PSSSST! I’d like to save you a lot of money and a ton of stress…
When your home was built, just after the framing went up, they installed your roof. In new production type homes this roofing service is given to the lowest bid roofing contractor in town. (Over at Roof Life of Oregon, we never bid on new construction because we can’t bring ourselves to cut those kind of corners.) Unfortunately for home owners who need to replace their roof, a lot of replacement roofing contractors follow the same line of thought. Sell the re-roof for a cheap price and then cut every corner in the book. Fast is the standard rule for these guys, and most times, important details are overlooked for the sake of the almighty dollar.
This one concept is very important for you to realize, as it is a mistake made over and over by the vast majority of homeowners. It ends up costing them more than they could ever imagine. It reminds me of a saying by a great man named John Ruskin who said “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.“
On a roof, some of these overlooked items seem like such small things. These small details from the ground are huge deals when you’re on the roof. If neglected and/or overlooked in the original installation it will cause a homeowner thousands in repairs. Especially if the oversight is in the transition areas of the roof. Other common examples, neglecting to use neoprene screws on exterior flashings, kick out flashings left out, allowing water down or into the sidewalls of your home. Most of these oversights and few others go unnoticed until a storm with wind and rain is hitting your home at just the right angle.
It has always paid dividends to pay more “up front” for the correct installation of a roof; a roof that is installed following a set procedure by a company whose policy is to check on that procedure daily. Accountability is available at Roof Life of Oregon where we deliver Portland’s best and safest choice in roofing.
If your siding won’t hold paint any longer and you find yourself forever painting with no longevity there are only a few possible reasons. The first issue might be that the siding went up unprimed, dooming it to never hold paint. On older homes it may be that the walls are not insulated and the warmth of the home is escaping through the walls, lifting the paint as it transfer through to the exterior. A third possibility is that multiples layers of lead based paint are not giving the new latex based paint good adhesion. The only solution to an improperly prepared wall is to burn off the paint or reside. If you have an older home with little or no insulation we can remove the siding and underlayment and insulate the walls, then reside. When you insulate you’ll experience a huge difference in energy loss.
A lot of homes in the Portland area were sided with a defective siding. (LP, Weyerhaeuser, or Masonite) These types of siding will rot right on your wall, acting as a sponge, and when they fail it can cause a lot of inter- wall damage. This type of siding also warps and expands! When this happens, the caulking systems fail on the corners, windows, and transition areas. Wind driven rain enters the home in these areas. If you have this type of siding the only solution is to replace it a.s.a.p.
In Weather Woes: Part 1, we talked about cedar lap siding. It’s good siding, but not when the siding contractor (in an effort to save time and money) stretches the reveal of every row. This saves him 7-12 rows all the way around the house. It goes undetected at first because there is so much other stuff to be concerned with as you move into your new home. On the southwest sides of his home it starts to crack, warp, wear out faster, and leak in high wind situations. (Winds of just 30 mph will blow rain up a wall.) If the siding does not have the proper overlap it will not protect the underlayment from continual soakage. You’ll see water coming in the windows and other transition areas.
For solutions to any of your weather wall concerns call 1st Oregon Exteriors at 503-925-0124 or request a free estimate.
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