Improper Roof Installation Makes Family Sick

Journal of Light Construction

"Nothing is an island." Glenn Mathewson, author of this piece and building code consultant and educator, says he often uses this phrase when he is teaching or administering the building codes. Whether you're building a deck, remodeling a kitchen or replacing asphalt shingles, every system in a structure is connected to something else. Successful contractors must be aware not only of the building phases that they control, but also of all aspects of a building that could be affected by the work they do.

Hail Storm Equals Roof Replacement

Recently Mathewson was called in to inspect a roof-shingle replacement job that had inadvertently and adversely affected the health of the family living below. A neighborhood in his jurisdiction had gotten hit with a severe hail storm—so severe, in fact, that nearly all the houses in that neighborhood needed to have their roofing replaced. To satisfy insurance requirements, roof replacement needed to be done within a short period of time after the damage, creating a boon of available work for roofing contractors, but a backlog of work for building inspectors.

In one of the houses that got a new roof, the family members began to complain of headaches and nausea. When their symptoms didn't abate, their doctors started looking into possible causes, such as carbon monoxide poisoning. Winter had just set in with two weeks of very cold weather, so the home's gas furnace had been running hard. The homeowners called in an HVAC technician to inspect it, and on finding a small crack in the heat exchanger, he called for a red-tag lock-off (immediate shut down) of the furnace—or for the unit to be replaced. With winter making its presence felt, shutting down the furnace and going without heat was not an option for the homeowners, so they decided to replace it.

However, the problem lay beyond the furnace. To read the rest of this article from JLC, click here.