hated that guy and now I know why. I made him go back and put in the forth nail and told him if I found just one missing he would not get paid. Due diligence followed.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

The Roof Forum Itself

2011-08-20T12:46:00.000-05:00

This site has been referred to as a news, informational, resource, comedic, rant, expose', and garbage site. Thank you all for your agreements and disagreements.

The fist posting was December 4, 2009 and in May, 2009 Google started tracking hits. Since May 2009 The Roof Forum has had over 40,000 hits. I have not monetized it and write strictly to either educate, inform, rant, or joke. We have received some business from the Forum and well as made the job more difficult for other roofers out there that don't know or don't try to follow the best practices. And believe you me, that in my 32 years as a roofing contractor the industry has always been in a sorry state. My God, how could anyone ever justify the usage of a term like "reusing the felt?" That just doesn't compute. Would you say "reuse the cigarette? Reuse the glass of milk? The gasoline? Thieving jerks or just don't know better?

Hopefully some people have learned from my experience because when you've done this as long as I have to tend to pick up some experience.

This is just a thank you for reading. I promise to try to be be more serious, funny, angry, and informative for the next 40,000 visitors.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Thinner and Lighter Everything in Roofing

2011-08-05T08:03:00.002-05:00

Kids hate it when we geezers say "when I was a boy..." But more often than not what we spew is truth, as filtered through an aged brain with prejudices for the way it was. But I'm going to say it and I'm going to say it about all basic roofing commodities.

When I was a boy the lightest of the shingles, a fifteen year three tab, weighed more that current lifetime roofing. 240 lb square butts went down to 235's and eventually to less than 200. The 340 lb timberline has undulkated and danced between 320 down to less than 240 today. So do all the other laminates except for the wamma jammas. today.

But it's not just the shingles, which can be explained away with better technology. The metal edge used to be so strong you could twirl it like a girl twirling her baton in a marching band. Now you need to have three or four together and hold them with two hands.

30 lb. felt is now #30 and 15lb. is #15.

the nails used to be hot dipped galvanized and now the standard is a shiny electroplated nail made by political prisoners in the country that owns our debt.

The galvanized valley is a joke. The step flashing will cut like paper and you won't know it until the wild dogs come after you. The 90 lb is not that at all. Metal stacks are not soldered but caulked. Lead can't even be close to 2.5 or 4 lb. as it once was.

From the felt, the roofing nail (ha ha they shot your roof on with a gun, ha ha), the accessories, and the roofing itself, we have seen a great disappearing act.

All aside, technology has improved the shingle from UV degradation, the sun's rays, the greatest shingle killer over time. But the short and fast roof assassins, wind and hail, have been granted a license to kill unless you take a few evasive maneuvers. The Birds of Prey are de-cloaking Captain.

Flat laying felt (costs more) helps keep wind from finding something to grab hold of. (darn preposition)
Starter shingles keep the first row from lifting off.
Hand nailing, well, a no brainer.
Heavier roofing is just heavier.
Class IV impact resistant rated shingles that can take more of a beating before failure and save you some mula if you have Met Life or Metropolitan Insurance, State Farm, or USAA.

Thin shingle syndrome isn't going away. The answer to better quality is better products than the base line stuff that your roofer offers you to keep price down. That's why he is cheaper. That's why it'll cost you more in the long run to buy the cheaper products. Six or seven hundred dollars should fix the problem if you front load the roof. After the fact it will be many thousands of dollars.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

The Coming Wind Storm and Over Driven Nails (Roofing Nail Guns)

2011-07-27T07:40:00.003-05:00

It's coming. The big one. And all those nail gunned roofs put on this hot summer are in peril. As previously harped upon, the roofing gets very soft when it is new. Asphalt is a frozen liquid. The natural state is liquid but the temperature is a little too low for it to run. But the softening point has been met.

As the Linda Richmond used to say on SNL's Coffee Talk. "like butter."

Remember how your bicycle tires used to pick up the fresh road asphalt and then the rocks? The softening is almost as bad on a roof. The road asphalt is of a little higher quality because it has to take more of a pounding but the basic long chain carbon molecule is the same. The fillers, a word that does not mean what you think it does, are different. But the newer the roof, the softer the asphalt.

