Getting Some Advise From The Pros

Unregistered

My wife and I just moved into a row-house 6 months ago. We have a small, flat side-roof which shares a common wall (made of brick) with my next door neighbor. His roof slopes towards the common wall and covers the top of the wall; our roof is flat (w/ a slight pitch to the back) and is attached to the wall about 8 inches below his gutter on the side of the common wall.

From day one, we had a slight leak in the roof along the common wall. Two months ago we had a local roofing company install a modified bitumen 2-ply system. Per the contract agreement, we paid in full on completion of the job. One week later, we had a hard rain and it leaked (worse than before the job was done and in a different location) - in addition, my neighbor on the other side of the wall now also has a leak. Over the past 2 months the company has sent out the same salesrep who did the original inspection three times.

His initial thought was that the leak was in my neighbor's roof and was coming through the common wall. Confirming his suspicions, he found loose nails under a layer of silver sealant, which had been holding down a piece of flashing bent over the edge of my neighbor's roof just above mine (perhaps to help water run directly into his gutter, rather than onto my roof). The salesrep suspects that when the roofers worked on my roof they had to bend my neighbor's flashing and popped out some of the nails. In addition, the inspector found 2 areas on my roof, where the 2-ply system had not been properly installed, causing some of the other leaks. They plan to fix the 2 leaks on my roof, but will not be responsible for the water leaking in from my neighbor's roof.

Assuming that the company fixes the leaks on my roof, should they also be responsible for the leaks coming from my neigbor's roof? Although his roof may be the source of the leak, they were responsible for disturbing the patch that he had installed. The bottom-line is that the leak was significantly smaller before we paid to have a new roof installed.

Nathan

Posted here as well: http://www.diychatroom.com/showthread.php?t=16

Thanks

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Grumpy

I'm a roofer so my advice may be worth listening to. Or not Depends on my mood.

If you have attic space this should be the first place inspected. This will determine exactly where the leak is actually happening.

If the installation was done improperly then they should fix it. If they caused the damage to your neighbors to cause it to leak, then they should morally fix that but are not contractually bound to do so. Assuming they caused your neighbors problem, when they fix yours that should also fix your neighbors.

Keep in mind you didn't have a new roof installed, you had a partial roof installed.