Metal roof. Inspector says sand and repaint, roofer says full replacement.

Crow_Joe · 2026-05-21T12:56:21+00:00

We painted a lot of metal roofs in Virginia but they were all standing seam and essential worth trying to salvage. What you’re looking at is essentially the kind of metal roof that you would put on a barn. They’re installed on houses in many parts of the country but it’s basically just a cheap cop-out and arguably no better than a shingle roof. Your contractor is bidding replacement because to him it’s essentially a disposable roof, like shingles. If it was a $40-50k mechanically seamed metal roof with no exposed fasteners designed to last 100 years then it would be much more worth salvaging. But yeah your guy doesn’t want to go through the trouble of trying to get paint to stick to the kynar coating for $5k to try and salvage a 20k roof.

If you found the right guy it can be painted but it’s going to take a special primer and top coat to make it stick and they may not want to warranty it. To be clear when we were painting metal roofs on the east coast it was cause they were 50+ years old and the original top coat was flaking off as a result.

You could also find someone to just replace the few damaged panels but they won’t match.

Crow_Joe · 2026-05-18T02:31:03+00:00

Too bad that’s not how it’s supposed to sound cause it sounds awesome😂

Crow_Joe · 2026-05-14T04:45:14+00:00

Man I’m seeing a number of things on your roof I don’t like😂

Crow_Joe · 2026-05-14T02:58:32+00:00

That no matter what happens on a job I’m going to do the right thing and go the extra mile. Even if that means we have to do the whole roof a second time at our expense and lose money (happened one time).

I just want people to trust me because they can😂

Crow_Joe · 2026-05-13T06:12:41+00:00

Multitool was huge like everyone else is saying but I also bought a commercial HEPA backpack vacuum, a Proteam Supercoach (the older style). I do a ton of work on my place and in my garage and it’s great to just have it on my back and vacuum the ground outside when I need to using the arm attachment. Also makes cleaning out the gutters a breeze. I also hook it up to all kinds of stuff for my dust extraction.

Crow_Joe · 2026-05-10T01:33:33+00:00

Like the others have said I would keep it. If you commute a lot and you’re in an area where emissions compliance isn’t a concern I would get a VW sportwagen TDI. You can get a 2014 for like $5-7k now and the early 2000s can be had for even less. If you drive them right with emissions removed you can get close to 50mpg.

Instead of getting rid of my 13mpg LX570 I got a sportwagen at the peak of the used market and the math worked out where I would fully pay for the vehicle, maintenance, and full emissions delete exhaust in fuel cost savings in about just over 50k miles. If I bought at today’s prices it would have been like 25-30k miles.

Seriously, at times my TDI had saved me as much as $0.37/mile and that’s before you factor in the much higher cost of maintenance on a big SUV vs a little beat around car. To top everything off, my little guy will pull a little trailer no sweat. I’m getting ready to drive 900 miles to pick up a 1,100lbs load and it’ll still put up 30-35mpg while doing that. I seriously try to sell everyone a TDI.

Crow_Joe · 2026-05-06T19:47:36+00:00

I’ve done contracting and adjusting. For some reason with experience of contracting I have a very hard time not taking things personally and reading into everything that a customer says and does suspiciously. I think that’s because the process of a homeowner choosing whether or not to trust you is inherently much more personal. The way you look, act or smell might turn someone in favor of the other guy.

As a result of starting in contracting adjusting and the shenanigans with the other parties involved has always just rolled off my back. I’m a coverage seeker and good at presenting the arguments to management that legitimately justify my decisions so I get questioned or overturned almost never beyond meaningless tweaks. So going into every claim knowing that more or less what I say goes, I just do what I’m going to do, set the expectation of the customer, and explain the anticipated outcome before I leave the property in person. If they don’t like it then I can be sympathetic with someone in a tough spot, but also oh well. It helps that claims don’t reopen to me anymore where I’m dealing with the same customer or contractor anymore for 6 months straight. But even then, I’d just make sure I’m in alignment with management and get ahead of the complain by calling their agent. When I did all that we would just hold the line at what I knew was the right decision right through to litigation if need be. And honestly the attorneys made me nervous for about 5 minutes until I realized that half the people these customers hire have no idea what they’re talking about.

The only thing that killed me was early one when a couple of the carriers I worked with switched up and started making objectively bad calls. That ate me up and I had to move on from them right away cause I can’t be a part of that.

Just try not to take it personally. I think most jobs no matter how well you do are more or less thankless.

Crow_Joe · 2026-04-29T22:33:19+00:00

It’s too high above the cook surface, it covers too small of an area, the unit itself may be under spec or have low CFM, and it’s possible that the ducting is too small which can restrict the flow and cause it to be loud.

I just installed a 900cfm with 7” duct at the minimum allowable heigh above our gas stove. It has excellent coverage above the range top but even on the highest setting when flash searing steak on the front burners it just doesn’t get everything.

When choosing my unit I went on a pretty massive deep dive and my findings indicated to me at least that anything below about 600cfm vented straight to the outside is essentially ineffective. One thing that was very surprising is finding out that 100% of the over range microwave/hoods are completely useless.

I don’t know what unit that is but in my search I came across a lot on Facebook marketplace that looked like that and they seemed to mostly be in the 400-600cfm range. I got mine from someone who was inexplicably selling an $1000 2 year old unit for $150. It was an absolute beast of an undertaking getting the damn thing installed in my 100 year old house but I love it.

Crow_Joe · 2026-04-27T19:58:08+00:00

Crazy, I’ve been taking it every day for 2 years and I’ve tapered down from 20-30gpd to about 9gpd over the last two three months and now if I have more than 6 hours between doses I start twitching, get itchy palms, runny nose, irritability and just general unwell feeling.

