Need Opinions on a Roof - Need some immediate feedback!

[kweiss]

Ran across this situation today on a new construction pre purchase inspection. Property is a townhome. They are in the last phase so most likely others of the same design have been done.

In the photos you are looking at the roof from on the roof. The area with the arrows slopes two ways. One across the arrow left to right as you would expect. Two it also slopes with the arrow. It seems to me that the slope with the arrow will run water across the shingles from side to side. Would this not be a potential point of water intrusion? As the roof is finished I could not see under the shingles to determine if special precautions were taken, but I doubt any would be.

Opinions?

Is this a potential problem?

If so, how would you call it out?

Thanks in advance.

[Steve McIntire]

Kevin, from what I can see in the pictures, I do not see a problem

[Dale Duffy]

I would say 3-Tabs shingles are designed to be installed horizontally, not vertically, therefore leaks may occur in the future.

[Steve McIntire]

vertical shingles?

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by smcintire

vertical shingles?

You don't see the tabs going "up" the roof where the make shift valley appears to end?

If that valley was continuous and the shingles were weaved correctly I wouldn't think it would be a problem, but their not.

[Barry Adair]

Kevin,

Hard to tell but this looks like a framing problem.

Why is there an offset valley, hump, doubled up shingles, and fish mouth intersection?

Do you have a picture showing an exploded view of this area of the house?

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Obvious to me also, that who ever installed this roofing did not know how to weave a valley properly, and usually when you weave a valley, it starts at the bottom correctly and goes all the way up, and not switch to a cut valley after this discover they do not know how to weave the roofing properly.

Needs to be refereed to a qualified roofer for evaluation.

Marcel
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[dthomas2]

Kevin,

Could you please give us some more on these shingles? They do appear upside down. Are there more than three tabs per shingle? Very different looking stuff.

[ldapkus]

I do not inspect roofs on townhomes. The Homeowners Association is responsible for the roof repairs or replacement. Same with condos.

[dhelm]

Originally Posted by ldapkus

I do not inspect roofs on townhomes. The Homeowners Association is responsible for the roof repairs or replacement. Same with condos.

It is true that the homeowners association takes care of things like roofs, but the money comes from the individual owners in the form of a maintenance/repair assessment. In my opinion, the buyer should be aware of potential additional assessments going in, hence, I inspect these roofs.

[Doug Edwards]

Think there is going to be a real problem here as well as those other issues mentioned regarding the irregular roof sheathing, change of methods, etc...

[kweiss]

Thanks for the input.

I recommended further evaluation by a licensed roofer. I don't have another good picutre of the area from further away. Here is one looking down from the top.

Even though it is a Condo/Townhome, I think the potential buyer should know about a potential problem, particualrly when it is new construction. Around here the builder is typically responsible for the first year then it transitions to the HOA.

[kweiss]

Originally Posted by dthomas2

Kevin,

Could you please give us some more on these shingles? They do appear upside down. Are there more than three tabs per shingle? Very different looking stuff.

These are typical for this area three tab composition shingles. They should be instyalled with the tabs going downhill, overlapping the shingle below, to run off the water. If you look closely at the picture you can see where the left side fo the valley expands out and suddenly the shingles are perpendicular to the slope of the section and the large slope above them. A large amount of runoff will hit this area, and all of that water will run sideways across these shingles.

Thanks again for the feedback. You guys confirmed my thoughts.