Are you willing to take your chances on a Hackensack roofing contractor who can’t produce proof of adherence to professional standards for the sake of saving a few bucks? Think the worst that can happen if a roofer does a substandard job is that you’ll have to contend with a few leaks? Well, you might want to rethink that logic.
As NBC’s Tulsa affiliate recently reported, a recent shoddy roof repair could have cost one woman her life. That’s because on top of doing a poor repair job, the roofer made a deadly mistake. In the process of defiling her roof, he also covered up her heat and air vent pipe. That oversight rendered the vent incapable of working. What the homeowner couldn’t ever have guessed was that the headaches she had begun suffering from were the result of carbon monoxide seeping into her house.
If a reputable company hadn’t stepped in when she began complaining of a roof leak and offered to fix the problem free of charge, the homeowner may very well have been poisoned to death.
Already thousands of dollars in debt from the loan she’d secured to pay the ill-performing roofing contractor, the homeowner was in no financial position to hire a reputable one to fix the mistake. So she did the only thing she could and called the original roofer. Faced with his flat-out refusal to correct the mistake without setting down additional funds and with no contract to fall back on, the homeowner tossed and turned night after night. Finally, she got up the nerve to call a reputable roofing company that willingly came to her rescue… as it turned out, in more ways than one.
A toxic gas, carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-irritating. Therefore, without specifically testing for it, most individuals aren’t even aware of its presence. Therefore, it is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in America. According to eMedicine Health, “Carbon monoxide is produced by common household appliances. When not properly ventilated, carbon monoxide emitted by these appliances can build up.” Such products include heaters, so when the roofer covered up the homeowner’s air vent, he was, however unwittingly, setting the stage for eventual brain damage and even death.
Although there are early symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning-like the headaches the homeowner experienced-they’re often so vague that they’re ignored. And that’s precisely what the homeowner did-she ignored them. So she quite literally owes her life to a kind-hearted roofing company that took pity on her unfortunate situation.
To ensure you don’t fall victim to an inferior roofer, be sure to follow these steps when making a hiring decision:
- Make sure the roofing contractor performs a thorough inspection of your roof both before and after the repair work. This inspection should encompass the flashing chimney, soil stacks, other roof penetration, deck, plus attic.
- Ensure the roofing contractor checks the existing ventilation for proper circulation and explains the importance of ventilation. In addition to potentially poisoning you, improper ventilation will damage your shingles and can invalidate your manufacturer’s warranty.
