Hey, welcome to the you ask the pros answer podcast your questions answered by the

pros you trust presented by pro exteriors Today we are embarking on another project

profile. You'll get a chance to hear part one of my conversation with Brad Waslevec

Where he and I had a chance to talk about a project that he recently worked on

For a customer in Greenwood, Delaware. So without further delay. Here is part one of

my conversation with Brad Waslevec. This is the you ask the pros answer podcast.

Do you have questions about an upcoming exterior contracting project? We've got

answers. Welcome to the you ask the pros answer podcast. Brad,

welcome. How are you? I'm good. How you doing? I'm doing pretty well. I just told

you off mic. So we're recording this on a Friday afternoon and it's funny.

It's like no matter how old I get I get that Friday afternoon weekends almost here

energy And I enjoy the work we do so it's not like I'm trying to escape from it

But it's nice to have a break and some feeling those jitters Yeah, and I know

you're a geographically not close, but it's it's been unbearably hot all week here

in Del Marva And today is like 65 no humidity. So believe me, I'm in the same

mental headspace as you. I just kind of want to be outside, sitting on the porch.

Honestly, it's such a nice day. It, um, so you guys had the hurricane sort of

skirt by you, right? Uh, yeah, we got some winds and some rain, um, but it wasn't,

wasn't too, too bad. So we get a lot of tornadoes out here in northern Kentucky.

Don't deal with too many hurricanes, but it has been crazy hot here as well.

Up until about.

back and look at the archives. But this is one that was completed here in summer

of 2025. Before I say anything else about it, I want us to take a look at an

inspection video that you completed on one of your trips out to the job site.

So before we go any farther, let's go ahead and take a look at that together.

Alright, so the roof's a little wet. It's been drizzling all morning, rain pretty

good last I tried to get over here. It's it's very slick, so I'm not going to

bother You know risk of my life or anything, but I'm climbed up in here. The

granules are real loose when Cougar paws on I'm still sliding What kind of zoom in

there so that spot right there? Right above where the current roof leak is Obviously

some shingles have blown off and the nails are exposed. So Given what I saw on the

inside. There's no plywood damage, but it's definitely following the path of the

nails and dripping down below. So we've that spot there, right when I got up on

the ladder, there's an exposed nail there. Looks like maybe somebody just popped one

in there or worked its way through, but that's pretty rough.

Overall condition of the roof with a lot of granular loss, a lot of exposed matting

on the edges and then if we just kind of get close to one of these shingles here

just grab an edge there we go and I mean it's got some matting transfer you can

kind of see right there but they're really not pliable anymore they're pretty brittle

lots of you know lichen and algae growth on there if we come down here obviously

this is some sort of addition at some point. Current homeowner has only owned the

house since January and said that most of the stuff that was done in the house

prior to that he thinks that the homeowner did it himself so I would have to tend

to agree with that just because of the condition of that there. Also missed another

shingle here looks

here. This corner is like throwing one step on it.

If you come over here, obviously that was some sort of addition that's the door

below us.

And then over here, I would have to guess that this gutter was dumping right on

this corner for who knows how long. And then they added the downspout afterwards

because it's just rotted out and full of, well I'm guessing it's flex seal because

of the way it's sprayed on the edges. And then of course he's replaced shingles

here. Tried to wedge them in. Again, it was all done prior to this current

homeowner. And he said that most of the interior work, it's been quite a challenge

since they bought the house. Trying to get it up to be livable. Coming up over

here, obviously just sort of black sealed these pipes,

a couple more little missing dragon's teeth, same thing up there,

so uh he said state form came out they denied the claim, um he said that his wife

called and they wished that they hadn't even called them, so just those couple more

dragon's teeth missing here.

I would have to guess that you know they took a look at it and said that there's

been multiple repair attempts at this roof. However, I just think we're past the

point of repairability now. Shingles are pretty brittle.

And yeah, just kind of past the point. So this is a little concerning, just to see

how close this is to this valley. But in all reality, we should be able to get

ice and water around then and make it OK.

