My husband and I purchased our home in oct 2009 and we are pretty new to understanding everything. Long story short we had a roofer repairing storm damage and he pointed out that some of our siding was loose and that they should be under a lifetime warranty, however this was done before we purchased the house. I contacted the realtor and asked her about it and what happened is they purchased the materials from a purely material outlet (no contractors)and hired someone to do it. Said person has since moved out of state?? What are my options here? Should I be so concerned over a few loose sidings?

ALSO while I am here, since the shingles have been redone it seems there is a slight gap between them and the eaves causing water to drip in a line between? If that makes sense? Is that a problem? I should call the roofing people back and be like HEY! Fix this!!

~ Please address both questions individually (as they are two separate peoples) and be consise. Thanks so much!

Please don't try to direct how your questions will be answered. That's for people who actually pay for advice.

The roofer says the siding "should" be covered by a lifetime warranty. He might be right. The siding might be guaranteed for anything from 5 minutes to a lifetime. You need to find the paperwork, see what the guarantee is and determine if the siding is/was defective.

That's the siding, which is guaranteed by the manufacturer.

The warranty on the installation of the siding is given by the person who installed it. Did that person give a guarantee? If so, how long? I don't know anyone who will guarantee installation for a lifetime.

No, I don't think you call the company back and demand that they fix the "problem." I think you call them, tell them what you told us and see what they say. If they are reputatable and there's a problem and it's their fault, they should take care of it.

This is all from a legal standpoint.

From a non legal, home repair perspective.

The siding material may or may not have a life time warranty. There is no way you or the roofer can know that unless you know who the manufacturer was and what the specific product is. Even if it is warranted, the warranty would be against specific defects such as cracking or discoloration. The manufacturer's warranty would not normally extend to installation. The installer may or may not guarantee his work. If you don't know who installed the siding there is no way you could know if any guarantee was given. Neither could the roofer.

Did the roofer explain what he was talking about or possibly show you? Siding is not nailed down tightly. The bottom edge of one piece of siding snaps into or is hooked to the piece under it. The top edge is nailed through slots cut into the top edge of the siding. The next piece covers the nails. The nails are not nailed all the way down like you would a board. The siding just hangs loosely on the nails. This is done so that the siding can expand and contract with temperature changes. I am assuming that you are talking about steel, aluminum or vinyl siding. No one would warrant wood siding.

One would expect a roofer to know this but then you never know. Remember it is not his trade. Basically I would say that if your siding looks OK, it is OK. If you have any more information please post it.


they purchased the materials
Who is they?

As to your second question, I cannot really envision what you are telling us. I don't know whether the shingles don't cover something or whether the siding doesn't cover something. If you can, please post a picture.

I can direct anything I want, I needed specific answers and not one liners, or sometimes people neglect to address both questions (which you did). This is serious and important stuff and if I would like someone to help in a certain way to ensure I understand what they are saying, I sure as heck can ask. You didn't have to click on my thread and you didn't have to answer. Don't tell me what to do, oh great queen of the forums!!

Thanks for answering. I understand what you mean and you raised point I hadn't thought of. I am thinking installation (Which obvioulsy probably isn't warranted especially if the guy moved) and not materials and wouldn't know where to start finding the paperwork. I should be able to call a different siding company locally and have them fix it? For not too much money? My roofer guy was able to "pop" one back into place...

Secondly I mean to say that just had "shingles" redone and it seems like there is a gap between them and the eaves/downspout so runoff seems to drip between falling in obviously a straight line (I can see where the water drops form a line in my garden) as if the water isn't making it into the eave...

Try to drop the attitude when you tell the contractor, "Hey, fix this." I note that your other post demanding a "direct answer" went unanswered. https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/appliances/carpets-space-heater-direct-422223.html Maybe volunteers don't respond well to your orders.

When you post that I'm condescending, it adds credibility to your post if you can actually spell "condescending."

No, I not the great Queen of the Forums. I'm just someone who doesn't have a zillion questions about things about her house that she can't figure out for herself or won't pay a professional to answer.

Siding does not usually come with any kind of lifetime guarantee for portions that come lose from the house. That is strictly an installation problem - not a product problem. It's a relatively an easy fix for someone who knows what they are doing to fix it. I've watched many a home being fitted for siding and believe me it's much easier than you think to install properly. A couple of nails here and there are all it is basically holding the siding on the house plus proper placement of the next sheet over the sheet already placed on the home. Your roofer could have done the fix in probably less than 5 minutes if he wanted to and not resorted to the "lifetime guarantee" song and dance. Most workmen who work on roofs know how to reside a home. What was his problem that he couldn't do it? I probably could have done it had I been there and I'm a girl for heaven's sake!

