Q&A - Who's right, the inspector or the insurance adjuster?

When this homeowner's fascia boards rotted out, they got mixed signals from the professionals who came out to look at the roof and asked for advice.

Stephanie, a homeowner in Idaho, had both an inspector and an insurance claims adjustor come out to look at the roof and they gave different reasons for the damage. They were unsure who was right, so they turned to the experts at AskARoofer.

My fascia boards are rotted out due to water clinging to the woods during the rain. The person who inspected my roof wrote it up as "incorrectly installed drip edge" however my insurance claims adjuster says there's nothing wrong with my roof, so who is right? And can I avoid replacing the entire roof?

One of our resident expert roofers, Henry Staggs said this in response:

The drip edge metal should be under the base on the eave, and over the base on the rakes.  Assuming this is a shingled roof. There should be a small bend outwardly at the lower edge of the metal flashing. This is designed to help keep the water off of the fascia wood. The fascia should be primed and painted.

John Kenney at Cotney Consulting Group also shared his thoughts:

Hard to say without a photo. If the drip edge is covering the face of the fascia board by at least 1-1/2” then that is probably not the cause. If there is not any rotten plywood roof deck at the edge then a roof issue could also be ruled out.

It sounds like the fascia board may be non treated pinewood board that would rot unless treated.

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