New Roof today.....the saga continues

[BarryBobPosthole]

So I told y'all about my whole quandary over my roof. Its 17 years old and nothing really wrong with it, but every single house in my neighborhood, with the exception of mine and my good fishing buddy next door has been replaced in the past year for 'hail damage'. I've had a knock on the door about once a month from some roofing company telling me they can get me a new roof for nothing.
My quandary was basically, isn't that fraud?
So my insurance agent is a really good friend of mine (i hired him at MCI years ago brought him and his family from Texas back home to Oklahoma) and we had our quarterly free lunch here while back and mentioned he could save me some money by getting me a free roof. surprise surprise. So the adjuster came, found a ding or two in my gutters and in the shingles, and totalled the whole thing. I gotta tell you that it was a stretch to find it as I got up there and looked myself. So today the Mexicans are here. Notify Donald Trump! (nice guys, just went out and chatted with them)
The way it was explained to me is I guess the insurance companies look at a 17 year old roof as more of a chance of causing a more expensive claim if there is a big storm than a new one. So they look at it as mitigating risk. My annual homeowners insurance premium will go down by half as a result and my agent gets to keep a good customer. Everybody wins I suppose.

I ain't looking a gift horse in the mouth, but that's a hell of way to run a railroad.

Anyways, my dogs are having a fit with aliens on the roof banging around. Maybe they're republican dogs!

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

It does seem strange. But, it sounds like you're been straight up with your agent and insurance companies are awfully smart about managing risk.

[Thumper]

About 15-16 years ago, we had a big hail storm here. My step-dad (dead now) had just replaced the roof on he and my mom's house with a "30-year roof". Same deal, EVERYONE in the neighborhood ended up getting a new roof after the storm. The adjuster went to his and my mom's house, did an inspection and said it needed a new roof. My step-dad and I went up after he left and couldn't find so much as a pockmark. They received a check shortly after that and it went straight into the bank. That roof is still on that house to this day and looks fine.

On the flip side, I was due for a new roof about 10-12 years ago. It was so bad, whenever we had a strong wind, the shingles would flip up and break off because they were so brittle. I had a new roof installed. To make matters worse, there were 3 layers of roofing on the house from previous re-roofing jobs and (per code), that's the maximum allowed. I had to pay a pretty nice chunk of change for removal of the old roofing as well as the re-roofing. It wasn't 3 months later we had a hurricane come through (Francis I think?). I ran out during the storm to look at my roof and the shingles were standing straight up in the wind, but not one of them broke off since they were so new and flexible. The whole frigging neighborhood EXCEPT ME got "FREE" new roofs (seems like that should be rooves). My typical luck. :(

[BarryBobPosthole]

I guess the new thing up north is rubber roofs, shingles made from recycled tires and such. The resort owner at Dogtooth is partners with a guy there in a roofing company that does them and they can't keep up with the work. I didn't really check into the here but they are supposed to outperform asphault shingles.

I wonder if the heat has something to do with it?

BKB

[Thumper]

I haven't seen the rubber roofing ... at least, not that I know of. I know the old roofing that came off my house was asbestos shingles which have been replaced with fiberglass. That's about all I know about roofing.

[jb]

Posthole, You did good, most asphalt shingles are sold on a 20 year age, good ones may say 30 years. Your agent did not do you a favor, he gave you what you've been paying for all these years with you premiums. He's a good agent.
Have not heard of the rubber shingles up here, but the all metal roofs are coming on strong, both a sheet stock and shingle pattern. I had my roof redone a few years ago as it was about 22 years old, didn't really need it, but it was just starting to look old.
This spring it's time for new vinyl siding and new windows, about the last thing I need to do in my life time.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I did some roofing working for my 'step' grandpa back when I was a teenager. He was a 'turnkey' carpenter and built houses from the foundation up. Just him and a couple of helpers usually and that was often me and one of my uncles who was only a couple years older than me. My main roofing job for him was carrying bundles of shingles up to the roof and nailing deck boards. Yeah, we used 1X6s for decking in those days. Lasted a long time too.
Guess which of those two jobs I liked better?

