How to Fix Another Roofer’s Mistakes in Houston

Poor roofing work can completely destroy a Houston home in just a few months – and this happens all the time. Texas gets hit with more hail than any other state – we’re talking over 1,100 hail events a year. Houston specifically deals with around 90 days of thunderstorms annually, and those winds are strong enough to rip shingles loose right off and send them flying. Combining all these weather extremes means any mistakes in the installation are going to show up fast.

Homeowners in Houston have a tough situation when their previous contractor either cut corners intentionally or just didn’t know what they were doing in the first place. The temperature in this city goes from freezing at 30 degrees all the way to 100 degrees, and those extreme swings make the improperly installed materials expand and contract until they literally break apart. After Hurricane Harvey hit, inspectors went out and checked the damaged roofs across the area – they found bad installation errors in 40% of them! The financial pressure is real, and when bad workmanship is actively damaging your biggest investment, you need to act quickly to protect your home.

Texas homeowners have some strong legal protection on their side through the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the construction defect statutes that help, too. The 30-day window for documentation is where you need to focus because that paperwork is what makes or breaks the insurance claims and any legal action you might take later. Most roofing repairs aren’t basic patches either. Contractors usually have to tear off multiple layers just to reach the damage that’s underneath. Houston’s humidity makes everything worse – water damage can turn into mold problems in just 48 hours! My recommendation is to document everything – even the small things.

Here’s how to fix and correct those roofing problems you’ve inherited properly!

Record All Damage Before Contractor Arrives

Documentation is one of the steps that has to happen before any contractor shows up at your house to start the repair work. Documentation is critical even when you just want the damage fixed as quickly as possible.

Photos are necessary for documenting the damage properly, and the more angles you can capture, the better off everyone will be during the repair process. A drone can give the contractors a picture of the roof’s condition before they climb up there with aerial footage. As you take close-ups of damaged sections, drop a ruler or tape measure right in the frame. A reference for scale helps everyone know what they’re looking at and prevents any confusion about damage severity later.

Write down everything you see up there, along with the exact date you found each problem and where on the roof it was located. Plain language works just fine for these records – you don’t need to know all the roofing terms or industry language to get this right. Just describe what looks wrong in your own words, and that’ll work for most purposes.

These photos and records are going to be your best evidence as you file your insurance claim. That same documentation is what you’ll need if you have to take legal action against the original contractor. Texas Property Code Section 27 specifically covers residential construction liability, and the evidence you collect can make or break your case.

Houston homeowners who successfully recover damages almost always share one common trait – they documented everything completely within 30 days of discovering the problems. The faster you capture this evidence, the stronger your position gets in any dispute. Weather conditions and time passing can change quite a bit about how damage looks, and that’s why immediate documentation matters this much.

Any decent contractor will actually be happy about all this preparation on your part. With complete documentation in hand, they can plan the job more easily and give you a far more accurate estimate because they already know what went wrong and what needs to be fixed.

Top Roofing Mistakes in the Houston Area

Roofing in Houston has taught me quite a bit about what can go wrong, and the same problems come up on job after job. A huge number of contractors either don’t know about or ignore Houston’s particular hurricane clip laws. These metal connectors are supposed to tie your roof structure directly to your walls, and the city mandates them for valid reasons. Contractors who skip out on these connectors might save themselves 1-2 hours of work, but their customers pay the price when the next big storm system moves through the area.

Houston’s humidity levels are absolutely brutal for roof systems, and we usually see readings at 90% or higher throughout most of the year. Without the right ventilation setup in your attic space, all that moisture has nowhere to go and just sits there day after day. The wood decking underneath your shingles slowly starts to rot away from all that trapped humidity. Once most homeowners see something’s wrong, the structural damage has already become pretty extensive and expensive to fix.

Flashing installation causes more problems than almost anything else in this climate. Houston averages around 50 inches of rain annually, and most of it arrives in heavy, concentrated downpours that test every weak point in your roof. Those metal strips that seal the areas around chimneys, vents, and other roof penetrations have to overlap correctly. Even a small gap of 1/4 inch gives water an entry point, and water always manages to find every weakness in a roof system.

