By Mark W. Danielson
Nail storm: Endless machinegun fire driving through roofs and into hammering one’s brain. Frequency: Within months of latest hail storm.
Recommendation: Tolerate it or move where it never hails.
There you have it – my post summarized in three sentences. But there is actually much more to this story. You see, it really began three years ago when a small tornado passed directly behind our house. (see photo.) Mind you, large or small, any tornado will do damage if it hits your house, so I’m grateful this one snaked its way around our neighborhood. Of course, that didn’t keep the hail from falling – enough to wipe out most of our plants, many of which were planted only days before.
As with every post-severe storm event, you lick your wounds and get your roof inspected. In our case, three inspectors came out and said the shingles were shot, but hey, it looks like a manufacturer’s defect so they won’t cover it. Really? I hadn’t realized the manufacturer ordered the tornado and hail storm. Shows how much I know.
Time passes too quickly and before long we have more hail storms – some severe enough to require the snow plows come out to clear the streets. I figure it was that same tile manufacturer again, trying to drum up business. And it must have worked because most of our neighbors got new roofs – but ours held on like a dog in a tug of war contest in spite of its sub-par singles.
I’m not one to take no for an answer, though, and another roofer decided to tackle the issue with wind damage versus hail damage. After all, here in Colorado, we get hurricane force winds every spring – you just don’t hear about it because it’s a fact of life. This time my insurance company decided that yes, there is wind damage, but he would only allow replacing the back slope. Wow – that’s like driving on four bald tires and only buying two. Take the deductible out and the insurance company didn’t have to shell out much. But I needed a new roof and since I’m trying to sell the house, I wanted to get it on now so it wouldn’t become an issue later.
The roofing company gave me a good price because I was paying out of pocket, and to reduce costs, they were supposed to leave the covered porch alone. However, my roofer forgot to add that stipulation to the contract so the roofers unknowingly began ripping it off. They tried to fix it, but naturally it didn’t match, so now they had to tear off the roof and start over at their expense. Bummer for them, better for me. On the down side, that extended our nail storm by two days, and since two of the four days were weekends, the neighbors must have been were thrilled – especially since they came at 7 AM on Sunday. Thankfully I apologized in advance, and so far have not seen any eggs on my house.
So now have a new roof and can list the property, but this has been a very odd weather year. Four times the normal snowfall in February, no snow in March, and temperatures in the 70s is a great recipe for severe weather. I can only hope this new roof manufacturer will not order another tornado.
Nail storm: Endless machinegun fire driving through roofs and into hammering one’s brain. Frequency: Within months of latest hail storm.
Recommendation: Tolerate it or move where it never hails.
There you have it – my post summarized in three sentences. But there is actually much more to this story. You see, it really began three years ago when a small tornado passed directly behind our house. (see photo.) Mind you, large or small, any tornado will do damage if it hits your house, so I’m grateful this one snaked its way around our neighborhood. Of course, that didn’t keep the hail from falling – enough to wipe out most of our plants, many of which were planted only days before.
As with every post-severe storm event, you lick your wounds and get your roof inspected. In our case, three inspectors came out and said the shingles were shot, but hey, it looks like a manufacturer’s defect so they won’t cover it. Really? I hadn’t realized the manufacturer ordered the tornado and hail storm. Shows how much I know.
Time passes too quickly and before long we have more hail storms – some severe enough to require the snow plows come out to clear the streets. I figure it was that same tile manufacturer again, trying to drum up business. And it must have worked because most of our neighbors got new roofs – but ours held on like a dog in a tug of war contest in spite of its sub-par singles.
I’m not one to take no for an answer, though, and another roofer decided to tackle the issue with wind damage versus hail damage. After all, here in Colorado, we get hurricane force winds every spring – you just don’t hear about it because it’s a fact of life. This time my insurance company decided that yes, there is wind damage, but he would only allow replacing the back slope. Wow – that’s like driving on four bald tires and only buying two. Take the deductible out and the insurance company didn’t have to shell out much. But I needed a new roof and since I’m trying to sell the house, I wanted to get it on now so it wouldn’t become an issue later.
The roofing company gave me a good price because I was paying out of pocket, and to reduce costs, they were supposed to leave the covered porch alone. However, my roofer forgot to add that stipulation to the contract so the roofers unknowingly began ripping it off. They tried to fix it, but naturally it didn’t match, so now they had to tear off the roof and start over at their expense. Bummer for them, better for me. On the down side, that extended our nail storm by two days, and since two of the four days were weekends, the neighbors must have been were thrilled – especially since they came at 7 AM on Sunday. Thankfully I apologized in advance, and so far have not seen any eggs on my house.
So now have a new roof and can list the property, but this has been a very odd weather year. Four times the normal snowfall in February, no snow in March, and temperatures in the 70s is a great recipe for severe weather. I can only hope this new roof manufacturer will not order another tornado.
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