OK. On a scale of to 10, 10 being I,

I wish I never had to do it again to one being I love it. How much do you love

listening back to yourself? Oh, um, we get it's one to 10,

can't go lower. Oh, no, 10 is 10 is I can't, I can't take it. Then I would

definitely say this one goes to 11. So you did radio a little bit back in the

day, didn't you? Yeah, Yeah, it was it wasn't like a job. It was it was part of

the place I worked at last time We did a lot of radio spots and okay, I didn't

mind it. I think like most people I just don't like the sound of my own boys

Yeah, I don't know if that's some sort of weird genetic thing that we're all born

with but I'm not a fan For me, it sounds nasally and whenever I talk to somebody

else, you're like, no, it doesn't sound nasally I just that's how I hear to my

head. So yeah, that that That video is, it's kind of fun. I know people, if you're

watching, you can see obviously I have one hand. So trying to hold the phone and

lift something is tricky. So if you watch closely in that video, you can see

there's a piece of orange. It's literally this shirt sleeve here holding over there.

Like I'm trying to hold it and wedge it. So that's always a super fun challenge to

do that. But you know, You learn to adapt when you've had this your whole life

couple a couple quick things on that video there that I want to touch on Okay, the

the when I first got up Normally, I don't even get on a roof. It's wet like it's

it's absolutely very dangerous So this particular roof I knew there was a much lower

sloped area that I could stand on so worst case scenario I'm standing on a lower

slope. Yeah, I can look at the sea So it's it's a lot more safe. So do not do

that Like if you are not experienced with that do not do that. I mentioned cougar

paws There are special boots that I wear that have a much better traction on an

asphalt shingle So again, don't go up there with your regular sneakers. Don't try

and do that one. God forbid flip -flops Don't don't do that So anyway, it's record

up there and I started looking at the shingles and if that roof was dry that video

would have been the exact same The the granules are so loose that when I started

to walk on them with specialized footwear, it was still sliding under my foot. It's

a very scary experience. And then when you come over to some of the homeowner

special flex seal stuff, I just wanted to point out this, the current homeowner that

we were able to help, he bought this house knowing it was gonna be a project. And

there was a lot of that type of stuff inside the house as well. He's really put a

lot of effort in. So it's, you know, typically a cap to him Because all the things

he's done in the inside. I was blown away. He's you could still tell it was brand

-new like drywall and fixtures and whatnot I can't imagine what that house looked

like before he bought it And it's it's where it's positioned. He actually one of

the first things he told me I probably passed that house a hundred times and had

no idea the house was even there because they're really the trees on The street

were so overgrown that it looked like someone put them there to see for a house

that was 400 yards back. So he trimmed all those up. Like they've done a lot to

make that house their own. And it's, again, just blew me away the amount of effort

he put into that. So it's really great guy to talk to too. It was only a month

ago and I've talked to him probably 10 times since. Like he just, he's just one of

those people you just enjoy talking to, you know? - Yeah. I mean, looking at the

pictures in preparation for this, the property looks beautiful. - It really is.

It's a big house too. That was probably a 5 ,000 square foot roof close to it.

Yeah, it's you're only seeing the back half. The front half is basically the same

size. It's it's huge. Yeah. Well, speaking of the front half, so if you can recall,

what was the initial? What were the notes given to you when a place to start?

Yeah, this guy called in or wrote in. So like, like most people when they call in,

and this is literally, I never fault a single person for saying this, we're looking

for a repair, but we understand if it needs replacement. And that, that is a

absolute human emotion. I get it. So when we go out there, I keep very open mind.

