Forgetfulness can have its consequences
Have you ever walked out of a room to get something and then forgot what you were going to get? Everyone has, right? You walk back to the room you just left and suddenly you remember what it was you were going to get. Momentary memory lapse. The older I get, the more frequent they seem to happen. You forget where you left your keys or your phone or that it’s your anniversary.
Take this roofer for example. The guy left his hammer behind on the roof. He probably won’t miss it until he needs again. Then he will tear apart his truck looking for that darn thing, finally having to go buy a new one when he can’t find it.
Funny thing is, its not just his hammer he forgot. He also forgot to finish the chimney flashing. Seems sort of an odd thing to overlook, being its such an integral part of a roofing job.
You see a chimney actually requires two distinct flashing details, so that the rain stays out of the house. The first is installed with the new roofing. It is called the step flashing. This flashing consists of “steps” of metal bent at 90 degrees and inserted under each course of shingles along the chimney. You can see them in the photo.
The “problem” is that the steps are open at the top and will allow water to flow right on by into the house. When inspecting the second floor of this house, the ceiling was wet around the chimney. To counter this issue, a second piece of metal flashing is set over the opening of the step flashing. The counter flashing acts to repel water from the opening in the step flashing, sending it away to the roof.
What was also odd about this flashing job was that the roofing under layment was run up the sides of the chimney. It seemed as if this was meant to act in place of the missing counter flashing.
Did I mention this was a new roof, just weeks old and it was inspected by the town inspector. Yes, I saw all the documentation.
My suggestion was to find a different roofer to fix or should I say complete the flashing. The suggestion was easily accepted based on the work done or actually not done. The other day I was sent a photo of the finished chimney flashing by the prospective buyer.
A text book job and no one forgot their hammer.
