I have called out two defects on my very first report which are are 1 siding in contact with roofing and no kick out flashing where the roof meets the wall. The sellers agent is asking me if this is a code violation. How should I answer her.
Tell her: Home Inspections are not Code Inspections.
Realtors like to play the “We only negotiate/repair Code issues”
As the inspector, that’s not my problem. That’s between the Buyer, the Seller, the Realtors, and the Lawyers!!
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Say no, poor / incomplete workmanship. The code violation question is a trap. If you say yes then they will argue code is not retroactive and you are not code enforcement. This allows them to wiggle out of it. Many older homes did not use kickout flashings where they were needed and a roof replacement won’t add one unless you specifically ask for it.
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The home was built in 2016 and the roof was just replaced in 2020 do to the warranty.
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Thank you for your quick response! It feels good knowing that I have pro"s to help me when I need it.
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John you are not going to find anything in the code book other than install with accordance to manufacturers installation instructions. What I do is reference page 24 of the Vinyl Siding Institute installation manual. I request the siding be lifted 1/2” from the roof material.
2020-Vinyl-Siding-Installation-Manual.pdf (3.4 MB)
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Hi Martin, Thank you for that information all is appreciated.
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Best of luck John.
The installation instructions likely state the clearance. Not installed per manufacture instructions. In this area, the mfg instructions override the code. Provided the instructions are available.
Thanks, everyone for your help, it is greatly appreciated.
Well…vinyl siding doesn’t rot so it’s not that big of a deal…Many times on home inspections you’ll find things which are not optimal…but otherwise is working as intended. However, sometimes you’ll feel you have to say something about it. What I do is I explain the issue and say they should consider improving for peace of mind… I (myself) do not take a stand on whether issues are fixed or not for the most part.
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True, but it creates a royal pain in the a ss when replaceing the roof shingles and it also provides you with nails going through your step flashing when they installed the J moulding every +/-16" 1" above the roof all the way up the slope. So if you ever have a leak due to that, it would be awful difficult to find.
So there is a logical reason to keep siding of any kind a min. of 1-2" of the shingled surface.
Hope that makes sense to you.
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Of course…everything you said was true…but I doubt anybody would fix it… unless it was leaking.But if it is a concern to them they should consider improvement for peace of mind.
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I’ve inspected at-least 30 homes with vinyl siding in contact with asphalt shingles. This is an 11 month inspection. The builder has made the contractor go back on every house and raise the vinyl siding for the reasons mentioned above. I finally did my first 11 month warranty inspection last week where I found the siding raised 1/2 inch above the asphalt shingles. It took them a year to catch up but it looks great.
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New houses…yes I can see them fixing that…I stand corrected…
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