I go out there thinking, all right, well, the conditions are going to dictate what

we can do. That has nothing to do with my opinion, with the homeowner's opinion,

literally whether or not the shingles can be replaced are going to be dictated by

the shangles themselves or whether they can be repaired, excuse me. So we went out

and I was going over some things with them saying, "Hey, why are we here?" is

usually my first question. Like, what are we looking at? And that lets people kind

of unload. So they tell me why they call to begin with. So he takes me back to,

I believe it was a back bedroom. It might have been the main bedroom, but I can't

remember definitely a Uh, we went back in there and there's a big spot on the

ceiling. There you go. Um, so it's relatively recent. They just, they've gone away.

I believe on vacation and come back and seen this. Um, so go back one photo, um,

before the measurements. So when you look at that, um, one of the first things I

noticed is it's kind of all relatively the same color. Uh, it's also round. Um, so

usually when it's round, it means it's a drip. Um, usually when you have something

that's seeping down down a board, it's gonna be more elongated. So that usually

indicates something dripping. When it comes to a roof, I would say eight or nine

times that a 10, that's gonna be a nail dripping down on that ceiling. So being

all one color tells me it's probably not that old because it's gonna dry, it's

gonna come back, it's gonna dry, it's gonna come back. So I'm sitting there

thinking, okay, we probably have something that's a relatively recent issue. So We

look at that, I measure it more for future visits because if he didn't buy from us

and we get called back, we would want to know that that was there and how big it

was to be able to compare. So I measure it and then we head up into the attic

space. One of the easier to access attic spaces I've been in a very long time.

It's a nice treat for you. Exactly. Especially in what? Was this beginning of summer

-ish that you went out? This It's probably beginning of August. Yes. It was not cool

outside. It had just rained. So it was a little bit cooler than some of the days

surrounding it. But you can hear me in the video. I'm wheezing because of the

humidity. It's not because it's hot. It's just the air is so thick. It's hard to

breathe. So, but his attic, it was a walk up with stairs. I mean, it was, it was

nice. So the area we're going there, I kind of wish I'd back to photo out so I

could get a good idea of it, but I had to walk on the rafters. So it was a

little tricky to get back there. But it's B B B B B B B B B

you're going to see like a black spot or some evidence. So that kind of was a

little bit baffling, but I'm thinking, okay, well, maybe it's so recent that it

literally hasn't had time to stay in the plywood yet. Maybe it hasn't had time to

rot. But I knew where it was. And I literally looked at that and then you don't

have a photo in here, which is probably good because it makes an awful mess when

you peel that away. But I literally scooped all the way down to the plywood or to

the drywall, excuse me. And then tested it with a moisture meter. It was sopping

wet. So absolutely, this was the spot and it's also the same size. Like I kind of

measured it off and it's roughly the same size above as it is below. Um, but that,

that clear as day, all that insulation around it is nice and dry. And then this

one kind of caked up, um, matted spot of water. Uh, so that was a good indicator.

I knew what that was. Um, obviously the homeowner had not been out there. So I

showed him some pictures and told him where it was and he tried to kind of take a

step and I was like, no, no, don't, don't come out here. And, And like like most

people too, they don't they don't realize that you're walking out Onto wood like

those those trusses have a bottom plate to them But there's so much blood and

insulation that you average person would not know that there's a bottom plate So

they assume you're gonna be walking on top of their drywall and they see me I

weigh about 250 and they're like, are you gonna be in my living room in a minute?

Like it's So I use this almost like look I do this every day. There's a bottom

plate down here. Trust me I don't put my full weight down until I know I'm secure,

but it's average homeowner wouldn't see that. So from there,

I literally said, "All right, what I'm going to do is I'm going to hop on your

roof, get some photos from the ground, and then get up." And I usually tell people

that because I'm not expecting me to walk around the outside. But yeah, so I just

start taking photos from the ground. I'm kind of looking for anything that stands

out. Also, when we do this, when I'm thinking we may need to go to a roof

replacement, I'm looking for obstructions. So like we want to be able to, you know,

kind of gauge where we're going to be, you know, for equipment, for disposal, things

like that. But so I walk right to the back corner, I look up there and I see,

it's kind of hard to see in this photo, but I see a different color spot. And I'm

like, that looks like a missing shingle to me. So again, right where I thought it

was going to be, put the ladder up, hop up, and then I start shooting the video.