Our temperature variations create their own set of challenges that lots of installers don’t account for properly. Winter temperatures can drop into the 30s, while summer heat usually climbs past 100 degrees F. Every roofing material on your house expands and contracts as the temperatures change back and forth. An installer who doesn’t build in adequate room for this natural movement guarantees that their customer will see buckling shingles, failed sealants, and cracked parts within just a year or two of installation.

Hurricane Harvey gave us a harsh reality check about roofing standards in our area. Inspection teams evaluated thousands of roof systems throughout the Houston metro area in the months after the storm. What they found was pretty concerning – installation errors showed up in more than 40% of the roofs they examined. Combine those installation problems with our notorious clay soil that constantly shifts and settles beneath foundations, and Houston roofs face a combination of challenges that installers in other regions never have to worry about.

How to Get Legal and Insurance Help

Texas law actually gives you some strong protection when a contractor botches your roof repair job. The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act specifically protects homeowners from contractors who fail to follow through on what they promised. You have a 2-year window to file a claim for construction defects, and the clock is already ticking, so you should probably get moving on this fairly soon.

One problem that makes these situations especially tricky in Texas is that the state doesn’t actually need general contractors to carry a state license. Houston does have its own requirement for roofers to register with the city, which helps a little bit. But it still makes it hard to verify if the person you hired was qualified to do the work in the first place.

When the original roofer refuses to come back and fix their poor work, you still have a few paths forward. A complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau leaves a public record that other homeowners can see when they’re researching contractors. The Texas Attorney General’s office also accepts complaints about contractors who violate consumer protection laws.

Warranty coverage gets messy here, and this confusion comes up all the time with clients. Manufacturer warranties only cover defects in the roofing materials, and workmanship guarantees only cover the installation itself. The problem is that poor installation almost always invalidates the manufacturer’s warranty completely. So when that first roofer did the substandard work, there’s a decent chance both types of protection went out the window.

Your homeowner’s insurance is another avenue to look into, though it comes with some limitations. Insurance companies usually won’t pay to correct poor workmanship directly (that’s considered a contractor problem and not an insurance claim). But they might cover secondary damage. A quick conversation with your insurance agent can help explain what falls under your coverage.

Texas has something called the Residential Construction Commission Act, and it means that you need to notify contractors in writing about defects and allow them an opportunity to look at and repair their work before taking legal action. So you’ll need to send a formal written notification describing all the problems with the roof, then give them a fair amount of time to come out and check out what went wrong.

Sort Your Roof Repairs by Priority

Finding roof repairs that another contractor messed up on your Houston home is frustrating – then you have to work out which problems need attention first. Not every repair carries the same urgency, though, and once you figure out which ones are which, you’ll save money and avoid stress. Some problems can sit for a month or so without causing issues, and others need immediate attention or they’ll cause serious damage.

Active leaks are your biggest priority – no question about it. Houston’s humidity is brutal, and mold can start growing in as little as 24 to 48 hours after water gets in.

Loose or missing shingles are more dangerous than they seem. The problem is that Houston gets hit with around 90 thunderstorm days each year, according to the National Weather Service. Once those winds reach 60 miles per hour or higher, those loose shingles turn into flying debris that can smash into your neighbor’s car, break windows, or seriously injure someone who’s walking down the street.

Structural damage is a whole different beast. If the last contractor messed with any of the load-bearing parts of your roof, Houston building codes mean you have to fix it now. No exceptions and no delays – it’s a matter of keeping your entire home structurally sound and your family safe.

The smartest way to go is to sort your repairs into 3 buckets. Emergency fixes cover anything that could hurt someone or cause immediate damage. Urgent repairs are the ones that will turn into bigger problems if you ignore them for too long. Scheduled repairs include the cosmetic problems and small defects that aren’t going to spiral out of control anytime soon.

