Couple Hits Roof Over Workmanship

A Northwood couple and a well-known home builder are embroiled in a feud over the roof on the couple’s $200,000 home.

Delbert and LaVerne Foss claim the roof on their two-year-old house is inferior and are demanding that Gordon Finch replace it.

They accuse Finch, who built the house on North Shane Lane, of ignoring their complaints.

Finch, who’s built homes in the Spokane area for 22 years, said the roof is fine and that the Fosses are being unreasonable.

Neither party appears willing to budge.

“I don’t know why we have to put up with this. We bought a brand new home,” LaVerne Foss said. “It’s like a nightmare.”

Finch said it hasn’t been a pleasant experience for him, either.

He claims the Fosses, a retired couple who moved here from Chicago, have verbally abused him and his staff to the point where he won’t allow his employees to talk to them anymore.

Finch said he’s done everything he can to satisfy the Fosses, adding that they signed a document when they moved into the house accepting it as complete and satisfactory.

“They’re obsessed,” said Finch, a Spokane County native. “We’ve done everything that we’ve promised and even more.”

The Fosses moved into the yellow house with a spectacular view of the Valley in 1993.

They soon discovered that their roof was buckling in places and that some shingles were not attached properly.

The Fosses said the underlying structure of the roof was exposed to the elements for several weeks during construction of the house.

Some of the boards and plywood sheets under the shingles warped, they said.

One of Finch’s employees replaced a portion of the plywood that didn’t meet county building standards, but much of the roof still has ridges.

Also, some shingles on the edges of the roof cup upward, causing runoff to drain improperly, the Fosses said.

While water doesn’t leak inside the home, Delbert Foss said, it does leak between the end of the roof and the fascia board that separates the roof from the gutters.

He and his wife are afraid water will eventually work its way inside the house.

A county building official and two roofing contractors examined the roof on behalf of the Fosses and concluded that the work was shoddy.

William Benish, a plans examiner for the county, wrote a letter to Finch’s company, saying the roof met county codes but that the workmanship showed “poor attention to detail.”

“I am surprised … that your firm is comfortable letting work of this type stand as an example of your product,” Benish said in his March 10, 1995, letter.

Brian Owens, owner of Owens Roofing, also criticized the work, saying the poor quality could lead to more problems in the future.

“I feel that these items, if not corrected, will eventually cause tremendous damage to your new home,” Owens wrote in a July 1994 letter.

Pat Lightfoot of Northwest Roofing Consultants also found problems with the roof.

Finch said there are some “minor cosmetic problems with the roofing” but nothing functionally wrong.

He said the contractor he hired to put on the roof is licensed and experienced.

The roof meets county codes, Finch said, and he has given the Fosses an extended warranty.

He added that there have been no leaks inside the house despite a particularly rainy year.

Finch claimed that he has sent work crews to the Foss home to work on the roof several times and that the couple has run them off their property.

“I don’t have a totally clean record, but I’ve got a pretty good record of building a good product and standing behind it,” Finch said. “If they have a leak, I’ll be there.”

The Fosses said that’s not good enough.

“I engaged him to build a decent house, and he didn’t do it,” said Delbert Foss, adding that bringing suit against Finch would be too expensive and risky. “I’m at my wits end.”

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