I know many people here are against roof mounts, but my experience today proves if they are done right they are fine.
Last December I installed a system for a lady "It was a Direcway system but the point I am making works on all" she calls my office yesterday and says she is having a new roof put on and when the roofers removed the dish and replaced it the system went down. The first thing that I think is GREAT, why would a roofer try to put the dish back on when they have no idea how it works? I knew I was going to have to remount it to level it up and by I knew there was no way that they got the lags back in the rafters. So I knew I was basically going to have to undo everything they done and this would create a hole in the roof.
When I get there I find out that during a storm we had last week the lady sustained a great deal of damage to the roof. On the west side of her house about 70% of her shingles were gone and this caused a major leak. On the south side were the dish was mounted a few shingles were gone "2 or 3 she said" but no leaks on that part of the house and she said even with all of the wind the system came back on and worked perfect until the roofers came.
Now here is were the story takes a sour note. I get there check to see which satellite she is on, then go outside to see the horrible job the roofers had made with the dish. 2 roofers were there, but were just field hands, and the first thing out of there month was "Maan wee put that thing righ bac wer it been at". I looked at the dish and knew it was impossible just because of the way it was tilted into the roof. I climb up to take a closer look and see they used, drum roll please....................ROOFING NAILS to secure the dish back in place with. 1 1/2 inch roofing tacks 3 of them in every hole. I basically touched the dish and it slumped over. Again one of the roofers told me it was put exactly were it was and he did not know what the problem was. I explained to him I was going to have to undo all of his work.
I was almost finished and the forman drove up and promptly marched over to me. His first words in an angry voice were "you know I cannot stand it when you satellite installers but dishes on the roof of a house. I see them all the time and someone like me comes along and tries to do a good job for the customer and has to deal with crap like that". I told him I always give the customer options and if they don't want to buy a pole almost always with a Direcway dish it has to go on the roof. I informed him the best thing to do is when you see a dish on the roof and bid on the job add the price it will take for a tech to come back and fix it right. Next he stated "I will not do that because it should not go on the roof and told me I needed to find a better way to mount them" I started to get upset with him after that statement and told him I have certain rules I have to go by also. I told him that the dish has to mounted securely in place to work correctly and certain surfaces I could not mount to. He stated with more anger this time "EVERYONE KNOWS IF YOU PUT SOMETHING ON THE ROOF IT BECOMES A LEAK HAZARD AND IT SHOULD NOT BE DONE" Really sh*t head. I was very angry at this time I told him I know this and inform the customer of this everytime before I do it. I also told him that the customer signs an agreement that if anything is placed on the roof it is our responsibility. I told him I could not help him in any other way and went inside.
Moral:
Again if a roof mount is done right it will be ok. If you are going to have a roof mount done understand the installer is not at fault for leakage "if the installer seals around the lag bolts". Also do yourself a favor and get someone to check the security of the mount and make sure the seal around it is not breaking loose.
I know I may have some people yelling at me about this here also and I never said I like putting them on the roof "I like making extra money for poles", but if I do put them on the roof I try to do everything possible to make sure the customer will not have a problem with it.
Last December I installed a system for a lady "It was a Direcway system but the point I am making works on all" she calls my office yesterday and says she is having a new roof put on and when the roofers removed the dish and replaced it the system went down. The first thing that I think is GREAT, why would a roofer try to put the dish back on when they have no idea how it works? I knew I was going to have to remount it to level it up and by I knew there was no way that they got the lags back in the rafters. So I knew I was basically going to have to undo everything they done and this would create a hole in the roof.
When I get there I find out that during a storm we had last week the lady sustained a great deal of damage to the roof. On the west side of her house about 70% of her shingles were gone and this caused a major leak. On the south side were the dish was mounted a few shingles were gone "2 or 3 she said" but no leaks on that part of the house and she said even with all of the wind the system came back on and worked perfect until the roofers came.
Now here is were the story takes a sour note. I get there check to see which satellite she is on, then go outside to see the horrible job the roofers had made with the dish. 2 roofers were there, but were just field hands, and the first thing out of there month was "Maan wee put that thing righ bac wer it been at". I looked at the dish and knew it was impossible just because of the way it was tilted into the roof. I climb up to take a closer look and see they used, drum roll please....................ROOFING NAILS to secure the dish back in place with. 1 1/2 inch roofing tacks 3 of them in every hole. I basically touched the dish and it slumped over. Again one of the roofers told me it was put exactly were it was and he did not know what the problem was. I explained to him I was going to have to undo all of his work.
I was almost finished and the forman drove up and promptly marched over to me. His first words in an angry voice were "you know I cannot stand it when you satellite installers but dishes on the roof of a house. I see them all the time and someone like me comes along and tries to do a good job for the customer and has to deal with crap like that". I told him I always give the customer options and if they don't want to buy a pole almost always with a Direcway dish it has to go on the roof. I informed him the best thing to do is when you see a dish on the roof and bid on the job add the price it will take for a tech to come back and fix it right. Next he stated "I will not do that because it should not go on the roof and told me I needed to find a better way to mount them" I started to get upset with him after that statement and told him I have certain rules I have to go by also. I told him that the dish has to mounted securely in place to work correctly and certain surfaces I could not mount to. He stated with more anger this time "EVERYONE KNOWS IF YOU PUT SOMETHING ON THE ROOF IT BECOMES A LEAK HAZARD AND IT SHOULD NOT BE DONE" Really sh*t head. I was very angry at this time I told him I know this and inform the customer of this everytime before I do it. I also told him that the customer signs an agreement that if anything is placed on the roof it is our responsibility. I told him I could not help him in any other way and went inside.
Moral:
Again if a roof mount is done right it will be ok. If you are going to have a roof mount done understand the installer is not at fault for leakage "if the installer seals around the lag bolts". Also do yourself a favor and get someone to check the security of the mount and make sure the seal around it is not breaking loose.
I know I may have some people yelling at me about this here also and I never said I like putting them on the roof "I like making extra money for poles", but if I do put them on the roof I try to do everything possible to make sure the customer will not have a problem with it.
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