And I say in the video too. There you go. That's the spot. So that shingle

probably blew off, I'm gonna say completely the night before just because of how dry

it is. But when he was getting, when he was getting the leak, it most likely was

like flapping. The nails were not even really discolored. They were a little bit

rusted, which makes me think it was a relatively recent thing. That nail probably an

inch and a quarter, but that nail will go literally from the top. You can see the

head of it there and it goes all the way through the plywood. So if you have

exposed nails, any amount of rain can literally follow that path of that nail all

the way through your roof. - That's crazy. - It does not take much. That's why when

we point out, like in the video, I say when I glided on the ladder, I saw a nail

sticking out. Even though that shingle is still intact and I can see the nail head,

that's still gonna cause a leak. It's wild, that one little nail, there's probably

30, 40 ,000 nails on that roof, like there's a lot of nails on that roof. And that

one nail that's exposed is gonna cause problems. And there you go. So that's perfect

example. That one, now that I'm looking at there, it looks like it probably worked

its way through the shingle. But it's, again, it's exposed. You don't want that

there. - Yep. - But yeah, so that's basically the long and short of it. It's, he

had an obvious problem. He had something where I, when I got on the roof, I knew

exactly where it was. And then I started testing the shingles A couple of times in

the video, you can hear me say that the shingles are brittle, which is a big thing

that we test for. And they expose matting when I went to the rake edge there, or

not expose matting, excuse it, matting transfer. So when you lift up on a shingle,

if the glue brings some of the other shingle behind with it, like if I'm lifting

the top shingle and it brings the bottom shingle with it, that means that it's not

going to be just glue on both sides that can reseal. So you basically, you're

tearing the shingles, you're destroying the shingle. So we know it's past its prime.

This picture here is, I went back, I want to say three days, two days, three days,

something like that afterwards. Obviously it's much drier, sun shining. And this is

when I presented to him because I had to kind of figure some things out offsite.

Normally I try and quote when I'm in the driveway, but I had to figure some things

out offsite. And then we came back, we talked about it and he decided he wanted to

buy. He talked to his wife on the phone. It's actually kind of a funny story

because most people when they pick colors, they want to be able to see the physical

color. But he actually just sent her pictures on her phone from his phone. I took

her like two seconds to pick the oyster gray, which is it's a very pretty color.

Yeah. And I joked with them and I hope that if they both hear this, it doesn't

get them in trouble. Sorry, but it's a funny story. I'm not at all throwing under

the bus. But I told him, I was like, oyster gray sometimes is hard to get

seasonally. 'Cause it's not a car that's like, super, super fast manufacturing, like

a weatherwood is kind of always made. So I was like, but good news is, it looks

so much like pewter gray that we could probably put pewter gray out there and she

would never know. So we had a good laugh at that. They did get the oyster gray

there. There was plenty of those available. But anyway, so he asked me, he's like,

you know, I'm really worried 'cause it's gonna be raining a lot in the next coming

weeks. And I kind of looked at him And I was like, Oh, don't worry about that.

I'll take care of it. He's like, what do you mean? It took me five minutes to put

that little patch up there. It's probably a two foot piece of tiger paw that I had

in the van. Just nailed it down and he's like, Oh, am I good to go? I was like,

yeah, it'll, it'll last you not forever, but you know, we'll be out there shortly

enough to do the roof. And then I think we were out in less than two weeks. So

he was, he was good to go. He was very happy. There you go. Great shot of the

house. So all those trees were so and you couldn't see that house. And when they

bought the house, he really got after it with the chainsaw. Really, really just a

cool project. They had a rescue dog that I just, I love animals in general.

