On Sat, 12 Nov 2005 02:25:51 GMT, Dan_Musicant
scribbled this interesting note:

an, the brand of cap won't sabotage the perfomance of the covering. I'm
:just anal about aesthetics, some people probably wouldn't notice, even
:if/when it was pointed out. I probably notice this practice, because I'm in
:the business, and it rubs me the wrong way.

OK, then I probably won't bug them about that. However, I think they may
have to replace the ridge cap in which event I may say something about
the replacement cap and ask them if they will use z-ridge, or whatever
it is that Elk Corp. supplies. Another poster in this thread, though,
says z-ridge is a bitch for some reason.

That was me.

First, Z-Ridge is a smaller shingle than any other factory supplied
hip and ridge shingle that I've ever seen (they come four to the three
foot shingle instead of three.) Secondly, it obviously has a different
composition than standard Elk shingles. That composition makes the
Z-Ridge shingles very brittle in cold weather. They are far more
brittle than the standard Elk Prestique (or whatever flavor of Elk
shingles you bought). Thirdly, when breaking them apart, that
different composition makes them tend to tear easily. Fourthly, when
installing them, which takes far longer because of the extra work
involved, they sometimes fall apart along the lines where they are
supposed to fold.

If you ever have a hail storm, your roof will likely do just fine, but
the ridge shingles won't. They are that brittle.

Personally, I prefer to cut my own ridge shingles. Is it cheaper? Not
really, once you take into consideration the extra time (that means
labor cost) it takes to do it well. Quite frankly, I really prefer a
triple ridge out of three tab shingles. It is more expensive but it
looks better and holds up well. It would hold up far better than the
Z-Ridge Elk sells.

As for your problem with the nails, you got a bad job. It was an
inexperienced, poorly trained crew that was under-supervised. There is
no excuse for exposed fasteners. If there is one then that is one too
many. Actually you have more problem fasteners than that if they were
truly that bad. See, water has a certain amount of cohesion; call it
surface tension, and that causes the water to 'curl' around the bottom
edge of the shingle. That water will get any nails that are too low,
yet under the shingle above that one, wet. Over time even those
unexposed nails can become leaks. Especially where the pitch is less
than optimum.

It was the luck of the draw. You got the less experienced sub. I hope
the contractor makes this right, but you may have small problems that
show up from time to time, for years to come.


--
John Willis

(Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)