Who Should You Trust On A Roof Dispute

Most people assume roofing is tightly regulated. Then you learn the uncomfortable truth: in many states, roofers aren’t licensed at all, and “licensed contractor” still doesn’t mean you’ll get good workmanship. We dig into what that gap creates in the real world, from wildly inconsistent quality to confident-sounding claims that collapse the moment you open a manufacturer manual.

We spend most of the conversation on the problem we keep seeing after new roofs: bad roof ventilation. If you only focus on shingles, you miss the system that protects the roof deck for the next 10 to 20 years. We explain why ridge vent and soffit vent work so well together, using a simple “straw” analogy for airflow, and why adding gable vents can actually make ventilation worse by short-circuiting the path that should pull air from low intake to high exhaust. We also share what we found when we checked multiple ridge vent manufacturers: they consistently recommend closing off gable vents when a ridge vent system is used.

From there, we get practical. We talk roofing warranties and why they may not apply if installation instructions aren’t followed, and we compare incentives between roofers and home inspectors when there’s a dispute. We also share real scenarios we’ve inspected, including newly installed roofs with defects serious enough to justify holding back final payment until the work is corrected. If you’re hiring a roofing contractor, managing a home purchase, or just trying to avoid expensive surprises, this will sharpen your checklist fast.

Subscribe for more straight talk on home inspection, roofing, attic ventilation, and home maintenance, then share this with a homeowner who’s about to replace a roof and leave us a review with your biggest contractor red flag.

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Transcript

Roofers And Licensing Reality

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, Laura. Let's talk about this. Roofers.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Are they licensed in Ohio?

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I don't think they're licensed anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Oh, I don't know. They I know they're not licensed in Ohio. You have to be a licensed contractor, which I don't know really what the requirements are to be a licensed contractor. I don't think it's a whole lot, to be honest. Lord's gonna look at that up while I talk about this. So I may have to show some knowledge base and really be a contractor, but if you're a contractor, you could subcontract everything out. And you don't do anything personally yourself. That's a possibility. But roofers are not licensed, and okay, home inspectors are licensed, real estate agents are licensed, plumbers are licensed, people cutting your hair, they have to be licensed. But we all need to recognize that all right, Laura, you're you're you're pickier on this than I am. If you have one person cutting your hair, and everybody cutting your hair is licensed, we'll say.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Is every licensed person cutting your hair just as good as the other one?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

No, that's why I am so freaking picky.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yes.

Skill Varies Even With Licenses

SPEAKER_01 1:24

So state requirements, Ohio, Texas, and Georgia do not require licenses for roofing contractors. Florida and California do actually. They have mandatory state exams and background checks.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Wait, so only how many states have licensed for roofers?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Looks like two. Florida and California.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Okay, so if you realize that there's variations in the level of skill and results for licensed hairdressers, why would roofers and other types of contractors not be the same? Well, they're not even licensed in nearly every every state, so yeah, they're gonna have a large variety of how well they do, and really their liability on doing things. So, because home inspectors were licensed. I seen some shitty home inspection reports.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

I seen some reports that are not complete, they don't cover the state um requirements, or how many people have we let go because they couldn't do a complete report and they were licensed.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Not not many, they didn't they never made it more than I would have thought. They never made it through our training sequence to my so licensed people, very large variety in skills and results, what you'll get, because roofers have no minimum requirement, apparently, to be a roofer, you're gonna have a lot wider variety

Why Roofers Miss Ventilation

SPEAKER_00 2:49

in skills and results what they do. And what we are seeing, Laura, is I don't know what it is, people calling themselves roofers do not understand roof, you know, adding ventilation. Oh no. This is your this is one of the main things you're you're doing on the roof, is you're helping uh the ventilation system, and they do they don't seem to have a clue about it.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Now, is it that they legitimately don't have a clue or that they're doing that on purpose so that they get a faster turnaround time and the roof deteriorates faster? Because I could see both.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

I I doubt people think 15 years in advance for their own benefit. There's too many people do uh the first order thinking where they just think, hey, if I do this, I get I'll I'll get this and result. But they don't think what does that thing give you down the road? Five, ten years ago. And what's the third and fourth result of that? They don't think about the two. There's too many people of like just first level first order thinking. They don't think deep enough. I think the roofers, they they they read the instructions on how to hammer the shingles over the the roof, carry them up, and that was it. And that's about it. They stop learning. It's like real estate agents says, hey, I've been I've been a real estate agent in 20 years, and I know that mold is non-harmful. I'm like, did you do a test? Like, listen, first of all, that agent needs to like first shut up because she's gonna get herself in uh leg legal issues, and it's outside outside your role as as a uh real estate agent.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

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SPEAKER_00 4:54

Anyway, the roofers,

Ridge And Soffit Done Right

SPEAKER_00 4:55

here's what we're seeing. They are just slapping on ridge vents on houses that should not have ridge vents or without doing things.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

We're adding a gable to a ridge vent and a soft vent and saying that it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Yeah, there's certain combinations of roof venting that works out well. The best one is ridge vent with a soffit vent. That's a good combination because you get the lowest level, the soffits open, and you get the natural convection of the fresh, clean air, cooler air coming from the outside, going up the underside of the entire roof surface, and then exiting the peak. That that is a great way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

So think of that combination as your straw, and your your air is the water that you're sucking up. Now, if you add gable vents into that, you're putting a hole in the side of your straw. How effectively does that work?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

No, it you don't get nearly as much. Yes. So what and that's a that's a great analogy because now when they add those gable vents, or maybe they had gable vents and they added a ridge vent, the gable vents they they short circuit. The air coming from the sides most of the way up in that attic space, and it comes in from the sides and goes up and out. It's short circuits the entire ventilation, which makes it hotter up there.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