Now to your other question. Sounds like they did not include the proper flashing in the area to have it act like that. Eaves need flashing in some areas like the valley areas between say dormers and the actual roof or water intrusion problems will be apparent in a few years inside the home.

If you could include a photo of the roof area it would have made our answers a bit different I'm sure.

Several issues, first I have issued you a formal warning for your attitude, that does not cut it around here.

Next the siding, even if the siding had a life time warranty, you would have to know how the manufactor is and proof of purchase. You may contact the seller and ask them for any info. But what you are talking about, siding coming loose is not a manufactor issue and would not be covered by warranty. The warranty is for actual problems with the siding itself, splitting, fading, and the such. If it is coming lose it is a issue with the install. You do not know if the home owner installed it theirself, or if they hired someone to do it. If it is coming lose, is it nails coming out, or is it popping lose from each other. ( or both) One issue with siding is if it is nailed too tight, siding expands with heat of the sun and if not properly nailed can actually break lose.

You need to have a siding install person inspect it and find what is causing the issue ( unless you know and just did not tell us) But the install is not covered ever under the siding warranty, if the install company gave their own warranty, it is only good from that company. Also siding not property installed would have the warranty voided also.

Roofing should not have all of the splits in a row, normal tab roofing alternates in various patterns ( depending on how you asked them to install it)

Hunnybee_420 does not find this helpful : Condesending, indirect,

Hunnybee, you agreed to rules when you signed up to this site. One of those rules is that unhelpful ratings/disagrees, are for factually incorrect information only. You cannot give an unhelpful rating simply because you found the post condescending. That's against the rules of this site.

I too took offense to your "demands" on how we answer your question. You have to remember that we volunteer on this site. We don't get paid to do this. As volunteers we choose to help, we don't have to help. Please keep that in mind when you post. We're not people you hired, we're people giving you advice, for free.

I've never heard of a contractor giving a life time warranty on siding. How old is your house? Do you know when the siding was put on the house? Do you have any info on who installed it? If so, have you talked to that company?

Is it all the siding or just bits of it? What exactly is wrong with it? Is it cracking, or just falling off in places? Pictures would help.

Worst case scenario is that you'll have to replace the siding out of pocket. In other words, you'll have to hire someone to do it.

Now for the roof. I wouldn't demand anything. Ask them to come take a look at the roof, explain what's going on, ask if this is as it should be. If they claim all is well, but you're still concerned, get a second opinion, then recontact them if that second opinion is contrary to theirs. Since you just had it done you should have a warranty on the work they did.

The eve is the part of the roof that extends out beyond the walls. Eves are on the sides of the house where the roof slopes down. The part of the roof that over hangs the walls on the side where the roof comes together like an "A" is called the gable. The thing that catches the rain water off the roof is called a gutter. The material or board that comes straight down on the edge of the eves is called the fascia board. The fascia board is behind the gutter. The gutter is nailed to the fascia board. A drip cap is a "L" shaped piece of aluminum that is sometimes installed under the shingles and over the fascia board. Its purpose is to prevent rain water from running back under the shingles into the walls. Water will cling to a surface and actually run slightly up hill at times. Wind can also blow water back into the house. The lower the slope of the roof the greater the need of the drip cap.

Shingles should over hang or extend beyond the roof decking and fascia about 3/4 to 1". If you have a low sloped roof, roofer should have installed drip cap.

You have not said what type of siding you have. If the roofer popped a piece back in place by striking it with his fist or the palm of his hand you probably have vinyl siding. The fact that he could do that probably means that particular piece was not pulled up quite enough to properly engage and lock into the piece below it. That could be the only piece that was installed that way or there could be others. You should be able to look at the siding and see any other pieces that do not have the bottom edge properly interlocked with the piece below. If that is the only piece it has probably been that way since installation. That wouldn't be at all unusual.

If you do find that you have a lot of pieces where the bottom edge of one piece is not held in place by the piece below then you have a problem. But that's something I think you would have noticed long before now. Siding is installed from the bottom up. If you have a piece that need to be raised up you have to remove everything above it, raise that piece up and then reinstall every thing above. If you have faulty installation there is no quick fix.

You seem to be concerned about the workmanship of the roofer yet are taking his statement about your siding without question.

What other people are telling you is that this is a DIY help site. You post your question and take what you get. You evaluate your responses. If they are helpful fine, if they are not helpful, ignore them. You don't get to say who responds and you don't get to tell them how to respond. This is something I have found to true through out life, not just here. When you ask for advice or information you take what you get, you evaluate it, you accept it or reject it.

Thems the rules. If you don't like the rules here, go to Yahoo.