On a typically busy Monday filled wall-to-wall with last-minute appointments, I had concluded my site checkup with the crew and framing foreman on a custom home, and as I was driving out of the subdivision a fellow custom builder flagged me down. “Dennis, take a look at this new roofing material I’m putting on this spec house,” he beamed. “I’d love to, but today is one of those days. My schedule is really running tight. I’ll be lucky even if I can get it all done today!” “Oh come on, this will take five minutes, and it will probably change how you build your homes in the future.” “OK, you sold me, but only for five minutes,” I reluctantly mumbled. Half an hour later I was getting back into my truck and heading down the road. My thoughts were on the roofing material that I had just seen on Jeff’s spec home.
He was right. It was a great-looking material. It had a durable appearance. From the street the roof looked just like a wood shingle roof with clean lines; each row of shingles had the flat, straight, uniform appearance that added to the home’s curb appeal. At that time, most homes here in snow country—the mountainous elevations of Flagstaff, Ariz.—utilized wood shakes, not wood shingles. This local use pattern of hand-split shakes had been set in place by a number of factors including rustic appearance, local availability, an affordable price, popularity with home buyers, and proven reliability.
The new roofing material Jeff was showing off to me looked great. It was clean-lined, geometrically uniform and, therefore, different. It exhibited a more contemporary look. I even imagined that the new, more uniform roofing material might be more practical because it would not hold pine needles the way hand-split shake roofing did. Fewer pine needles on the roof would mean lower maintenance for the homeowner.
Jeff was giving me a litany of the features and benefits of this new roofing material. It went on faster in 48-inch sections, so it saved labor. The bundles didn’t fall apart when loaded onto the roof. The material was much lighter than shakes, etc., etc. “OK, Jeff, it really looks like a new building material that’s going to revolutionize how we build homes here in Flagstaff,” I said. “But I have to get back to work.” “Hold on, Dennis, wait till you hear this: The manufacturer is looking for several builders to use and evaluate this product in this area, and they will supply your first three houses free. You can’t pass this deal up! Free roofing on several homes can allow you to put another $15,000 in your pocket. And there’s no risk—this roofing product carries a 50-year lifetime warranty backed up by a Fortune 500 company.” “Well, we’ll see,” I said.
That evening after work I contemplated what I had seen with the new roofing. I liked the look of the material, but was skeptical. Free roofing and a 50-year warranty? What kind of baloney is that? Something just doesn’t smell right with this. I may or may not mention this to upcoming clients. An opportunity to save money? Tempting, but I’ll leave it up to someone else to forge new territory and start the revolution.
About two years later I ran into Jeff at an HBA function. I asked about his success with the new roofing material, being curious because I had not seen any other projects in town with the same material. “Oh, Dennis, you won’t believe it, but I installed that roofing on more than 35 homes, and it’s failing,” he groaned. “So what’s the problem? I thought the stuff had a 50-year warranty?” “The company is overwhelmed with claims and lawsuits and has filed for bankruptcy protection. I’m going to have to remove and replace the roofing on all of those homes.”
I drove out to see what the “revolutionary roofing” looked like at the original home that Jeff had shown me. The roofing material was swollen, disintegrating, pock-marked, and appeared to be slowly melting and oozing off the roof planes. It looked like it had sustained cannon fire from the 400-ship British armada that had bombarded New York City in 1776 during a previous “revolution.”
It turns out that the roof panels were composed of a flawed cementitious-wood fiber combination that had been absorbing water, expanding, and then decomposing almost from the start. It had the look of cardboard that had been sitting out in the weather for several months. “50-year warranty?” I cringed.
This occurrence of replacing historically proven products and finishes with new, technologically advanced products has happened repeatedly over the last 25 years with flooring, roofing, plumbing lines, plastic pipe metal connectors, synthetic stucco products, and UV-proof metal plating.
In today’s custom home building business world, an architect or contractor can easily be drawn into specifying or installing a product they personally do not know much about, have experience with, or want to be responsible for. By allowing such a product or finish into a project, it appears they are endorsing that item by default.
