She Spent Months Trying to Reach the Roofer. He Never Answered.
The roof was installed in 2020. Six years old. It is leaking, and the company that put it on has stopped taking her calls.
So she called us instead. What follows is what we found — twenty-one separate problems, on a roof that should have another twenty years in it.
The one that stops people
They Never Cut the Hole for the Dryer Vent
The vent is on the roof. The duct runs to it. The hole was never opened.
Which means that since 2020, every load of laundry has pushed warm, wet air into the attic instead of outside. Six years of it. In a Houston attic that already runs at 140°F, that is a mold problem waiting to be discovered.
It is also the clearest possible sign that nobody checked the work. Not the installer, not a supervisor, not anyone.
Why we are publishing this
Not to attack another company. We do not name them anywhere in the video or on this page, and we are not going to.
We are publishing it because almost everything on this website is an argument — we say starter strips matter, we say ridge cap has to be a manufacturer product, we say nails belong in a specific place. Reasonable claims, and you have no way to check them.
This roof is what those arguments look like when they are ignored. Every finding below links to the page where we explain why it matters — written long before we saw this house.
The inspection
Twenty-One Findings on a Six-Year-Old Roof
In the order we found them. Every one is visible in the video.
What they never did
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The dryer vent hole
Never opened. Six years of laundry moisture going into the attic instead of outside.
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The old underlayment
Never removed. The new roof went on top of it.
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The old nails
Never pulled. Left in the deck, under the new shingles.
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The drip edge
Never replaced. The original is still there, under a six-year-old roof.
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The chimney chase cover
Never replaced — and on a storm claim, insurance pays for it in about 90% of cases. It was left off a job the homeowner paid for.
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The taper jack flashings
Never replaced. They are over twenty years old against a thirty to thirty-five year life, so they will fail within about ten — on a roof that is only six.
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The power vent
Never replaced. The motor is burned out, so it is not venting at all, and there is obvious hail damage on the metal dome.
What they did wrong
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The starter strip
Installed incorrectly. It runs along the eaves under the first course, and it is the component nobody can inspect once the roof is on.
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The nailing
In several areas the nails were driven straight through the shingle seam. They should sit at least six inches away from it. There are already nail pops.
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The plumbing vent flashings
They do not fully cover the pipe. Half of each one is exposed, which is an open invitation for water at every penetration.
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The louver vents
Plastic. Houston heat shrinks and cracks them, and the exposed nails were never caulked. On one, I can fit my finger between the vent and the shingle.
The chimney, which is the worst of it
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There is no step flashing
None. Not badly installed — absent. In its place they used valley metal and a layer of roof cement.
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The head wall
Same approach. Valley metal and cement instead of proper flashing.
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The wall termination
Drip edge was used as a wall termination where the shingles end. Drip edge is an eave component. It is not a wall detail and it does not behave like one.
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The chimney saddle
At the point where the saddle starts, they nailed straight through the top of the shingles. Every one of those nails is a hole in the finished surface.
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The corner flashing
Full of gaps. This corner is where the leak the homeowner called us about is coming in.
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The shingles around the chimney
Cut and laid badly enough that there is no clean way to describe it. The footage shows it better than a sentence can.
Any one of these on its own would be a repair. Together they are a roof that was never really installed — it was covered over.
And the homeowner has no recourse, because the company that did it has stopped answering the phone. That is the part no warranty document protects you from.
The useful part
Six Questions That Would Have Caught This
Not one of them requires knowing anything about roofing. They only require asking, and writing down the answer.
- “What will you use for starter strip and ridge cap?” The answer should be a named manufacturer product. If it is “we cut shingles”, that is a different roof to the one you are being quoted.
- “Are you removing the old underlayment and the old nails?” On this roof, neither happened. It is invisible afterwards, so ask before.
- “Are the vents metal or plastic?” Plastic shrinks and cracks in Houston heat. It is cheaper for a reason.
- “How are you flashing the chimney?” You want to hear step flashing. If you hear roof cement, that is the failure on this roof, exactly.
- “Is the chimney chase cover on the estimate?” It should be a line item. On a storm claim, insurance usually pays for it.
- “How long have you been in business, and can I verify your insurance directly with the insurer?” Not with the contractor. With the insurance company.
And the one that matters most, which nobody asks: will this company still exist in six years? A 25-year workmanship warranty from a three-year-old company is a piece of paper. The full seven-step checklist
Common questions
Questions About This Inspection
How can I tell if my roof was installed correctly?
Most of it you cannot see once the roof is on — the starter strip, the underlayment, whether the old nails were pulled. What you can check from the ground: is the ridge cap a manufacturer product or cut shingles? Are the vents metal or plastic? Does the flashing around the chimney look like shaped metal, or like a smear of roof cement? Any of those tells you something about the rest.
What is step flashing and why does it matter?
Step flashing is shaped metal woven into the shingle courses where a roof meets a wall or chimney, one piece per course. It carries water out onto the roof surface. On this roof there was none at all — valley metal and roof cement were used instead. Cement hardens, cracks, and then holds water against the joint rather than shedding it.
My roofer will not answer the phone. What can I do?
This is the hardest situation in roofing, and it is why the checks before you hire matter more than any warranty document. Practically: put the complaint in writing, check whether they are still registered as a business, and file with the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General's consumer protection division. A workmanship warranty from a company that no longer answers is unenforceable in practice.
Should the chimney chase cover be replaced with the roof?
Usually yes. It is a standard line item on a replacement, and on a storm claim insurance pays for it in roughly 90% of cases. On this roof it was left off entirely — on a job the homeowner had already paid for.
How long should a properly installed roof last in Houston?
Architectural asphalt shingles run 15 to 25 years in this climate — less than the national figures, because Houston heat and UV are harder on them. Six years is not a lifespan. It is a defect. How long roofs actually last here
Can these problems be fixed, or does the roof need replacing?
It depends which ones. Vents, flashing and ridge cap can be corrected as repairs. What cannot be repaired is what is underneath — old underlayment left in place, old nails never pulled, a starter strip installed wrong. Those are only reachable by taking the roof off. 33 repairs, priced
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Want a second opinion on a roof somebody else installed?
Free inspection, every slope photographed, and a straight answer about what you actually have — including when the answer is that the roof is fine.
If your roof is newer than ten years and already giving you trouble, it is worth finding out why before it gets worse.
Before you hire a roofer · What an honest inspection looks like · Starter strip & ridge cap · Attic ventilation
JC&C Roofing Company · 1431 Graham Dr #266, Tomball, TX 77375 · 1220 Blalock Rd #345, Houston, TX 77055 · hello@jccroofing.com