Case Number 15SL-SC00816 of St. Louis Circuit Court Division 34 is a small claim law suit brought by Chang S Lee against Dawson Roofing on August 5 2015. The plaintiff tried to claim the compensation of catastrophic damage on porch roof deck due to water leakage. The causes of water leakage are faulty water leakage diagnosis, faulty step flashing installation and faulty plywood installation performed by defendant. The small claim judgment was delivered on April 11 2016. This judgment favors plaintiff on plaintiff's petition in the sum of $750.00. It also favors plaintiff on plaintiff's court cost in the amount of $45.00. Plaintiff have been unable to collect these compensations of $795.00 from defendant and would like to bring defendant's uncompromising behavior to Better Business Bureau's attention.
Chang S Lee also have a unhappy experience with Dawson Roofing and would like to post the following complaints on Better Business Bureau.
1: Faulty Water Leakage Diagnosis
Dawson Roofing's roof job carries 15 years workmanship guarantee. The intent and the ability to stand behind his guarantee is more important than the length of the guarantee.
It took five months, three visits for Dawson Roofing to identify the source of the water leakage. By the time the source of water leakage was found, the roof deck have experienced a catastrophic damage already. I considered Dawson Roofing's water leakage diagnosis is faulty. The intent and the ability for Dawson Roofing to stand behind his guarantee is in doubt.
2: Faulty Step Flashing Installation
Dawson Roofing have been in business for 38 years. But the crew they hired seems to be unsupervised unprofessional amateur. According the roof inspection report issued by Quality Home Inspection, more than half of newly installed step flashing on my house are installed incorrectly. They are not aligned to the shingles as dictated by shingle manufacturer. This miss-alignment significantly reduced the sealing ability between roof shingle and step flashing.
3: Faulty Plywood Installation
Dawson Roofing tried to create a stable foundation for shingle by nailing plywood on top of insulation board. This is not a reliable approach because insulation board is made out of foam material. The grip power of nail to the foam material is not great. A better approach is to glue the plywood.
Dawson Roofing was notified that some roof deck damage due to counter flashing failure before. Without examining the roof deck condition, trying to rush to get the job done further complicate the plywood stability issue.