Roofing gone horribly wrong

I have torn off a 34 square flat deck roof, installed 2.5 inch ISO and installed the base sheet. Once this was all installed we had our first inspection which failed due to using incorrect fasteners. We have tracked down the correct fasteners but did not get them before we had non-stop typhoon like conditions, including tornado warnings.

Needless to say water entered the building in ways you cannot imagine. We are in a humid climate (South Florida) and now have the issue of mold, oh did I mention that this is a pre-school.

Is this something that liability insurance covers? Or do I have to go out of pocket for all the repairs? I want to fix everything but who is responsible for this "act of god", not even sure if that is the correct term.

Has anybody been is a similar situation?

Thank you.

tinner666 Said: I remember a conversation I had with my adjuster. He said the Ins. policy is mostly a feel good bauble for the clients. At $1-2M. coverage, policies had so many exclusions that contractors are still mostly uncovered at any jobsite. Since I also had coverage fro my equipment and shop, I did get some help when I suffered a B&E in the 80s. Then, they subjected me to numerous audits and decided to cancel me. As for the clients, water damage caused by anything wasn't covered.Fire damage wasn't covered unless I wanted to pay thousands every month and the deductible was outrageous.

This; On this one, depending on the coverage, I could see them walking, since you made the mistake with the wrong fasteners. Sort of a willful act, perhaps. My thoughts too. How could you have used the wrong fasteners? You know the specs as a condition of being a roofing contractor. I think you'll eat this one, but stranger things have happened.

Homeowners have different rules than contractors. Contractors are supposed to know the building code regs and warranties. Good faith practices etc if they don't they pay. Insurance company's have subrogation they use to enforce their policy's against contractors. Homeowners get a pass like it or not.

B) ;) ;) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

I would tell the customer to file it on their insurance!

Let me explain......my GL use to be with Erie. I had them for many years. A couple of years ago I went and bid a storm damage job that the homeowner had Erie. I ended up doing the entire adjustment for Erie, sent the pictures and paper work and homeowner got check. Homeowner calls me a few days later and says thanks but no thanks, me and my fire fighting buddies are gonna do my roof. I said o.k.

Fast forward 1 week. We were doing his neighbors house the same day he was doing his. We seen a storm coming and tarped off our house......the neighbor didn't have tarps and his entire house was torn off. They started trying to black in and didn't stand a chance. I refused to loan him tarps and wouldn't even sell him any. He tried getting me to go ahead and take over his roof....I said NO WAY! He got 3/4" of rain poured in on him in 35 minutes. House flooded, drywall fell, floors trashed.......guess who paid for it since the homeowner didn't have GL?!?! ERIE.......his own homeowners paid him to remodel his house. I called the Erie adjuster and raised hell, I then called my agent and cancelled my Erie GL policy.....when they asked why I told them I didn't see a need in having it if the homeowners insurance is going to cover the contractors screw ups.

I do have GL now but this deal still pisses me off!

I remember a conversation I had with my adjuster. He said the Ins. policy is mostly a 'feel good' bauble for the clients. At $1-2M. coverage, policies had so many exclusions that contractors are still mostly uncovered at any jobsite. Since I also had coverage fro my equipment and shop, I did get some help when I suffered a B&E in the 80's. Then, they subjected me to numerous audits and decided to cancel me. As for the clients, water damage caused by anything wasn't covered.Fire damage wasn't covered unless I wanted to pay thousands every month and the deductible was outragous.

This; "On this one, depending on the coverage, I could see them walking, since you made the mistake with the wrong fasteners. Sort of a "willful act", perhaps." My thoughts too. How could you have used the wrong fasteners? You know the specs as a condition of being a roofing contractor. I think you'll eat this one, but stranger things have happened.

Take care of it yourself if possible.

roof_dawg; We had an "incident" some years ago....Unbeknownst to me, our ins. didn't cover us while working on the job!

If you do enough roofs, you will eventually have an incident. Cincinatti Insurance has been great for us. On this one, depending on the coverage, I could see them walking, since you made the mistake with the wrong fasteners. Sort of a "willful act", perhaps. ??? I hope your coverage is good. From what I can gather, most of the good companies have fled Florida like it's the plague.

I think liability will cover you IF you are on a decent plan. I'd get some some airflow going throughout their building and maybe call a mold specialist if your not sure how to handle it. If you stop water from coming in, and dry out the areas that are wet, mold shouldn't be a problem. Did you have anything temporarily covering the building? Either way I think it's going to be on you. Do you have a roof on it now?

I got FACKED two years ago because my policy didn't cover "water intrusion".....can you believe that? I had that policy for 15 years and never used it. Finally we had an incident and find out our insurance man didn't put us down for water intrusion. Talk about pissed...

The story was that we tore a roof off after a limb had hit it(and hail damage). We found that the entire structure was up for debate and needed some serious work. We were willing to do it that day but the insurance man refused to let us. We tarped it in(VERY hard roof to tarp reliably) so the insurance man could come out with a structural engineer. Well the next two weeks brought in some SERIOUS storms and it leaked like crazy. Complete remodel. Long story short it cost us $47,000 but that's because our insurance settled with the homeowners. We almost got hit for over $200,000. There are more things at play, but we thought it was BS that the ins man wouldn't approve the repairs even if we took pics or come out in a reasonable time. He said "tarp it" and I did just that. I should have covered it up from hell, and then charged insurance appropriately.

edit: also, after you call your insurance company, you might want to start shopping for a new carrier because we got dropped after our ONLY claim in 15 years, in which THEY agreed wasn't our fault!