In February one of Direct Sat USA's techs was out to my residence to install service to a new tenant in my upstairs apartment. Despite a letter of authorization stating that the installer was only to install a dish on the rear deck of the residence, the installer insisted that he could not get signal there and placed a dish on the roof of my first floor bedroom. Two days after the install, we had a very heavy rain storm and my son came to me saying the ceiling in my room is leaking over my bed. Up and until the dish was installed, we had not had any problems with leaks.
After calling DirecTv's 800 number, to initiate a claim, we had a local roofer come out to do an estimate. The estimate came to $1700. When roof work was started to avoid further damage (we were forecasted to have more heavy rain in two days), it was found that one of the original roof deck planks had been weak and was recently broken. This allowed water from a downspout from the second story roof to leak under the rolled shingle roofing. Leaking water was following two rafters and running down the wall joists and also collecting in the blown insulation in both the outside wall and the ceiling. This caused the drywall on the ceiling to crack and buckle as well as the paint on the outside wall to form water filled blisters (which I had to scrape in order to release the water).
Description of work done to roof:
Removal of Direct TV dish from roof
Removal of gutter
Stripping of rolled shingles and tar paper
Removal of damaged section of roof decking
Removal of wet blown insulation
Spraying of mold inhibitor
Install rolled fiberglass insulation
Replace damaged roof deck section
Install second layer plywood roof deck
Install new felt paper base
Install new shingles
Replace new drip edging/flashing
Redirect downspout
Caulk all seams on drip edging / flashing
Reinstall gutter
Magnet roll yard
Remove job waste
I enclosed photos show the damage to the ceiling and the outer wall. The damage to the outer roofing was not evident until the roofers started their work. I was told the damaged roof deck plank was less than 2 from the installed dish (the left of the dish) and likely caused by Dish installer walking on roof to install dish.
Work still needs to be done to the inside of the room that leaked. This includes:
Removal of damaged ceiling drywall
Removal of damaged outer wall drywall
Removal of damaged wall insulation
Spray mold inhibitor
Install new wall insulation
Install new wall drywall
Install new ceiling drywall
Removal of carpet (to be reinstalled and cleaned)
Replace carpet underlayment
Reinstall carpet
Removal of job waste
My Completed Repairs came to $1,700 and my Future Repairs are estimated to be another $850 for the inside repairs mentioned above. Total for repairs: $2550
This is a almost verbatim copy of my damage claim letter to DirecTv who refered me to Direct Sat USA. I had to call all the way up to DirecTv's corporate office several times and just kept getting the runaround. They pretty much told me to deal with the installer. Direct Sat USA has their own damage claims office which denied the claim twice. I am still trying to deal with DirecTv in the hopes of them possibly forcing Direct Sat USA to reconsider.in my opinion, both DirecTv and Direct Sat USA are too big for their customers' good. F - for professionalism and good business ethics.
0 comments