----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 2:23
PM
Subject: [UC] keeping the water
out.
In keeping with
kyles story of his oven repair, I have a similar positive story to tell
about my roofer. I had polled this list back in the spring looking for
someone who would do a good job with my leaky roof over my bay window and
was rewarded with several names.
I chose to get
the work done by Richard Marks who was very flexable and communicative and
didn't try to sell me something that I didn't want. The price he
quoted me was _way_ below some of the big roofing firms that I had out to
look at the roof.
He ripped up the
90lb roll-roofing that had been used to cover what may have been the
original tin roof and replaced it, the gutters and the flashing with 16oz
soldered copper. It looks great. Because of a process that
engineers refer to as "dis-similar metal corrosion" and others refer to
as "galvanic action" he had to electrically isolate
the copper roof from the decorative iron railing that is
mounted to it; something that some of the other roofers I spoke with could
not understand the need for.
During his work
he found that some previous owner of the house had poured pitch on the
slates trying to seal some leak or other and that the slates had badly
decomposed and many would have to be replaced. He couldn't replace the
flashing that had corroded without breaking many of these slates. This
caused the price to go up, but only by the cost to him of the materials
involved. I was extremely happy as I love having a slate roof, not
only for asthetics, (fire insurance discount!), and am always sad to see
somebody replacing their slate with some other material. If you have a
slate roof and are considering abandoning it because of the astronomical
costs of hiring one of the "historic roof specialists" in the area, try
giving Richard a call. (267-292-3890).
I now have a
roof that, baring a severe impact by something heavy, should outlast my
children.
J. Scott Clinton
Mechanical Engineer
MSSC Company
1200 East Mermaid Lane
Wyndmoor, PA 19038
(v) 215.242.7212
(f) 215.233.9768