Now here comes the driver blade of a roofing nail gun. And all the force is put into the nail and is not stopped by the roofing surrounding it like a hatchet is. What do you want to guess? 200 mph? 300? How about 1400 feet per second. Yee haw mama! Try 954.52 mph. That's the speed of an FFAR 5" Rocket. And the AGM-114 Hellfire. Actually the nail is going 4.52 mph faster than either rocket.

This takes the work out of nailing, the part that keeps the roofing attached to the house. Don't you think that is important? Why do the manufacturers, ARMA, and the NRCA allow pneumatic nailing? Because they put in the caveats about over-driving or driving at an angle, symptoms not possible with a hatchet.

And Holy Moses, try blowing on a roof when it's cold. Crack! No brainer.

Now go measure the thickness of the new roofing on your home. Look to see how over driven the nails are. Just 1/64th of an inch and you are counting on the self seal to keep the roof on until the Great Blow arrives.

And it will. Again. Just like it always does even though it does not always hail. And where a hail damaged roof might not leak, the wind ravaged covering on your home, that protects everything you own, will, especially if the carpetbagger reused the felt, added new felt but didn't install it according to the manufacturer's specs, or just did a shabby job because he thinks the felt is just a temporary covering. If it is then why do the manufacturers ask that the felt goes over the eave metal edge, under the rake metal edge, offer different grades of deck protection, and offer different grades of leak protection (peel and stick).

I stumbled upon this roofing vocabulary list I thought you might enjoy.
Roofing Glossary

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

The Important Parts of A Roof: Ventilation and Warranty

2011-07-16T19:41:00.000-05:00

The two top issues with roofs are ventilation and warranty. Without minimum balanced ventilation you have no warranty and without certification your roof has a prorated material only warranty. That deductible might seem like a big hill right now but when you go to sell your home in ten years and the home inspector fails the roof because you used cheap shingles like Atlas or Malarkey, or you failed to meet the 300 Rule of Balanced Ventilation, you might be surprised to find yourself coughing up over $10,000.00 of your equity to roof the home to complete the selling processes.

If you don't meet the intake and exhaust requirements, don't place the vents properly ( most aren't), your minimum and limited material warranty is void. If you followed the 300 Rule, you'll have a good prorated material only warranty. If you use a Master Elite Roofer or a Shingle Master Roofer and follow the 300 Rule of Ventilation and use the appropriate accessories, you'll have a 100% material and labor warranty for up to fifty years.

If the roofer isn't certified , your warranty is compromised.
If the ventilation is not balanced according to the minimum rules of ventilation, you not only do not have any warranty, your roof will fail early. So will your HVAC, paint, health, insulation, and deck.

Man it is hot out there. One customer was telling me how the shingles burnt his hand. Because the shingles are now thinner than ever, and still hot, the ventilation has become much more important. The roofing is hot, there is less asphalt, the warranties have been upgraded to fifty years pretty much across the board, but the caveats discrediting the warranties have increased.

Application of the roof, ventilation, system components, and accreditation have all come into play to keep these pronouncements of better warranties in play.

Don't let these caveats come back to burn you. Follow the rules and you'll have a great money saving roof. Don't follow the rules and your last child might only go to junior college rather than that wonderful college your other kids went to. And they'll end sentences in prepositions too.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

Roofer Irving and Search Engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

2011-07-10T17:18:00.001-05:00

Coming up in search engines is important for roofers today, especially in places like the 75062, 75063, and 75035 areas of Irving that have a lot of hail damage. Homeowners sometimes want to use local roofing companies and use key words like "Irving Roofer" or "Irving Roofing Company" when they search Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Bing.

"Hello, I'm an Irving Roofer (with an 817 area code.)
"Howdy neighbor, I'm a local roofer from Irving." Response: "Can I come see your warehouse? Roofers with roofing companies have roofing warehouses for their roofing materials don't they?"
"I've been in business in Irving for years as a roofer." Response: "Then you have roof customers here going back years if you are an Irving roofer?"