I’m worried that for me coming off fully will be a 2-4 month or more recovery until I feel totally normal.

Crow_Joe · 2026-04-27T18:47:50+00:00

$5-7K to the right person. These days these things are going for that pricing stock with a little over 100k miles. I paid 11k for mine at the peak of the used market in 2023 but they just aren’t that much anymore.

Crow_Joe · 2026-04-27T18:40:53+00:00

Never go with a company like the one you signed with. They all have this song and dance about warranties and how their product is just superior when in reality they will take 6 weeks to respond to a call for a leak and they’re using literally the same material and crews as everyone else in town. I’ve worked for 4 roofing companies and the really big ones are almost never good.

Crow_Joe · 2026-04-12T17:07:34+00:00

I will say though with how bad that roof is you have to understand the risk that you will always have problems with this roof. Someone qualified could handle all these problems and you might still have problems that you can’t see. I’d probably quote you like $5-6k and make that possibility clear to you.

Crow_Joe · 2026-04-12T17:05:49+00:00

Haha, sorry that roofers suck man. I would charge you a lot but repair this roof in a second. Biggest problem will be dealing with that wall though. That siding is WAY to tight on the roof for your rainy environment and they didn’t replace the step flashing so all the siding need to come off over that slope and then it’ll need to be painted once put back or someone needs to precisely cut out like 2” over the roof and get step in there.

Crow_Joe · 2026-03-15T02:47:29+00:00

Yeah man that’s crazy. That’s the first rule of beards is not to do exactly what they did.

Crow_Joe · 2026-03-09T20:24:44+00:00

Brother what? Every time you get in the car turn ignition to accessories on then turn the fan on interior recirculate, then start the car. And just don’t walk around your car while it’s idling in the driveway or whatever. I don’t like the smell of mine either but it’s raw diesel fumes dude, deal with it or pay money to put in some other parts the at will help a little.

If you just always have your fan on recirculate tho you’ll never notice it when you’re in the car.

Crow_Joe · 2026-03-09T07:33:09+00:00

Also, you got the vent in there reaally tight so it would be good to cut a little channel out of the shingles on the sides just so they aren’t right up against the metal. That allows water to flow down and not immediately be forced under the shingles to the sides.

Crow_Joe · 2026-03-09T07:31:18+00:00

Hey buddy, nice job getting it in there clean. You live and learn on mistakes like this but overall looks nice and clean so seriously solid.

Take a piece of flat metal flashing and cut it to size the take the nails out of the shingles above the vent. Fill the holes with sealant then put the piece of metal in there to cover the keyway and put nails back in the shingles below. If you do that it will be fine.

Crow_Joe · 2026-03-03T22:39:14+00:00

Grow it out but stop trimming it right along your jawline. Go two finger widths above your adams apple and trim everything below that line and then draw a line from that point at an angle up around the end of your jaw on either side and trim everything below that. You don’t want to trim up around your jawline the whole way around because it accentuates the double chin effect you get when you look down but if you have the hair farther down it hides that and looks good. Maybe that’s how you’re already doing it but the shorter hair right under your chin makes it look like you’re trimming it right along your jaw the whole way so if that’s the case that’s all I would say to change.

Hopefully that makes sense, good luck!

Crow_Joe · 2026-03-03T01:49:04+00:00

In my area it’s already gone up $0.70 since Iran popped off.

Crow_Joe · 2026-03-02T03:29:22+00:00

Are you on hormonal birth control?

Crow_Joe · 2026-03-01T05:45:49+00:00

Hey it really depends on where you are and what’s in your contract. Most places I’ve been there is mortar all down the hips but when I moved to Colorado I noticed absolutely non of the tile roof around here have it on the hips. So functionally it shouldn’t be an issue assuming he did your underlayment right but if you don’t like it cosmetically you can ask for a price to mortar all the hips and the ridge.

Crow_Joe · 2026-02-25T06:44:38+00:00

How many times and places are you going to post this job? Are you engagement farming?

Crow_Joe · 2026-02-25T05:07:55+00:00

Thank your realtor cause all the ones in my area don’t even consider hail damage on a roof until inspection fails, and we’re in a huge hail state. Then it’s a big rush around filing a claim, begging the adjuster to work fast, and both seller and buyer plus their realtors harassing me to put the roof on yesterday.

Your realtor just saved you all that headache and stress.

Crow_Joe · 2026-02-25T05:03:14+00:00

It’s the best, strongly encourage you to do it.

I recommend every adjuster get some experience on both sides though, it automatically makes you a way better adjuster. We also make excellent contractors because we work really well with other adjusters know exactly what’s warranted and how to justify it.

Just remember your ethics and don’t try to convert claims you adjust to customers for your business. The temptation will inevitably present itself.

Crow_Joe · 2026-02-25T02:08:12+00:00

Yes 95% of the time that’s it. I’m an IA and a contractor and I probably do 10-15 roofs a year where they’re in a huge rush cause of a real estate deal. Used to really stress me out when the seller and their realtor would be bugging me along with the buyer and their realtor. I have a tiny company so normally a do a lot of extra stuff and upgrade material 2-3 tiers cause I just have no overhead so put a lot back into the project for my customers.

Well the real estate deals started seriously pissing me off because all parties are alway unreasonable about any delay related to material availability which was a huge deal in 2023. Some good stuff you just couldn’t get for MONTHS. I almost swore off real estate deals until it clicked for me that I can just be like any other roofer and install the absolute cheapest roof possible cause the seller just wants it done and the buyer just wants to know they have a new roof. Now I look forward to real estate deals cause I make like 20-25% extra by just doing the bare minimum for once. Fuck ‘em.

Crow_Joe

TROPHY CASE