BKB

[Thumper]

I tried roofing in Arlington, Texas back in 1971. It didn't take long for me to decide that was NOT what I wanted to do! I then started doing pipeline construction on the "new" Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport. Neither was a walk in the park, but a roof is NOT the place you want to be during a HOT Texas summer! :(

[BarryBobPosthole]

When I was in the Air Force in Tampa-St Pete I worked a second job as a handy man (my AF pay was about $450 bucks a month then as I recall). My good buddy and I worked for an old carpenter named Woodrow Wilson Spell and he called me and my buddy 'Shitquick' and 'Pisswillie'. I'm not sure he even knew our names as he paid us in cash. We did a lot of roofing patch jobs and the main issue wasn't the heat but lightning. You know how fast those afternoon storms get up in the summer. It'd take about five minutes for one to blow up and five seconds for us to get down off the roof!
That old man worked our asses off every weekend but we'd both work twice as hard just to get a 'good job' from him, which was rare. He'd also slip us a few bucks extra when he could. I sure learned a lot from Mr Man (our nickname for him).
BKB

[Thumper]

Ha ha ha! I remember my first military paychecks well! I was making a whopping $134.00/month! (and I think that ended up being 100% beer money!) ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

Haha, I think that $450 was as an E4 buck seargeant. Can't remember what it was out of basic and tech school but I was usually broke two days after payday.

BKB

[LJ3]

Mexicans get shit done.

[quercus alba]

I glad you made sure everything was on the up and up before you did it. Integrity is practically a thing of the past. You're a righteous dude, man. If you'd just turn away from the dark side you'd be all right.

Haven't forgotten your fig preserves, we do most of our canning in cool weather. Do you prefer strawberry or apricot?

[BarryBobPosthole]

Figs come in flavors? Apricot would be my pick of the two.

I'll trade you some hot sauce if you're man enough to handle it. Peppers are a nice orange color now. they'll be deep red in a few days and then I'll pick 'em and start making hot sauce.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

I've got a cousin in law who owns a landscaping business and he won't hire anyone but (legal) Hispanic immigrants. He says he'd go broke trying to get anything done using your average suburban raised native-born American.


Mexicans get shit done.

[Thumper]

Sad but true. In the car business in L.A. I'd hire all Hispanics (mostly Mexican, but some from S. America). They were the hardest workers I ever had. If they ran out of stuff to do, they'd either FIND something else (work related) to do, or ask. I had one guy who was one of the best employees I'd ever had (from Guatemala) and I helped him obtain his citizenship by sponsoring him. I'll admit, these were lower paying jobs as they had no particular professional skill sets, but that's beside the point. They were hard ... and HONEST, workers.

(And yes, I tried the "alternative" ... like night and day.)

They pretty much dominate the landscaping business in this area ... not so much as owners, but as employees.

[Captain]

Ha! FREE stuff and Democrats.... This thread is BEGGING ME to reply. But I'm gonna give Posty a pass today... ;) :D

[Big Muddy]

Figs come in flavors? Apricot would be my pick of the two.

I'll trade you some hot sauce if you're man enough to handle it. Peppers are a nice orange color now. they'll be deep red in a few days and then I'll pick 'em and start making hot sauce.

BKB


QA, if you got ANY sense at all, just send him the fig preserves, and decline his pepper sauce offer....I used that hot sheeit that he sent me, to remove tar off my farm truck!!!!!....you have been warned!!!

[Nandy]

I love mexican food, do that counts???

[Thumper]

I went through a bottle of his hot sauce in no time flat. Yes, it was hot! Yes, it was good!

(a bit rough on the hemorrhoids though) :culpability:

[airbud7]

Wake up Barry...The Mexicans are bout to start Banging again!

[BarryBobPosthole]

Haha, I'm up, caffeine in hand, and waiting like Davy Crockett at the Alamofor them.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

Hopefully, it'll work out a little better for you...