Yahoo search and Google search, are just starting points. Ask to see the dude's drivers license, insurance and registration. Roofers are registered with the city. References? Certifications? Bank checks (lists address)? If you catch him in a lie, tell him to come back later for a deposit check and don't be there.

The other day I looked and we weren't on the top of Google anymore so I made a few changes to the website and bang, we were back on top of the maps. We stayed in the organic search but fell in the little box at the top with the maps. You know, the A, B, C ,D..where the map search comes up with businesses..

I noticed that a lot of new companies were showing up in Irving as well as some companies that weren't from Irving. So I went over to Yahoo and we were no where to be found. I've tried to make us come up and had a little success but who cares about being number 25 on a map list. No one will see you but your grandmother. She'll thinks it's fantastic.

Here's the point. Many companies post false comments about themselves. We never did that. Dig down into the comments on the Google Homepage and look to see if the verbage is similar, the dates are clumped, the people who left the comments never left another anywhere, or so on. Dig. Then they lie about their location. We did it through vagueness and got punished but we did it in an era that let it go. After our flogging at the Great Hall of Google, we are submissive little puppies doing everything right. Those sins we committed were a long time ago and stood the test of time, or the test up until the rules changed. We just listed the company by name and city without more than a comma for a physical address in many towns. This was not a sin then but the rules changed.. Pronouncements came out that monkey business was to be stopped but we wanted our cheese and didn't think much about it.

I will admit the timing of their punishment was bad for us but our penance having been completed we are now good denizens of the e-verse.

But in times like these when roofers are all over Irving crushing the life from doorbells, how can a pleb that lives under a holy roof be assured that the knock on the door, or the Yahoo or Google search, has produced a legitimate bearer of roofing talents.

He can't. He never could. Being local just means it will be easier to bother him in person rather than having papers served far away.

If there are false comments on Google, Yahoo, etc., many complaints at the BBB (even answered resulting in an A rating), bad comments on Google, Yahoo, City Search, Yelp, Yellowbot, or they have no certifications, then you are probably dancing with a minor evil deity. If all the comments are clumped date wise or are all recent, you do the math.

Having been certified with GAF and Certainteed means a lot for our customers but the best of bests for consumer protection, at least at this stage in human development is Angie's List. Otherwise just put the roof on yourself. Don't use a door knocker.

This is the worst blog I ever wrote.

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

The Difference Between a Roofing Company and a Roofing Contractor

2011-07-09T10:14:00.000-05:00

The differences between a company and a contractor are pretty important and a lot of it boils down to customer service. Companies do some contracting but they usually have their own staff and employees for sales, warranty work, supervision, and other administrative duties.
Contractors sell jobs and have subcontractors do all their work. They usually have no staff to watch their jobs and perform all the supervision themselves. If the contractor has a lot of leads then his jobs go unsupervised.

With the recent hails storms all over north Texas, all established companies have lots of leads. The contractors are out canvassing door to door because nobody knows them. Now they have to find help because they will get some jobs. The comes the rub. With strangers on their roofs and more doors to knock, they usually let the job take its own course.

Time will tell, if the next wind storm doesn't, whether the contractor was good or bad and just like every time a storm comes through town, the people of Irving will find out if they had a roofing company or a roofing contractor. Those with companies with roots planted in the community will be there to service their roofing customers while those that had contractors will be lucky to find them.

Even though companies do some contracting, they have an infrastructure to handle situations as they become more or lass difficult.

After you've done your research on your roofer, you might want to visit his office. If he has no warehouse or equipment, then your suspicions should rise. Check with Angie's List, the BBB, the city building inspectors office, old customers, Complaints Board and other social sites, but don't just listen to the fast talker.

Does the roofing company have insurance? Are they certified in the product you're installing? Check with the roofing manufacturer.

With so called roofers canvassing Irving, Coppell, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Lantana, Prosper, Dallas, and other towns, the good installers are pretty occupied. Best to take your time and get a good job.

Also make sure you get the enhanced warranty that covers material and labor for 50 years rather than the prorated material only warranty. When you go to sell your house it could save you a fortune,

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

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com