So I'm sitting there talking to him and his dog came, I was like, oh, I love

dogs. And he told me, you know, he's a rescue, he was real skittish. So I used to

just put my hand down, let him sniff. He came up and sniffed me, but he wanted

absolutely nothing to do with me. He was all about the he was like his little

shadow, um, to the point where we're sitting there talking, going over the project

and the options and whatnot. Uh, and he had somebody come, I believe for HVAC

repair or something service. So he had to get up and lead, walk outside to talk to

that guy. The dog wouldn't even sit with me. He just kept walking from door to

door wondering where his buddy was. Um, and I'm like, I'm calling him. I'm like,

come here buddy. I'll, you know, I'll play with you. I'll patch in. He didn't care

one bit. Um, but he eventually did. Yeah. Didiana he laid it laid at our feet and

I got to pet him a little bit, but it was just it was cute You know, yeah good

stories. I love hearing good stories That's one of the reasons why I love doing

this job is you meet so many different people And when you have something where you

can a very very very quickly fix their problem because he was You know, they just

bought this house less than a year ago And he was legitimately worried that the

rain and everything that we've been getting lately was gonna make make sure his Um,

uh ceiling ceiling caved in right so the fact that we could jump right on and get

it that was a huge plus we actually got him through financing he opted not to but

he had it as a backup so he's like look I'm gonna try and take this out of my

investment funds but if I can't for some reason at least I have this as a backup

so we have like every box was checked and the level of service that we were able

to provide to him it's one of those things like hey this is this is normal for

us, like we're happy that you are still blown away. Please tell your friends, but

it's one of those things that like, this is, this is what we do every day. At

least we try to, you know, but it's, this is why we do it, you know, help you

really change somebody's life. You know, I think this is, this is going to be there

forever home and, and the amount of work that he's put into the inside, now the

outside's good. He's essentially, that's a lifetime roof. He's never got to mess with

that. Yeah. So he's very happy. Yeah. That's awesome.

So often, I don't know. I think we know this as a team at Pro Exteriors, but it's

so often about, okay, what job is next? How do we get the products we need, the

materials we need? Are we going to be able to do it in the timeframe needed? But

really, at the end of the day, it is those stories and those relationships that we

build with the customers that I think keeps us coming back to work each month.

Yeah, absolutely. It doesn't take much in the heat of summer to get you guessing,

your second guessing yourself. Like, what am I doing with my life? When at 9 .30 in

the morning, I am like sweating through my clothes for the third time. It doesn't

take much. So when you have something good happening in your life, it kind of

brings you back on the positive side of things. You stop getting so down in the

dumps because literally just because of the weather, it's the weather does it all

the time to me. I is there are full stretches of weeks where I'm like, what did I

do this week? I've been so hot, I can't even think. And then you get an attic and

it's 120 degrees. You know, it's rough. But again, you know, it's, you look for the

good reasons to kind of brighten your day. And this definitely brightened my day.

It's still brightening my day. You know, we finished this roof a couple of weeks

ago and I'm still thinking about, you know, how much we really changed someone's

life. - Well, here in just a minute, I want to walk us through a couple of the

pictures of the roof being replaced. But before we go there, I want to ask just a

couple of follow -ups. So when you went back to present to the homeowner,

you were initially called out because they were hoping to have a repair.

How did you communicate the fact that that was not going to

Um, generally you just, I, I honestly don't remember exactly what I did here because

it's kind of second nature at this point, but we take a ton of photos. Obviously

we look through a bunch of them here. I don't think I played the video for them.

Um, sometimes I have been known to play the video, but that one was a little bit

on the longer side. Um, so I think I just flipped through some photos, um, gave

him my honest opinion. Um, I'm, I'm one of those people that at least I've been

told this and I do believe it about myself that I'm genuine. So So say what you

want about anything else in me, maybe some people I rub in the wrong way I get it

my personality is a little different sometimes, but I will never lie to you It's

one of the things I'm just gonna cut cut straight to the point and tell you this

is what I saw This is what we can do for you. Yeah So I think that's what

happened here is I showed him some photos and he asked me like you know Is this

repairable I said look we realistically I think we're past the point of repair and

