Roof replacement done right involves tying the exterior, whether stucco brick or siding, to the connecting building components. The work of several different trades comes together at these junctions; therefore, the proper integration of materials is often misunderstood and over looked by a regular roofing or stucco contractor. All of these different components are addressed by us, in house, with our employees. Most Utah roofing contractors try to work around this connection; we can appropriately tie your new roof into your homes exterior cladding.
Roofing underlayment is an important and often overlooked part of your roof. Some roofing contractors consider the underlayment nothing more than a vapor barrier, putting little emphasis on it’s installation. Most of the emphasis is placed on the aesthetics of the roof shingle. Another common problem that we see with the underlayment installation is that it’s used as a temporary roof during the construction of the home. Once the underlayment is installed the construction of the home can continue. Sometimes this will be in place weeks or months before the shingles are installed over it. During this time the underlayment is damage by UV rays, the wind, and by foot traffic. This damage is often covered up, rather than taking the time to go get the right materials and make the proper repairs.
Roofing is almost always installed on a piece rate basis; therefore, the faster the job gets done the more money the installer makes. “Piece rate” encourages the installer to cut corners. The common misunderstanding that the underlayment isn’t important, the idea that the roof underlayment doesn’t have to look good because it isn’t exposed, and that the fact that it’s often installed weeks or even months ahead of the shingle installation and is many times damaged, leads to roofs that leak into the home or behind the home’s cladding. If you have a roof leak it’s probably because your roofing underlayment and flashing are not installed correctly. If you’re installing new shingles as the sole solution to a leaky roof, it probably won’t work. If you’re removing your roof shingles and underlayment it’s absolutely essential that the step flashings are replaced. This requires the removal of the first 8” of the stucco above the roof so that the step flashings can be replaced and the underlayment can be installed correctly. Any contractor that replaces the roof without removing these essential components of the home’s exterior is cutting a corner because they don’t want to lose the work by driving up the cost of installing the new roof. We at RAM are not suggesting that they are knowingly doing this, it’s just they often don’t understand the importance of the underlayment, or they don’t have the wherewithal to do the stucco removal and replacement.
Areas where the roof eaves terminate into stucco walls are easily recognized as having problems. The concentrated staining and cracking from the eave down the stucco wall often indicates a water intrusion problem behind the stucco. Improperly installed rain gutters, or the lack of rain gutters, or a missing flashing called a diverter, or kickout, or turnout flashing are often considered to be the entire cause of the problem. This “eave to wall connection” doesn’t require a gutter so even without the gutter this type of staining and cracking shouldn’t occur. Numerous homes have the diverter, kickout, or turnout flashings installed yet the isolated staining and cracking is just as bad as an eave to wall connection that doesn’t have the diverter flashing installed. There are several contributing factors that cause this “eave to wall” connection to fail. One cause that should be addressed during roof replacement is the way the underlayment (the material that is installed under the shingles) is installed. RAM Builders has learned how to install the underlayment to prevent water intrusion at this “eave to wall connection” from building scientists and engineers during the repairs of these leaking roof to wall connections. We will use these methods during the installation of your new roof’s underlayment.
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