Category: Field Notes
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Should You Hire a Public Adjuster for Your Roof Claim?
Insurance Tips I get asked about public adjusters a lot, especially after a rough storm season. Quick breakdown: the adjuster your insurance company sends out works for the insurance company, not you. A public adjuster is someone you hire yourself to fight for your payout, and they take a cut, usually 10 to 20 percent…
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Why Your Skylight Is Leaking (Hint: It’s Not the Glass)
Roof Leaks Had three calls this month about leaking skylights, and all three had the same cause: nobody touched the glass. A skylight almost never leaks because the skylight itself failed — it leaks because the flashing around it did. That’s the metal tucked under your shingles and over the skylight frame, and it’s what…
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Soffit and Fascia: The Roof Edge Everyone Forgets
Maintenance Everybody asks about shingles. Almost nobody asks about soffit and fascia, the boards and vents running along the edge of your roof, right behind the gutters. That’s a mistake. Soffit lets your attic breathe, and fascia is what your gutters are screwed into and what keeps water off the wood behind them. When either…
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Is That Rotted Decking Real, or an Upsell?
Roof Decking Halfway through a tear-off, a crew might tell you some of the decking underneath needs to be replaced. That’s not automatically an upsell, but it’s also not something to just take on faith. Soft or rotted decking usually shows up around old leak spots, valleys, or anywhere ventilation’s been bad for years, and…
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Georgia Gives Homeowners 60 Days Before Insurance Non-Renewal
Insurance Tips If you’ve ever gotten a letter saying your insurer is dropping you over your roof, you know how little time 30 days actually is. As of this year, Georgia law extends that non-renewal notice to 60 days, a direct response to insurers non-renewing homeowners over roof age alone, even on roofs with plenty…
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Georgia’s Second Tornado Season Is Here — Is Your Roof Ready?
Storm Season Most folks think Georgia’s tornado season is a spring thing, but we actually get a real second wave in the fall, October through December, when cold fronts start colliding with warm Gulf air. I’ve worked plenty of claims from these fall systems, and the damage is just as legitimate as anything in March.…
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Is a FORTIFIED Roof Worth It in Georgia?
Roof Upgrades You’ve probably seen “FORTIFIED Roof” come up if you’ve shopped homeowners insurance lately. It’s not a shingle brand — it’s a construction standard from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety that goes beyond Georgia’s building code. The big differences: a sealed roof deck (taped seams so water can’t get underneath even…
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The Deductible Hiding in Your Georgia Roof Policy
Insurance Tips Most folks assume their deductible is a flat $500 or $1,000 no matter what hits the house. Check your policy again — a lot of Georgia homeowners carry a separate wind and hail deductible, and it isn’t a flat number at all. It’s usually a percentage of your home’s insured value, so a…
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Why Your Insurance Might Still Owe You a Second Check
Insurance Tips Here’s something a lot of Georgia homeowners never learn until it’s too late: if your insurance company cut you a check based on the depreciated value of your roof instead of full replacement cost, you might be owed a second check. That’s called recoverable depreciation. Most policies hold that money back until the…