let me show you this And then the the tearing of a shingle. It's it's It's pretty

easy to show somebody you can tear a shingle it's not it's not something that You

don't put a lot of pressure into shingles when they get old to tear them And so

we usually what I described to them is like look you obviously have a very clear

cut One two nails, whatever dripping through the roof if this roof was pliable We

put a new shingle in there You're good to go however to do that and the part of

the video that I really liked they're kind of glazed right over That little gutter

section that you see, there's a couple of shingles that are like wedged in there

and they look off because they're too long. If you're not a roofer, you don't

understand that that one shingle touches the two shingles above it. So when it goes

in, that guy basically whoever put that in the previous homeowner, I think he lifted

the one shingle wedged a new shingle in there, but you need to get the next row

as well. So that's why I was hanging out so far. So usually when you tell people

is like, I can replace one shingle if the shingles are good enough to replace or

to repair, but I have to pop the two above it, which means they have to be

flexible enough to survive. And what you end up with is like ripples in a pond. So

I have one shingle I can replace, but I have to disturb at least the two above

it. Most likely they're going to be staggered. So you're talking about maybe four or

five shingles around it. And if they're tearing just from minimal pressure, they're

absolutely going to destroy. So to repair or replace, that's the key deciding factor.

Be a little long -winded here, because it's been a long day, but typically I tell

people, like, look, I can repair this if it was repairable. Here's why it's not

repairable. And that's why I did here. I'm fairly certain that's why I did here.

And he got that. He totally understood it. And I said, look, you know, you know,

this rupee was 20 years old, so it was kind of a coin toss And he immediately was

like, uh, I'm, I'm dreading this like cause cosplays, you know, obviously it's vastly

different to repair a place. Um, one more thing too that I just remember popped in

my head that we didn't discuss, uh, we do our digital measurements, uh, it's from a

satellite or low flying aircraft. It's not somebody literally going out to measure

the roof and then sending us what they measure. Cause that just wouldn't be

efficient at this particular house. In addition, that you see me walk around has

like a flex seal. Um, the digital measurements said that was a, I believe it said

it was a one 12 pitch or a zero 12 pitch. I think it said it was a one 12

pitch. Now I've been doing this a while now. So when I walk on something, I can

tell that it's too low. So it just, it set off alarm bells in my head. So before

I even presented, yeah, right there above the door,

it set off alarm bells in my head, seeing that that was too low for shingles.

Cause you may not know anything below a two 12 pitch. You can't put asphalt

shingles on it. So when I see that I'm like before we even get in anything I'm

gonna pop a ladder up real quick I'm gonna test the pitch of this roof and he's

like oh why and I explained to him I said look if this roof is below a 212 then

we have to use flat roofing material We typically use like a rubber membrane. It's

called EPDM That that is not an inexpensive thing to do. So I said look,

I don't think it's low enough I think that it's above a 212 and then when I put

the put the pitchfinder on it, it was 212. So I was like, so we're good. But it

was that, if I had just paid attention to the digital measurements, that all would

have had to be EPDM black rubber membrane, which not only from that angle, that's

me just standing on the grass. You definitely would have been able to see it. And

I think visually it wouldn't have looked good. But B, if we had gone to a black

rubber membrane, it would have drove in the cost way, way, way up. 'Cause it's not

a small area, but being that was a two, 12 or above, um, you can put that in and

it's still here to building code regulations. Uh, and we just did a double layer of

under double layer of underlayment over it, which is totally acceptable. Um, and then

we got the whole thing shingled. So it all looks continuous. It looks like it's

always been there. Yeah. And you mentioned in the video that this house had at

least one addition put on it. And you can kind of tell from this,

The roof as it was when you first went out it had kind of been piecemealed

together over the years, right? And a little bit little sections had been repaired

and and so it's The transformation is pretty Significant when we get to the end of

the oh my deck here. All right. That is all we have for you for part one of This

episode be sure to come back for part two Friday. But hey,

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