rolled vs. rubber roofing

felix

i purchased property with two rental houses in april of 05. i bought as is except for one thing. (punta gorda florida) the roof had storm damage. the seller had started repairing the damage when i agreed to buy. the one house has a small section of the roof which is almost flat. he used rolled 90# and overlapped and nailed them in place. the roof started leaking during the first rain after i owned them. i had a roofer look at the problem. he said that the seller should have used 170# rubber. the seller laughed at me and told me to sue him, which is the path i took, in small claims court. cost to make right is 1500 dollars. if you agree, can you give me something i can use in court? thanks, felix

IHI

Only thing off the top of my head is "was a permit pulled" originally when the roll roofing was installed. If not it was illegal and this will give you a huge advantage since you can argue work was performed illegally and was not upto code, etc...

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felix

thanks for the input. well check on permit. felix

imetal

i'm in a similar situation. purchased a new house where the seller put on a "new roof" but within a month it started to leak. what we found was all he did was put new shingles on top of rolled roofing. underneath that rolled roof was rotted plywood in certain spots. doing my own investigation i found the seller never took out any type of permits (he gutted the whole house) for anything. the town said he broke building codes but they will not enforce. but its still the fact "why did you not take out a permit?" i mean ignorance is no excuse as he said he hired a contractor. no? i mean if he hired a pro would they know by walking the roof (like my roofer did) that there are problem areas (weak/spongy)? And that this does not happen within 60 days? Also why did he decide to put new shingles on? why? if the roof was fine why?

I'm not taking the seller to small claims as I've consulted with a litigation attorney. $4500 for new roof + the cost to repair celings, removal and reinstallation of insulation, repair of walls, mold issues so the price is going up.

good luck!

IHI

imetal: Obviously he installed the "new shingles" to cover up the problem, but as with anybody flipping houses or fixing them up to sell, quality fix is not a concern-minimal investment and eye appeal for a quick sell are. So most of these houses are astheically nice looking, often they are just bonefied slump lord hack jobs and I promise it will not be long and these house flippers will soon be held in as high regard as slum lords. there will be the select few that do it properly, but by and large too many cheap skates out there willing to screw somebody to pad their pockets.

Good luck with it

Josh

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