It is not a better, more efficient way to do things. It actually is worse.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

And we saw uh we

Gable Vents Break The System

SPEAKER_00 6:32

did an inspection, then the agent had a roofer, kind of like saying, no, the inspector's raw. These extra gable vents with the are fine and acceptable with yeah, with a riz vent and a soft vent really adds more ventilation to it, which is wrong, which is wrong. I don't know if these roofers stopped net or never read the manufacturer's instructions, but I looked up the installation manuals from five different companies, was it? It was like five different uh manufacturers of ridge vents, and they all recommended closing off gable vents if they're present. 100% of them all did. Because they they realize the manufacturers they need to put a good product up. So this is the best practice close off the gable vents, um, and then just rely on the soft vent and the ridge vent.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

And that's your best that is the best combination, actually.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

So roofers, man, we know we know a good roofer that we we recommend. Um very honest, very thorough, do good job. Yeah, he and he's not 100%. Hey, whatever roof it is, one shingle, I'm gonna replace the whole thing and call it good. Like, no, he'll do just repairs because he knows down the road when it's time to replace a roof, uh you'll trust him. Because he yeah, he didn't rip you off in the first place, telling you need a whole new roof when the when it really didn't. So, but roofers yes, they're they're professional and they're getting in that they're getting paid to put on roof, but it doesn't mean they're doing it right or following manufacturers' instructions. And if they say, Wow There's a warranty. Yeah, there's a yeah, the materials are warrantied, yeah, yeah, but only if you did follow the installation instructions correctly. They will a roof, like was it Certaint or any of the oh much who manufactures the shingles, they're not gonna warranty their shingles to last 20 years when you installed it wrong. 100%. They are not gonna do that. So roofers, make sure you get a good scuzzer contractor does not mean they know what they're talking about, or they're gonna do a good job. Home inspectors, or roofer, he will say, Oh, yeah, that's fine, it's fine. Because he maybe he

Warranties Depend On Installation

SPEAKER_00 8:58

was the guy who installed it. He's not he doesn't want to come back and spend money and time fixing his his errors. So he'll say it's fine. Home inspectors, we have no incentive to ever say anything's wrong.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

In fact, we have incentive to be honest, accurate, and reliable because that's what our reputation is based on. If we're giving you crap service and telling you things that aren't right, why would you use us? So we we have to be honest and make sure that we're giving accurate information.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Home inspectors are only only one in the whole entire home purchasing process that are 100% unbiased as the condition of the house.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Or maintenance inspection industry. Okay. So, like, how many times like in the past month have we done just roof-only inspections because it was a follow-up to a contractor that put a roof on and people didn't think it was done right? Like it it's been qu it's been a bit this past year.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

I know we did I know we did a lot more of those recently.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah. So make sure if you're if you're even contracting for a roofer, first of all, call a home inspection company and say, hey, who do you recommend? And then let that company know that you're gonna have an inspection company come out and double check their work before you finish paying them.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Oh, I remember a metal roof I checked out one time. The guy, homeowner, had the metal roof put on, and then he wanted me to come take a look at it. And the roofing company did a terrible job. There was no flashing. This metal roof sloped down and butted up against the chimney. There was no flashing.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Yike. It would just so it just direct water right to that chimney and down.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Uh it relied on a probably a whole tube of silicone caulking. Nice. But there's

Inspectors Versus Contractor Incentives

SPEAKER_00 10:45

no flashing. It was just a mess. Terrible.

unknown 10:48

Terrible.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Did they take it off and redo it or I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

I know the owner told me he was not doing the final payment until it was fixed. Until I so he got my report and everything was good. So I'm sure he'd use that to get to go get it fixed. So I'm I'm curious because I didn't realize how much we did it that many times. Uh just a roof inspection for newly replaced roofs. How many times have those roofs had issues that need fixed?

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Well, I don't know. Do you know? I I don't know. And I do know there were a couple that sounded a little more intense than what I thought we would want to handle. So I actually referred them to the company that we work with. And I know that he went out to at least one of them, probably too.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Yeah. Oh, I I do remember that one because they wanted the manufacturer recommendation on how and how it should be installed.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

And yeah, there was something going on with that one.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

We're not really supposed to be tearing, pulling things up. Yeah, I guess if a homeowner owns a house and he's like, Yeah, rip it off, I guess that we'd be okay to do that. But I prefer not to create a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Well, it's not something

Real Fixes After Bad Roof Jobs

SPEAKER_01 11:55

we do on the regular, so I wouldn't want to do that. But a roofing company would and would be able to look at stuff better and easier like that than us.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Well, and they'd have the tools to patch it up immediately. We don't we don't have patching material for for roofs.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

So it just made more sense to send it to them.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

So anyway, roofers, just because roofers says something, doesn't make it so. Now, if you're a good roofer and you're listening to this, I'm sorry about your competition that they do this bullshit stuff.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

But welcome to the industry.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

It is a good way for you to look so much better because you can say, listen, I follow the manufacturer recommendations on how your ventilation systems should be. And I would put that in your marketing that you do that because you do it, you

How To Protect Yourself Upfront

SPEAKER_00 12:40

don't do no minimum standard to code stuff because and code is legit the minimum standard, the lowest quality allowed by law. Tell them you follow manufacturer recommendations for to make certain that the roof is ventilated properly and it will last them longer than the poorly ventilated ones. Alright, I think that's it on this one. All right. Yep. Bye bye. Bye.