Roof Leak Redux

People won’t listen to me. I once blogged about an experience I had with an electrician. You can read it here if you feel so inclined. (I think it’s a good blog post and definitely worth reading, but I’m biased.) In the blog post I describe how I saw an electrician doing something incorrectly and tried to warn him. He brushed aside my warning. “I’ve been doing this for twenty years!” he told me. After which he blew up my fuse box and came very close to being killed or maimed. Evidently he had been doing it wrong for twenty years and getting away with it, until he made the mistake of believing that wiring a home is no different from wiring a toaster.

Eighteen months ago I hired a roofer to re-shingle my roof. The first time it rained the roof leaked around a dormer. The roofer sent someone to fix it, and that person tried a “quick and easy” fix. The next time it rained the roof leaked again. This time the roofer made a proper fix, which involved removing siding from the dormer, adding shingles, and replacing the siding. It was more work, but the leak was fixed.

Recently a leak developed at another dormer (my roof has two). It’s just like the earlier leak. The only difference is the different dormer. But at least I know how to fix it.

The original roofer has moved to another city and I can’t contact him, but I located his uncle who is also a roofer. His uncle came to my house a few days ago to assess the situation. I wanted to tell him how the leak in the other dormer had been fixed. I wanted him to have the benefit of my experience with that dormer. He didn’t want to hear anything from me. “We know what we’re doing,” he assured me. He sent his helper to the roof with a caulking gun and the man put down a heavy bead of white caulk between the shingles and the siding. Then they put their ladder back on their truck and off they went. I was hopeful but not at all confident that the leak was fixed.

Today it’s raining and guess what ... the roof is leaking just as before. The only difference is that before the caulking was applied the water leaking in was as clear as tap water, and now the water is milky white.

So to sum up: I replaced a roof that wasn’t leaking with a roof that has leaked twice and has required 3 repair attempts and is still leaking.

I have a ladder and a caulking gun, and I have no doubt I can install a roof that leaks. Does that qualify me to be a roofer? Why yes, apparently it does.