Hi everybody! This is Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing and welcome to
today's weekly walk in the park where we take three minutes to answer your
questions about roof repairs, roof replacements, and the insurance claim process,
any other question that you might have that's pertinent to our industry. Today's
question it's kind of a funny one and it has to do with human nature. All my
neighbors are getting their roofs replaced, why can't I get my roof replaced?
Yeah so we get that question quite a lot matter of fact I was just at a property
yesterday where the homeowner asked me that very thing. He said you know back
when we had that big hailstorm all of my neighbors were getting their roofs
replaced and I was told that my roof doesn't need to be replaced my neighbor
in the back my neighbor on this side this side this side everybody was
getting their roofs replaced why can't I get mine replaced? Well there's probably
a variety of reasons for that. One reason that we see pretty commonly
is a bad job by the insurance adjuster I remember one house that we went to a few
years ago it literally it had hail bruises how do we do this backwards okay
hail bruises like that on the roof-denied. Claim was denied what? Well that's
obviously an adjuster that has no clue what he's doing. So if you run into that
situation where you get a denied claim and all your neighbors are getting their
roofs replaced that's definitely worth a second look. You're gonna want to get a
roofing contractor out there to take a look at that and find out do you really
have damage and if you do then you have to call for a reinspection and it's
definitely good to have the roofing contractor present at that reinspection
and ask for a different adjuster even. So another reason could be maybe
you had a roofing inspector from a roofing company maybe he didn't know
what he was what he was doing maybe he came out here or it came out to your
house and told you that you didn't have any damage and so you shouldn't file a
claim. Again that could just be inexperience it could be that he just
doesn't know what he's looking for definitely worth getting a second
opinion. It could be that you actually do have damage but maybe you don't have
sufficient damage. When your adjuster comes out he's looking at a 10 foot by
10 foot area they call a square and they want to find a certain number
of hail bruises within that square. If he doesn't find enough you may still have
damage up there but it's not sufficient to warrant them totaling the roof. So
maybe they might even pay for repair maybe you've only we've seen this happen
too. Maybe only got damage on part of your roof okay.
That's really a bad situation because then the adjuster might say well okay
we're gonna pay to replace this half of the roof but not the other half. One
other possible scenario is that you know if you're not the original owner it
could be that the previous owner put on a better quality shingle than what all
your neighbors have you know especially if you're in a neighborhood that's
fairly new and everybody got the same builder great shingle. So if your
neighbors all have that but your house has a higher quality shingle it probably
isn't going to get damaged like theirs is going to get damaged. So that's
definitely another possibility but the bottom line is you know really try to
avoid that temptation of peer pressure of you know that's why I was saying this
kind of comes in with human nature right well my neighbor got a new roof and this
neighbor got a new roof and this neighbor got a new roof
I want what they're getting I want a new roof too. Why isn't my insurance company
giving me one? Look take it from me it is really a good thing if you don't need a
new roof it seems counterintuitive probably to hear a roofing contractor
tell you it's a good thing to not have to get a new roof but it definitely is
it avoids you having another claim on your record you don't have a deductible
payment that you have to make you don't have to you know have the situation
where somebody's there working at your house for one or two or maybe even three
days depending on how big the roof is depending on how fast the roofer is so
it's not a bad thing so just kind of get out of that mindset that it's you want
what everybody else is getting it's not a bad thing to to not need a new roof.
I hope that answers your question about why all of your neighbors are getting
new roofs and you're not getting a new roof. But if you do have any questions
about that whole process you know the insurance claim process sometimes can be
a little bit tricky a little bit confusing for homeowners so if you've
got questions please give us a call you can call our office at 719.433
make room for it right here 719.433.6991
you can also visit our website where we've got a ton of tips
and information education out there for homeowners right down here Homestead
RoofingColorado.com and you know let us know what your issues are and we
can definitely help you through the whole thing. My name is Tracy Bookman
owner of Homestead Roofing and we'll see you next week on our weekly walk in the
park.