FEMA’s data shows something pretty sobering – 68% of hurricane damage to Houston homes actually starts with small roof defects that previous contractors didn’t fix correctly. The minor problem that you ignore now could become the exact weak point that gives way when the next big storm rolls through.

The Right Way to Fix Problems

When you fix another roofer’s mistakes in Houston, you have to work through the permits before anything else happens. The city has strict codes for any roof replacement or big repair that covers more than 100 square feet, and the inspectors have tightened up their standards since Hurricane Ike came through in 2008. The wind resistance features are what they’re watching for now, and they look at everything closely to make sure the roofs hold up against the next big storm.

The right materials matter quite a bit in a climate like Houston’s. Class 4 impact-resistant shingles are your best defense against the hailstorms that pummel the area every spring and summer. The wind ratings matter just as much, though – anything less than a 130 miles per hour rating is asking for problems. The weather patterns here are brutal and unpredictable, and your materials need to be tough enough to take on whatever comes next.

The installation has to follow the manufacturer’s specifications down to the letter because Houston’s extreme conditions will expose any shortcuts or creative interpretations pretty fast. The techniques that contractors get away with in milder climates will absolutely fail here once the next big storm system moves through. Most of the experienced contractors around Houston actually exceed the minimum codes and add 20% to 30% more fasteners than code requires. After witnessing what hurricanes can do to roofs that were built “to code,” that extra security makes perfect sense.

The previous roofer’s mistakes usually run much deeper than surface-level problems would show. Multiple layers might need to come off before the damage is visible and can be repaired properly. The Houston building code caps it at 2 roof layers maximum anyway, and this actually works in your favor – it forces a reset that gets rid of all the accumulated problems from previous installations.

The city’s inspection schedule needs to be a part of your planning right from day one. The Houston inspectors know just what warning signs to watch for, and they check every part of the work with close attention to detail. Wind resistance remains their primary concern, and they want to see solid evidence that your repair work will hold up when the next big storm hits the area.

A Secure Home Starts with a Solid Roof

Once everything is finally done correctly, there’s a genuine sense of relief that washes over you. You’ve waded through mountains of paperwork and gone back and forth with the insurance adjusters who seem to speak a different language, and watched as skilled contractors, bit by bit, tore apart and rebuilt what was supposed to be fixed the first time around. What you get is actually a home that’s stronger than it probably would have been if the job had been done right from the start. Homes with professionally repaired roofs do about 15% better with insurance claims when the next big storm system moves through the area.

The entire experience has a way of changing how homeowners think about roof maintenance for the rest of their lives. Annual roof inspections become as routine as changing your AC filters or checking your smoke detectors, especially as June comes around and the hurricane season starts picking up again. Once you’ve lived through this type of situation, you develop an eye for those little warning signs that could eventually turn into big structural problems. You also develop a genuine appreciation for the difference between quality craftsmanship and work that just looks acceptable from the street level.

You shouldn’t have to lie awake at night when it’s pouring outside, worried that those patches from last year might give out when the next big hurricane rolls through. Your family deserves to feel safe and comfortable in their own home, and let’s be honest, the amount of money you’ve put into your property is way too much to gamble on poor quality work or crossed fingers. It might mean an uncomfortable conversation with a contractor, and yes, it might mean dipping into the savings you hadn’t planned on touching this month.

Roof Republic has been taking care of commercial and residential roofing projects across the Greater Houston Area for years now, and we work right out of our Texas headquarters. Your property needs the attention and expertise that comes from working with contractors who actually know their trade inside and out. The roof over your head protects everything you value most (your investment in the property itself and the safety of everyone inside it), and that’s why it makes all the difference to work with a roofing company that has some serious experience to bring to every job. We offer complimentary inspections to get you started, and our team takes care of every project with the professionalism and care that Houston property owners have come to count on. Roof Republic delivers the expert repair and installation services you need, along with honest advice about what your roof actually needs. Get in touch with us and let’s talk about your roofing needs.