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Hi. My name is Ken and I'm from RoofTwins.com. We got a call today from a
homeowner looking for a roof repair estimate to a Vienna, Virginia home.
She told me that she got a couple of different estimates from different
roofing contractors in Vienna. One roofing contractor told her, "The
problem that you're having with all this black plywood and the moisture
hanging from the nail heads during the cold winter months is because you
need a new roof. Once you have a new roof installed, then you won't have
any of the moisture droplets hanging from the nails, and not to worry about
these black marks on the plywood. That's just preexisting problems that
happened a long time ago. The plywood is not rotted, it's just stained and
it's nothing to worry about."
They didn't feel very comfortable with this roofing contractor, so they got
another roofing contractor to come by and give them an estimate as well.
This gentleman said, "The reason why the roof is all black like it is, is
because you have improper ventilation. You have no intake ventilation and
you have no exhaust ventilation. So to solve this problem so it doesn't get
any worse, is to install soffit vents and install a ridge vent along the
peak of the roof and that will eliminate the moisture droplets." He's
correct, but he's not fully correct. In fact, he's leaving out one major
problem.
When I went up into the attic, I noticed those black marks were all over
the plywood and the rafters were all due to black mold. Black mold, when
you have that, anything that has black mold on it has to be treated. The
rafters have to be treated. The plywood was so severe that all the plywood
on the entire roof had to be ripped off. Once it's ripped off, then you
have to have a mold remediation company come in and they have to treat the
rafters.
Once the rafters are treated, then the roofers install the plywood and then
they could install the new roof on top of the plywood. To ventilate this
correctly so that you don't have a problem again in the future, you have to
do exactly what that roofing company said. You have to install intake
ventilation along all the soffit and you have to install either a ridge
vent along the peak of the roof or you could use a roof fan. The roof fan
that I'm talking about doesn't have just a thermostat that's good for the
summer months to keep the temperature down, it also has a humidistat that
will eliminate the problems of condensation so that you don't have the
moisture droplets hanging from the nails.
This is a much more severe problem than the homeowner thought and it's
going to be a very big expense. They had to refinance their home in order
to get this project done, because not only did we have to replace the
plywood and do the roof over and have the mold remediation company treat
the rafters, there was mold inside the sheetrock on the ceiling and the
walls. All of that had to be gutted out and changed. Before that was
actually done, the homeowner had to take out all of their furniture and put
it into storage for a month. That's how long it actually took to have all
the walls and the sheetrock taken down and all the insulation in the attic,
the walls, completely gutted out from inside the house. Once everything was
completed, the homeowner was allowed to go back home. They lived a normal
life again, no more problems, but a tremendous expense that they had to
pay.
If you ever notice any kind of black marks on your plywood, don't hesitate
to call us. We can be reached at RoofTwins.com. Please fill out the form
and we would be very happy to come by and give you an estimate and tell you
exactly what needs to be done to correct the problem with your roof. Thank
you.