|
Inspector misses Tammie Arend's
roof ventilation problem
August 8, 2022
The trial for Tammie Arend's lawsuit against Scott
Frederickson Construction is scheduled for for November 7 (court
dates), but the parties have agreed to mediation. Frederickson's
lawyers, Hackney, Odlum and Dardas
of East Lansing, had an independent inspection of the home done on June
27 by Jason C. Murton of Accurate Inspections LLC. His full report,
which for some reason is in two separate memoranda, is
here. Here are excerpts from his findings, followed by my comments:
| |
The shingles and decking should be in
good repair - they are only 4 years old. |
|
| |
New gutters had been installed in July
2017, less than a year before Frederickson replaced the roof, and Tammie asked
him to
take them down while the roof was being replaced so they
wouldn't get damaged. They did not do so, resulting in broken
and missing parts. |
|
| |
He does not say whether the "nail over
ridge vent and nail over eave vent" is appropriate for this
house. Although he examined the attic, he did not go into the
area that would allow an interior view of the roof venting. The
Steelman report (page 24) said that with cathedral ceilings, each
rafter cavity needs to have baffles to allow ventilation to flow
from the lower intake vents to the upper exhaust ridge vent.
Since the lower intake and upper exhaust vent do not connect,
proper ventilation is impossible. Other contractors agreed that
the roof was not properly vented. Evidence of excess moisture in
the house should have led Murton to thoroughly inspect the roof
interior to see if it was properly vented, and he did not. More
under Roof, below. |
|
| |
After scrubbing mold off walls, Tammie
painted and used Kilz, a "mold and mildew resistant primer film
for moisture-prone spaces." The scrubbing continues. |
|
| |
In the past, Tammie put a fan
in the window to vent the bathroom, but she never had problem with mold.
There is no need now, because she hasn't used the shower
since the fall of 2018, when the contractor's crew broke
the shower door. Also, she has no hot water due to the plugged
chimney. |
|
| |
He didn't look very close. Tammie took
pictures August 5: |
|
| |
Also, he says "Roof ventilation appears
to be working as intended." For a house in which there was ample
evidence of excess moisture, you would expect him to do a thorough examination of the
configuration of the roof ventilation system. In fact, all he did was
open the access doors on the north and south sides of the attic,
stick his tablet in and take a picture: |
|
| |
Benjamin Stahl, the Steelman inspector,
crawled through the access door so he could get a good look
around. Murton was under the
watchful eye of a lawyer from the Hackney, Odlum and Dardas law
firm, so he had to curb his enthusiasm for looking for issues. |
|
| |
The basement was not damp. The humidity
may have been high, but the walls and floor were dry. Tammie has
had no problem with wetness in the basement. On August 3, we had
heavy rain storms, somewhere between 1 and 2 inches of rain.
Tammie took a
video of the basement that evening to show that the floor is
dry. The wood column that appeared to be rotted at its base was
like that when she bought the house 16 years ago, and the sewage
was from a sewer backup that happened the day of the inspection,
possibly caused by digging that a Consumers Energy crew was
doing in the street next to the house. Tammie hired a plumber to
clear the sewer line. The damp and
moldy mattresses and clothing were taken from the upstairs rooms
and stored in the basement because someone told her she should
keep them as evidence. She sleeps on an air mattress because
anything with fabric gets moldy. |
|
| |
When he says there is evidence that the
roof has leaked in the past, he is not making it clear that it
was this roof - the one installed by Frederickson
- that leaked. It doesn't leak now
because Frederickson came and fixed it. But the damage had
already been done.
The September 24, 2018 water intrusion accounts for the initial
high humidity, but blaming the continuing moisture problem on
water infiltration into the basement is wrong. The basement is
dry and always has been. The high humidity is due to the
improperly vented roof, which Murton missed completely (and
maybe intentionally). The plugged chimney that vents the water
heater and furnace also contributed.
|
|
Previous stories on Tammie's situation:
Send comments, questions, and tips to
stevenrharry@gmail.com or call or text me at 517-730-2638. If
you'd like to be notified by email when I post a new story, let me know.
All previous stories
|
