Last week I received a call from a charitable group that I have done work for before. They have numerous houses around the city and help individuals who need a certain level of assistance in their daily living. One of their homes had water coming into an upstairs ceiling and they had called out a roofer to give them an opinion. The roofer apparently told them that their roof was o.k. and that it was an eavestrough issue and so they phoned me.
When I looked at it this past Friday, I was aghast! It certainly was an eavestrough issue but it was so much more. For starters, who ever did the last roofing job on that house had put sheathing on that was about 2 inches too short! The roof was well behind the eavestroughs! The roof had two layers of fascia board on them and, as a result, the eaves were too far from the roof. See picture below:
The previous roofer attempted to overcome this problem by over lapping the shingles beyond the drip edge by about 3 inches.
In the above photo, you can see the top of the fascia board between the tab of the starter row of shingles.
This has resulted in a massive amount of Fascia rot and the ends of some of the roof rafters need to be rebuilt. Animals have free access and have been inside to attic. Water is coming in causing drywall damage. Attic insulation is sustaining damage.
If not dealt with, even more expensive problems will occur. The problems all began when someone attempted to deal with fascia rot by placing another layer of wood fascia on top of the other. This caused the roof sheathing to be too short. The roofer then created another band aid solution by extending the shingles 3 inches beyond the sheathing and drape the shingles into the eavestroughs in hopes that the water would carry over and into the trough.
This can be fixed and it was caught in the nick of time before significant structural damage occurred. However, problems like this, if not addressed can result in huge problems and issues later. It's, a crisis in the making. When hiring a company to work on your home, it is vital to hire a professional who does it right from the start. The Eavestrough Company is happy to help you with all your eavestrough needs. Visit our website at www.theeavestroughcompany.com or phone us at 905-966-2564.
