Roof Damage From Power Washing

Laurie Grathen

<br><b>Premium Member<b><br>
Got a call from a customer today. We cleaned his roof about a week ago. Has rained about 5 days since them, but last night was really a deluge and windy. He had a roof leak and felt it might have been from PWing.

Randy took a look at it and found evidence of previous water damage in the attic. However, he does think that walking on the roof to clean it may have redamaged it. What would you all do about this? Have you ever run into it before?

Thanks, in advance, for your help and comments.
 
D

David l Saulque

Guest
Sorry to hear about the problem. Why did you clean the roof? That would be a good start. It would seem that the owner would know if it was leaking knowing the evidence of past damage.

Good Luck

David
 
Hey Laurie,
How much pressure did Randy use to clean the roof? Was the pressure flapping the shingles?
Try to find out if the "new" leak is in the same general area as the previous leak or is it leaking somewhere totally different.
Ron/Xterior
 
M

Mike@Everclear

Guest
It's quite possible that this guy set you up for this. Nonetheless, it must be dealt with. Since your expertise is not roofing, perhaps you could offer to wash something else around his house, like siding or a deck or something to make it up to him.

Or, you could stand your ground, insist that you did nothing different then you do on any other house, and tell him to deal with it......Ok, maybe don't be that harsh.
smile.gif


If the roof was so delicate, it was his fault for letting you or anyone else up there in the first place.

If you handle yourself properly, he might let you off the hook. Good luck.

------------------
Mike Hughes
Everclear
Souderton, PA
 

Laurie Grathen

<br><b>Premium Member<b><br>
Actually the customer is VERY nice, and we've been working for him for about 2 weeks...huge job, cleaned his roof, house, cleaned and sealed the decks (several) and cleaned and sealed the driveway. Isn't really ACCUSING us of anything...

I was really just looking for anyone's experience in whether or not it's common for damage to become visible after cleaning a roof. No, Randy didn't use much pressure, he always washed "down" so the shingles aren't flapping, but he did say the roof was kind of "soft" in places. The leak is in a trough where he thinks he might have walked accidently and cracked an already brittle shingle.

Curious as to why they didn't leak the first few nights of rain. Although Randy thought maybe it was raining so hard the night before last that the water backed up and leaked rather than just draining fast enough not to leak. It really was a gully washer for a while.

At any rate, they're having a roofer come out to look at it since that's absolutely not our expertise. If we did it, we'll take responsibility. I'll tell you though, it seems that cleaning roofs (if you have to walk on them) that you don't know the condition of is a liability we may want to avoid completely in the future.

Mike, I'm sure this customer wasn't setting us up. We do a lot of work for him in his business, and have had a very good relationship with him for more than a year.
 

Dan Flynn

PWN Founder
Laurie,

Please keep us informed. Unfortunately situation like this happen, regardless how careful and educated one can be. This can really be a good educational experience for us all. Unfortunately it falls in your lap.

Is there some kind of disclaimer you can use that will protect you without scaring away potential customers???

We all know that low pressure even a little on the high side sprayed properly on a roof will not create leaks. But the customer does not always agree with that. Leaks come from existing damage, like rotten wood and so on.

Again please keep us informed and let us know if you get any information on a disclaimer.

Thanks and Good Luck




------------------
Dan Flynn
Flynn Service Pro
www.powerwash.net
708/715-4206
 
L

Layman's P/W

Guest
If this happened to me I would patch it myself, some roofing tar under a flap will fix the leak.One person go inside attic and tap on roof near leak One person on roof find source of leak and spread some tar under flap or in seam to seal.Sometimes a nail head will push up and make a hole if you step on it.
 
M

Mike@Everclear

Guest
Glad to hear your customer is "nice". Best of luck working this out. I hope all is well with you and Randy. Keep us informed how this works out.

Mike
 

Laurie Grathen

<br><b>Premium Member<b><br>
An update....

Talked to the customer today. Roofer was out and said he couldn't tell how long it'd been leaking or what caused it. It cost them $150 to fix the leak. She told me not to worry about it...they were not looking for anything from us.

Though they didn't ask, we're going to credit half the cost of the fix--$75 to their invoice. It'll create good will and is a very small cost to show the customer we're serious about customer satisfaction.

Thanks for all your input.
 

Dan Flynn

PWN Founder
Excellent Outlook (Regarding Your Business)
Thanks for keeping in touch. Do you have any plans, regarding how you will deal with this in the future. Knowing the next customer maybe setting you up or just thinking you have to be the reason they have a leak?

------------------
Dan Flynn
Flynn Service Pro
www.powerwash.net
708/715-4206
 

Laurie Grathen

<br><b>Premium Member<b><br>
I kind of had to laugh, Dan, at your question. We've never felt like we're being set up by a customer....another contractor, yes, but never a customer.

We've only done a few roofs and decided that unless (like this job) it's part of a much bigger job we just won't do them. We have two contractors near us that we'll refer those customers to. When we do take a job with a roof involved, I'm going to put a disclaimer statement in the proposal letter. It'll say something like..."we will not be responsible for damage caused to the roof by walking on it to accomplish the cleaning." I don't want to rule out that we will be responsible if we actually damage the roof by cleaning it, but if the roof is in poor shape and simply walking on it leads to leaking, I believe that's a problem the homeowner should be aware of, and responsible for in making the decision to have the roof cleaned in the first place. We always tell people we are not roof restorers...that our job is purely cosmetic. If they are looking for something more, they need to hire a different kind of contractor.

Hope this helps....

Laurie
 

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