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