What Is The Purpose Of Using An HVAC Contractor?
In almost every hail-storm insurance claim, the rain cap on your furnace vent gets dented and your insurance company pays to replace it. It used to be that the roofers would do this, and so the insurance company included only enough money in the claim to pay for the cap and then a tiny bit of labor for the roofer to replace it. More often, the case was, and still is probably, that most roofers don't replace this part and still collect the insurance money for it.
A few years ago there was a pretty high-profile incident where a roofer replaced a cap and installed it incorrectly. Eventually the cap slipped all the way down on the pipe, which made it impossible for the furnace gases to escape the house. The house filled with carbon monoxide, and a family of 4 died. In response to that incident, Pikes Peak Regional Building Department told roofers to not replace these caps any longer.
Homestead Roofing has always hired an HVAC contractor to replace these caps for our clients. One cap that was recently replaced on a roof we finished was 98% blocked due to it being crushed. So we believe it's important to replace them if your insurance company wants them replaced. We don't want to try to do it ourselves, and we don't want to pretend we've done it but haven't. That's why we bring an HVAC contractor to your roof project.
Since most insurance companies still only pay for the part and not the HVAC contractor's labor to come out and install it, that cost is something we ask the insurance company to pay. This is not an out-of-pocket expense for the homeowner, and the insurance company's payment for it will typically appear on the 2nd check you receive from them.
So pass along this info to your friends and neighbors that they should require that their roofer have that part replaced (or demonstrate that it doesn't need replacing) and that they hire a licensed and fully-insured HVAC contractor to replace it.
