First let me apologize if this is the wrong venue to air this questions.
First some background. I recently had solar panels installed on a sloped multi-story clay tile roof. The contractor doing the work removed all the clay shingles around where the solar panels are installed and bolted the panels straight to the roof. The underlayment in the now exposed areas was covered by comp shingle.
Moving past the fact that this does not look very appealing since there are large gaps between the clay shingles and the panels all around. I am very concerned that the roof underlayment is now exposed to copious amounts of water where the contractor did not lay down the comp shingle. To compound the issue, the roof lines have a metal skirt that the last row of clay tiles rest on that now acts as a water dam during heavy rain. The skirt ends up trapping the water that enters the roof through the large gaps between the panels and tile leading to water penetrating in large amounts to areas that do not have any comp shingle, just underlayment.
The contractors website has videos showing installation on clay tile roofs without removing the clay tiles. There is also a generic picture in the proposal that shows a clay tile roof, again no tiles are removed under or around the panels. I have reviewed all the paperwork and none of what I was provided went into detail as to how the panels were to be installed.
What is best practice when installing on clay tile roofs? Feedback and thoughts on how to handle the situation are greatly appreciated.
First some background. I recently had solar panels installed on a sloped multi-story clay tile roof. The contractor doing the work removed all the clay shingles around where the solar panels are installed and bolted the panels straight to the roof. The underlayment in the now exposed areas was covered by comp shingle.
Moving past the fact that this does not look very appealing since there are large gaps between the clay shingles and the panels all around. I am very concerned that the roof underlayment is now exposed to copious amounts of water where the contractor did not lay down the comp shingle. To compound the issue, the roof lines have a metal skirt that the last row of clay tiles rest on that now acts as a water dam during heavy rain. The skirt ends up trapping the water that enters the roof through the large gaps between the panels and tile leading to water penetrating in large amounts to areas that do not have any comp shingle, just underlayment.
The contractors website has videos showing installation on clay tile roofs without removing the clay tiles. There is also a generic picture in the proposal that shows a clay tile roof, again no tiles are removed under or around the panels. I have reviewed all the paperwork and none of what I was provided went into detail as to how the panels were to be installed.
What is best practice when installing on clay tile roofs? Feedback and thoughts on how to handle the situation are greatly appreciated.
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