The Hole and The Horror or A Roofing Mystery

Small Hole - Big Problems

In the past few weeks, we’ve pointed at a few things to look at that might suggest you have a problem with your roof.

Some have you may have taken the advice, most we think didn’t. This is a short story about someone who did.

This customer opened their PECO last month and literally screamed. It was just shy of $700. Never in the history of the house had the bill ever been that high. She thought it was billing mistake. They happen from time to time. However, it wasn’t this time.

Sure, it was a bad couple of weeks in December, heaters strained keeping homes warm all over. But their heater was only 5 years old and they had it serviced late in fall to make sure there wouldn’t be any issues when the temps dropped.

So it wasn’t the heater and it wasn’t PECO’s fault. This customer isn’t the type to turn the thermostat up to 85. “A comfortable temperature for me is around 72, 65 when we go to bed or work”, she said.

This customer happened to have come across one of our posts on Facebook, the one about the heating bill horror show. After reading that post and a few others, she sent her husband on a search around the house to try and find out what the problem was.

That search ended up in the attic space. Like so many homes in the area, while the attic floor was fully insulated, the roof line wasn’t. It was cold in the space like one might expect, but there was a breeze and a whistle. So with flashlight in hand, he went looking for the whistle.

What he found was a huge water spot and a warping of two plywood roof deck sheets. There had never been a leak in the ceiling before, but he saw the water damage nevertheless. And sure enough, when he put his hand up need the warped plywood he felt the breeze coming through.

This sent him in a panic up to the roof, where he expected to find a huge hole or missing shingles. He didn’t find any of those things. He couldn’t find anything wrong at all.

This prompted the wife to give as a call for a roof inspection to find out what was going on.

The picture at the top of this post is what we found. A hole, no larger than half a fingernail and about 6 feet away from the damaged area and far the right.

You see, water doesn’t take a direct path from the damaged roof shingle to where it ends up inside your house.

Now, there is no way to tell when it happened or how it happened. But you can clearly say that one tiny hole ruined a roof.

This is why we at DYMI Construction are always calling on you to inspect your roofs, or call us to do it for you. To take a look at your heating and cooling bill and see if there are unusually high. Because one tiny hole can cause thousands of dollars in damages.