u/KPL392

Hello,

Workers just started installing a roof for me today, and I have major concerns that they are not doing it correctly.

I have a 1950 home in South Pasadena.

There are two sheds. Let's call one shed the living room, and the other the main house.

The living room has about a 10 degree slope. It has 1X8 tongue and groove decking, over which the original roof and the replacement roof (circa 1980s) were installed. One side of this roof adjoins a large cinder block chimney. The living room has exposed rafters, and originally had button board plaster ceilings applied directly to the bottom of the decking (converted to drywall in the '80s, though the rest of the house is still button board plaster). I.e. there was zero added insulation and zero roof cavity. Just plaster, decking, felt, asphalt roll in a tight sandwich with no air gaps.

The main house has a lower slope of about 5 degrees, also with 1X8 decking, not T&G, approx. 1/4" gaps between the boards. This section of the house has a narrow roof cavity with some 75 year old degraded insulation in it, but nothing else. So it's effectively non-insulated as well.

The last roof job (1980s) applied asphalt roll over felt roofing paper on both sections of the house.

The asphalt and felt was already fully stripped when the roofers started today.

The plan was to add two 1 inch layers of polyiso foam (staggered), followed by 1/2" CDX ply, an underlayment, and Berridge Zee Lock metal panels. I will also be wraping the fascia with matching metal, and utilizing a hidden gutter system.

The roofers started working today, and the first thing I noticed was that they weren't taping the joints of the polyiso, and they were already starting to sheath over it.

Second thing I noticed was that the polyiso was not foil faced.

Third thing I noticed is that they did not install any blocking on any part of the roof before starting. They are running the foam and sheathing all the way to the front edges of the fascia with no support but the decking.

Fourth thing I noticed is that the sheathing was being installed with smooth sided 3 1/4" nails. These nails are the perfect length to avoid blowing through my plaster ceiling, however, they're too short to penetrate into any of the rafters. In other words, the sheathing is held on only by a bunch of these nails driven into (but not through) the decking. No fasteners connect the sheathing to any of the house's framing or any edge blocking on the roof.

Fifth thing, no tape on the sheathing joints.

Sixth thing, no vapor barrier between the decking and the bottom of the foam.

7th thing, they did not sheath the side of the chimney that will be wrapped in metal. They just roughly cut the foam and sheathing to the profile of the chimney, butted it up to the brick, and didn't use any sort of sealant at the joint, on any of the three layers applied today.

I brought up the tape issue early, and they ran and got foil tape...but I could see it was not adhering very well to the non-foil-faced foam.

I brought up the lack of foil facing later, and had another conversation with the owner. He said they never tape insulation nor do they ever use foil faced insulation in residential applications. He said the underlayment below the metal acts as the moisture barrier, and the sandwich of decking, foam, and sheathing does not need to be sealed in the Southern CA climate. I have not yet mentioned my concerns over the lack of blocking, the fasteners, or any of my other worries. That conversation will happen tomorrow. However, I did kind of call B.S. on his other statements – though I did agree that I was fine with non foil faced foam.

It is my understanding that the sandwich of parts is supposed to be very well sealed, and fully blocked in, at least on the edges of the roof.

To summarize/remind, it is a non vented low slope roof with two inches of decking foam and a metal roof being added.

Are any of my concerns valid? Is he full of it on any point?

Thank you in advance.