After a walk-through and discussion on what would work the best for my flat-roof, this company proposed a 'torch-down' roof. I agreed to have them do the job and they did it in the summer of 2002. The very first time it rained, the roof leaked, but I had a 10-yr warranty, so I just called them to come fix the problem. They came out and applied some patches, but the next time it rained the roof leaked again. That is when we discovered that they had not actually 'torched-down' several seams. They came out and patched areas again, but since the underlying insulation was soaked, I wanted them to tear off parts of the new roof, replace insulation and re-do the job. They balked until the leaks were so bad that I literally had buckets in my bedroom to catch the streams of water flowing in.
So they agreed finally to pull up the areas where the worst leaking had occurred. During that process, their representative was explaining to me that the owner was tired of my calling them and they wouldn't be coming out to do more repairs, but as he was talking to me the crew almost set my roof on fire, so he backed off.
Still, the next time it rained, it leaked... The company then tried several 'patches' such as coating the roof with a type of reflective material so it would, as they said, "flow into any small holes and fill them" to applying tar rather than tackling the issue, which was the poor workmanship evidenced by the fact that we continued to find areas that were never done correctly and had 'untorched' seams.
This went on for six years and every time there was a leak it turned out to be a problem with the workmanship - not only did they never do the original roofing job correctly, over time we found that they also had installed the wrong sized and shaped venting pipes and downspouts.
During the summer of 2008 there was a leak even though the roof itself was dry. We determined that there was water pooled under the roofing material because we found a seam that wasn't sealed and allowed water to leak through. At this point, the office manager began to tell me that the company was "tired of all my calls" and that my issues were all about "pre-existing conditions" since they had only 're-roofed'. I then got a letter from the owner basically stating that their limited labor warranty did not cover "acts of god" (sic) and explaining that they had no idea of the condition of my plywood before starting the roof 6 years previously.
I wrote back explaining, among other things, that my roof does not have underlying plywood and that every call for help related to the poorly done original job because every leak had been traced back to unsealed seams BY THEIR OWN WORKERS! They then sent someone out who tore off the material, found they had never put down underlayment material and discovered that there was a pool of water sitting under the roofing material against the wood as we had suspected. After it dried out it was replaced,
Unfortunately, it never stopped leaking and more leaks appeared in other areas nearby.in January 09 a new worker came out and told me that he found another area where the seam wasn't sealed and he tried to patch it, but said he'd ask for materials and come back - but he never did. I called to ask for repairs and the office manager refused to send any other workers out to fix the leaks. The office manager told me that I "called too often" and that they were going to "invalidate" and "pro-rate" my warranty. I asked for a letter of explanation, but still haven't received one. She has either not passed on my requests for contact to the owner, or he is ignoring them. Subsequent phone queries have gotten strange, to say the least, with the office manager telling me at one point that they had "called my neighbors" who told AA Riteway that I had been having "parties on my roof" and that was the reason they wouldn't honor their warranty. The only 'parties' ever held on my roof were work parties with AA Riteway personnel.
So, now after talking briefly to a lawyer, it seems I only have the option of getting a new roof done and trying to get something back from AA Riteway... It just isn't right that they don't have to honor a written warranty when their own workmanship has created all the problems.
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