Originally Posted By: rfarruggia
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OK guys, I need some advice on this one.
I was called to a house, not for an inspection, just a consultation on whether the buyer has reason to persue a lawsuit against her Home Inspector (sale was in Sept ) for missing leaky windows.
I did not perform a full HI, just looked into this one problem. Much head scratching later, and with the owners permission, I pulled up the starter strip and the first course of roofing shingles. There I noticed that the roof sheathing extended about 1 1/2" short of the fascia. Problem identified. Water was spilling up over the gutter into the gap where there was no roof sheathing (or dripping down from the underside of the starter strip…either way same difference), and down behind the siding, finally discharging around the windows. I have never seen this before. I told the homeowner, that in my opinion, the condition that caused the leaking was a hidden or latent defect and the Home Inspector, doing a reasonable non-destructive inspection, is not at fault for missing this.
Now my question. Why would this condition exist? At first I figured that the roofer was lazy and just didnt fit the sheathing correctly, then a few other possibilities popped into my head. 1) Could this be some sort of bizzare, misguided, but specified by the architect attempt to provide ventilation? Kinda like soffit vents, but on the roof? or 2) could the sheathing have been installed correctly at the time of original construction and a wacky case of truss uplift over time caused the roof sheathing to creep upwards?
The homeowner may bring suit against the seller for non-disclosure (required here in Jersey) because other things I found indicate that the water entry condition was known for some time and ineffective corrective measures were taken, so although I severly doubt the last two possibilities, I want to be absolutely certain before I write this up.
So has anyone ever seen roof sheathing intentionally cut too short before?
Thanks in advance, Ray