In-Depth

Pray for a big hailstorm.

I'm happy with my Flir E6

OK, here's the follow up. Mfg rep, builder, roofer all looked at it. All agreed it looked like crap, but the general consensus was it wasn't going to affect the performance of the shingles.

Thanks Les. This is just one of those things that bug me-not being able to give someone a definitive answer. In the end, I told them there was a problem with the roof and punted it to evaluation by a qualified roofer. The house is less than 10 years old, so maybe they can do a warranty claim with the builder-good luck with that! I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

They were the fakey "laminated" shingles-they were the same thickness throughout. I told the client they might get some replacement shingles from the manufacturer, but they would still have to pay for tearoff and installation. Otherwise, they might get 15 years out of them instead of the usual 20-25.

This is the original 3-tab roof on a 2008 built house. My first thought stepping off the ladder was Wow, this roof looks like crap! Extensive premature wear/granule loss and hairline cracking at all sides. My thought is defective shingles. Agree? What do you do about it? The pics don't look as bad as it did in person Click to Enlarge 18.64 KB Click to Enlarge 24.89 KB Click to Enlarge 20.65 KB Click to Enlarge 18.28 KB Click to Enlarge 23.94 KB

Right there is a band name!

I agree-they suck. I guess the definition of tamper-resistant includes plugging stuff in.

I hear ya on the finger jointed junk! I do a lot of work in an area near the Minneapolis airport and in the late 90's/early 00's the airport commission paid for houses to be soundproofed, including new windows. Now, I'm seeing tons of rot at the lower trim and sills of these replacement windows. The sashes are fine, it the sills and lower brickmold that are going. Jim

And he's (gasp) touching the gas valve!

I like Frog Toggs. Cheap, effective and squish up small. I use them for fishing as well. Frog Toggs

Oh, and when I refer to it as a toy, that's due to the goofy grin on my face when I'm flying it! It's pretty cool!

It's definately tricky in the wind! Yesterday was windy, and I took it out on a frozen lake so I could practice without any obstructions. It was getting blown around pretty good. It self-corrects, but has more trouble holding a steady hover. It also tilts more nose down into the wind, and the camera can't quite point up enough to compensate. Flying it higher helped with the camera angle. I don't think I would bust it out on an inspection if it's windy. There have been some reported fly-aways prior to a software update. I wrote my phone number and "Reward if found" on it with a sharpie. It has a "return to home" feature while flying, and the phone app has a locate feature as well. Both rely on GPS, but you have to calibrate it before flying so it knows where home is and make sure the GPS has satellite lock before flying it. Calibrating it involves flipping a switch back and forth, then rotating the bird until the lights change color. It only takes about a minute. I'm not getting rid of my ladder by any means, this is just another option for when the ladder isn't tall enough, the roof is steep or complex, etc. I still like to see things up close with my own eyes. I attached a lame still photo from yesterday. I'll take a still of my chimney and post it later. It's cold and windy again today. Jim Click to Enlarge 38.63 KB

You are right, but as my confidence in my flying gets better, I should be able to get closer. I didn't feel like climbing up there to retrieve the bird if I got a little too close! This thing uses GPS, so it holds a hover amazingly well! They claim 25 minute flight times, and I've been getting 15 minutes easily in the cold. Jim

Exactly, this is my own house and the roof is steeper than I'm comfortable on. I've always wondered what the top of my chimney looked like, since I see so many bad ones. So far the still images look good, but with the snow it's been hard to get detail. I'm not necessarily expecting to be able to see hail damage or fine details, but we will see.