Moving the garage causes a new problem

Q. When a "jack-leg" carpenter moved our garage and attached it to the house, he left an annoying roof problem in his wake. The rain now dams up and water pours into the house. Leaves from a nearby tree fall into the through between the new and old roofs. A local roofer says he had no idea how to repair the problem. Do you? A reader Pacific Palisades, Calif.

A. It sounds to me as if it's a problem for a sheet-metal contractor, not a standard roofer. I'd get in touch with a local sheet-metal firm and ask for an on-the-site inspection and recommendation.

Any idea which you may have about a diversion for the water should be discussed with the company. Sometimes a homeowner's ideas are very practical and, when merged with the know-how of a journeyman, can provide an economical solution to a problem.

A dictionary reports that "jack-leg" implies makeshift, unskilled, or amateurish, rather than hitting the mark. Those terms usually signal snags in the construction business.

In any future jobs I'd go to a skilled professional in the field although there are, of course, some jacks-of-all-trades who are fully competent to handle carpentry as well as sheet metal.