True North was recently called out to Scarborough to give an estimate for new seamless aluminum eavestroughing on an older home.
When we got there, we could see right away that the roof had old shingles on it, but the owner told me that they were going to have a new steel roof installed within the next week. “Probably a good idea,” I said. So I quoted the job, and got the OK to install new 5 inch aluminum trough for it the following week, after the roofers did their job.
We went out to put the new trough and lo and behold when we went to take off the old trough all the old aluminum soffit and fascia fell to the ground. What a surprise for all of us, including the homeowner! The old wood soffit and fascia from the 1970’s was underneath the existing aluminum soffit and fascia and was pushing it down. As you can see from the following photos, the wood was all rotted. It was literally crumbling in our hands.
The roofers did not tell the homeowners that there fascia board and part of the roof was rotten. For them to nail their drip edge on, they would have known that it was rotten – but they proceeded with their installation without telling the homeowner about it. Not very good business!
This all came to the forefront when it came time to install the new 5″ seamless aluminum eavestroughs. We had nothing to screw our mounting brackets into as you can see in the pictures. Well, the homeowner wasn’t very happy, and who could blame him. He had just paid for a new roof, and now was going to have to pay even more money to get new wood and soffits and fascia installed. After several days of discussing the damage and the costs involved, we proceeded to install new wood fascia and aluminum soffits. And the cost was a little higher than normal because of the steel roof. When it was all done, the homeowner was extremely happy with the job we did. True North saved the day again!
Moral of the story: I’ve said in the past, always ask questions. If you’re having a roof done or you’re having gutters installed, have them look thoroughly at the home. In this case, some things could have been prevented if the homeowner and the roofer were on the same page. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
At True North Eavestroughing, quality is our priority!
